Switzerland releases long-sealed Mengele dossier after court challenge

Switzerland's federal intelligence service has published a 200-page dossier on Josef Mengele, the Nazi doctor known as the "Angel of Death" for the medical experiments he conducted on prisoners at Auschwitz.

Mengele served at the extermination camp in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II. About 1.1 million people were killed there, roughly one million of them Jews. He became notorious for brutal experiments on inmates, including children, carried out under the pretext of scientific research.

After the war, he obtained a Red Cross travel document under a false identity and left Europe. He spent years in hiding in Latin America while facing an international manhunt, and died in 1979 by drowning off the coast of São Paulo state in Brazil.

The newly released material includes documents provided to police suggesting Mengele may have returned to Switzerland after first fleeing Germany, or may have been planning to enter the country under a false name.

Historians had long sought access to the files to determine whether Mengele spent time in Switzerland while evading capture. Swiss authorities had argued the documents should stay sealed until 2071 on security grounds and to protect people named in them.

Historian Gérard Wettstein challenged those restrictions before the Federal Administrative Court, leading to the online publication. Authorities said some sections have been redacted to protect sources and the personal data of third parties.

The dossier was compiled by the police service of the federal prosecutor's office, a predecessor of Switzerland's federal intelligence services, and was transferred to the Federal Archives in 2001.