An Interpol representative reported today that a survivor of the Auschwitz death camp failed to identify a German-speaking physician taken into custody in a Brazilian town for his resemblance to Dr. Josef Mengele, the Auschwitz selection doctor.
The physician, who gave his name as Josef Kanat, was arrested in Ponta Pora, near the Paraguayan border, by a Brazilian police captain who said the suspect resembled photos of the long-hunted Dr. Mengele published in a Brazilian magazine.
Amoroso Neto, the Interpol representative, said he did not believe the suspect was Dr. Mengele, the Nazi doctor who was known as “the Angel of Death” at Auschwitz for his administering lethal injections to victims and for selecting those for death or hard labor. Neto said the Auschwitz survivor could not recognize the suspect as Dr. Mengele.
The West German Government last February set a reward of 20,000 marks ($5,000) for Dr. Mengele’s capture. There have been several reports that Mengele was seen in various parts of South America since the end of World War II when he fled from Germany.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
