Before the war, Mengele received doctorates in anthropology and medicine, and began a career as a researcher. He joined the Nazi Party in and the SS in He was assigned as a battalion medical officer at the start of World War II, then transferred to the Nazi concentration camps service in early He was assigned to Auschwitz, where he saw the opportunity to conduct genetic research on human subjects.
His experiments focused primarily on twins, with no regard for the health or safety of the victims. He initially lived in and around Buenos Aires , but fled to Paraguay in and later Brazil in , all while being sought by West Germany , Israel , and Nazi hunters such as Simon Wiesenthal , who wanted to bring him to trial.
Mengele eluded capture in spite of extradition requests by the West German government and clandestine operations by the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. He drowned in after suffering a heart attack while swimming off the coast of Bertioga , and was buried under the false name of Wolfgang Gerhard. As Von Verschuer's assistant, Mengele focused on the genetic factors that result in a cleft lip and palate , or a cleft chin.
The ideology of Nazism brought together elements of antisemitism , racial hygiene , and eugenics , and combined them with pan-Germanism and territorial expansionism with the goal of obtaining more Lebensraum "living space" for the Germanic people. He was declared unfit for further active service in mid, when he was seriously wounded in action near Rostov-on-Don.
In , Auschwitz II Birkenau , originally intended to house slave laborers, began to be used instead as a combined labour camp and extermination camp. In early , Von Verschuer encouraged Mengele to apply for a transfer to the concentration camp service. The SS doctors did not administer treatment to the Auschwitz inmates but supervised the activities of inmate doctors who had been forced to work in the camp medical service.
