Switzerland Releases Intelligence Dossier on Nazi War Criminal Josef Mengele
4 sources across 4 countries · Germany · Hong Kong · Israel · Switzerland
Who reported this
- Der Spiegel
- South China Morning Post
- The Times of Israel
- Neue Zuercher Zeitung
What the colours mean
- Left
- Centre-left
- Centre
- Centre-right
- Right
- A hatched block means the outlet is affiliated with, or controlled by, a state.
Political lean describes where an outlet sits within the politics of its own country. It is never a position on a single global scale.
Political lean is comparable inside one country and not across them, which is why the bar groups by country first. Publicly funded broadcasters are not marked as state-linked.
The owner of each outlet is listed as a matter of record, not as a judgement about the outlet.
The Swiss federal intelligence service has published a 200 page dossier on Josef Mengele, the Nazi doctor known as the Angel of Death for his brutal medical experiments on prisoners at Auschwitz. The released documents include police material suggesting that Mengele may have entered Switzerland under a false name or spent time in the country while fleeing Germany after World War II. Historians had long sought access to these files to determine if Mengele remained undetected in Switzerland while being pursued as a war criminal.
The dossier was made public following a successful legal challenge by historian Gérard Wettstein, who filed a complaint with the Federal Administrative Court. The documents contain various leads regarding Mengele's movements in Ireland, Argentina, and Chile, as well as a 1964 record of an Israeli agent posing as a student to track the doctor. Mengele eventually died in 1979 after drowning while swimming in Brazil.
While the release is a significant step for researchers, the Swiss government has redacted certain portions of the files. The Ministry of Defense stated that redactions were necessary to protect the personal data of current and former employees and to maintain source protection. However, some critics argue that these redactions constitute state censorship and hinder the ability of historians to uncover potential official misconduct.
How each side framed it
- Centre-left
- This outlet emphasized the legal struggle of the historian and the government's justification for redacting personal data.
- Centre
- This outlet presented the event as a straightforward release of intelligence files sought by historians.
- Centre-right
- These outlets focused on the historical facts of Mengele's crimes and the specific legal and archival disputes regarding the redaction of the files.
Sources
- Centre-left Der Spiegel: Josef Mengele: Swiss intelligence service publishes dossier on Nazi criminal
- Centre-right Neue Zuercher Zeitung: The Federal Archives release the files on concentration camp doctor Josef Mengele, but only redacted
- Centre-right South China Morning Post: Switzerland publishes 200-page dossier on Nazi doctor Mengele, known as ‘Angel of Death’
- Centre The Times of Israel: Switzerland releases 200-page intelligence dossier on Nazi ‘Angel of Death’ Mengele
100% of the statements in this article were traced back to the source articles listed above.