DEKEL, LUCETTE MATALON LAGNADO SHEILA COHN Read Online Free PDF Page A

little scamp they affectionately called “the Beppo,” years after he had grown out of the childish nickname.
    Even as he grandly swept through the barracks at Auschwitz years later, he was like a vision, this handsome, genteel German officer in his impeccable SS uniform, shiny boots, and white gloves. He looked less like a Nazi official than a Hollywood version of one-Tyrone Power in the role of SS captain. Dr. Josef Mengele would maintain this beautiful facade throughout his tenure at Auschwitz. None of the bewildered new arrivals would discern the murderer, or even the sadist, in the polite young SS doctor until it was too late. Mengele would decide who lived and who died with a smile and an airy wave of his elegant white-gloved hand. He would charm the women of AuschwitzBirkenau even as he sent them to the gas chambers. The Gypsies would love him as one of their own to the very end. But Mengele would be at his best with the young twins he removed from the selection line for use in his medical experiments. With them, he could be as warm and affectionate as he had been as a little boy growing up in a small Bavarian farming town. Did He see something of his old self in these children, innocent and doomed? For what better symbol, after all, of Mengele’s own dual nature-the angel and the monster, the gentle young doctor and the sadistic killer-than a twin.
    Josef Mengele was born on March 16, 1911, in Ginzburg, a medieval village on the banks of the Danube. Three years earlier, his mother, Walburga, had given birth to a stillborn child. Soon after, she became pregnant again. within sixteen months, Josef had a brother, Karl Thaddeus. In 1914, another son, Alois, was born. Josef adored “Lolo.” He felt much closer to him than to Karl Jr and, as they grew up, always included him in all their games.
    In the years before World War I, the Mengeles lived modestly, sharing a house with another family. While Walburga tended to the boys, Karl Mengele spent most of his time expanding his new factory.
    Karl was new to Gun:zburg. He had left his own native village after his older brother inherited the family farm, and studied to become an engineer. Settling in Gunzburg, he had married the strong, energetic Walburga, four years his senior.
    Walburga’s parents, who were wealthy farmers, loaned their sonin-law the money to start his new business. Karl quickly proved he deserved the investment by patenting a number of handy farming tools, which enhanced his standing in his wife’s hometown. What precisely these tools were has been lost in Gunzburg’s history-but their inventor, though long dead, still enjoys a reputation as a creative, industrious man.
    World War I was the turning point for the Mengeles’ fortunes.
    The family received lucrative contracts to manufacture military goods and was busy turning out army vehicles and other weaponry. At the end of the war, once again in the farm-equipment business, the Mengele plant was among the largest in Gunzburg. By 1918, the Mengeles were rich enough to move to a home of their own. Karl and his wife picked a lovely villa across the street from the Gymnasium the boys would attend.
    VERA GROSSMAN: I was born in Czechoslovakia in 1938 to a very wealthy family. My father, who was twenty years older than my mother, owned many fields and plantations. More than two hundred laborers worked for him, tilling the soil and helping to pick and package the fruits and vegetables.
    He fell in love with my mother when she was just a young girl.
    Before the war, Mother was extremely beautiful. She had jet-black hair and blue eyes.
    When they married, he brought her to live on his estate and lavished her with clothes, servants, jewels. All her dresses were hand-made in Prague.
    Once, a dress she had ordered for a wedding didn’t arrive on time.
    My father sent his chauffeur all the way to Prague-hundreds of kilometers away-to fetch it.
    My father was delighted when Olga and I were born. At his age, he