As chief of investigative research at the Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations in the 1980s, David G. Marwell worked on the Mengele case. Drawing on his own experience as well as new scholarship and sources, Marwell examines Mengele's life and career. He chronicles Mengele's university studies; his wartime service both in frontline combat and at Auschwitz, where his 'selections' sent innumerable innocents to their deaths and his 'scientific' pursuits traumatized or killed countless more; and his postwar flight from Europe and refuge in South America.

"A gripping account of the infamous Nazi doctor, from a former Justice Department official tasked with uncovering his fate. One of the most notorious war criminals of all time, Dr. Josef Mengele has come to symbolize both the evil of the Nazi regime and the failure of justice in the postwar world. Drawing on new scholarship and sources, historian David G. Marwell examines Mengele's life and career, chronicling his university studies, which led to two PhDs and a promising career as a scientist; his wartime service, in combat and at Auschwitz, where his "selections" determined the fate of countless innocents and his "scientific" pursuits resulted in the traumatization and death of thousands more; and his postwar refuge in Germany and South America. This biography describes the international search for the Nazi doctor in 1985 that ended in a cemetery in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and the dogged forensic investigation that produced overwhelming evidence that Mengele had died-but failed to convince