The expulsion from Paraguay of Josef Mengele, known as the “Angel of Death” for dozens of inhuman experiments performed mostly on Jewish inmates at the Auschwitz death camp, was demanded by 150 demonstrators who gathered yesterday outside the Paraguayan Mission to the United Nations. Mengele reportedly fled during the last days of the Nazi regime and has been living undisturbed in Paraguay since 1960.
Elizabeth Holtzman, Brooklyn District Attorney, told the group that if Paraguay continued “to refuse to expel Mengele, than all United States aid to Paraguay should be discontinued.”
Other speakers were Elie Wiesel; Menachem Rosensaft, chairman of the International Network of Children of Holocaust Survivors; and Nazi-hunter Beate Klarsfeld.
After the meeting, Holtzman and Wiesel, chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, met briefly with some Paraguayan officials. Wiesel said the officials “did not admit nor deny” Mengele was living in Paraguay. Wiesel said he planned to form a delegation to meet with the President of Paraguay to convey the feelings of Mengele’s surviving victims about the Nazi war criminal.
He also said a request would be made to the Congress to enact a measure to have the United States government “put pressure on Paraguay to give up Mengele.” He and Holtzman said they believed Paraguayan officials know where Mengele is.
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