The Swiss intelligence service announced that it intends to declassify and publish classified files on Nazi criminal Josef Mengele, who conducted experiments on Jewish prisoners at the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp.
The authorities’ statement did not provide an exact date for the publication of the archive.
After World War II, Mengele fled to Czechoslovakia and was captured by the United States Army but released after he was not conclusively identified. He later returned to Germany and from there fled to Argentina, where he lived for many years.
Over the years, rumors spread that Mengele had also stayed in Switzerland, despite an international arrest warrant against him. Since the 1980s, it has been known that in 1956 he went with his son on a skiing vacation in the Swiss Alps, and that his wife later rented an apartment in Zurich and applied for permanent resident status.
Many historians have demanded over the years that the documents held by the Swiss intelligence service be disclosed, but the country’s authorities refused. Now, the service has announced that it will reveal the secret archive on "Dr. Mengele."
Swiss historian Regula Bochsler revealed that in June 1961, the Austrian intelligence service warned the authorities in Switzerland that Mengele was traveling under an alias and may have been in the country. In an interview with the BBC, Bochsler said, "It appears there is evidence that Mengele planned a trip to Europe in 1959. Why did Mrs. Mengele rent an apartment in Zurich?"