Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal said Friday he believes that Josef Mengele the Angel of Death at Auschwitz, is still living in Paraguay. Paraguayan authorities told United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim last week that the Nazi doctor has not been in that country since 1962.
“This is a lie,” Wiesenthal told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “We have trustworthy information about Mengele’s whereabouts and I gave Waldheim further details.” Wiesenthal called upon Waldheim in a letter in June to ask Paraguay to extradite Mengele, who was responsible for the deaths of thousands of children at the Auschwitz death camp.
Waldheim informed Wiesenthal in a letter that Paraguay’s officials maintain that Mengele was stripped of his Paraguayan citizenship. Wiesenthal said that this was confirmed by Paraguay’s Ambassador in Washington, Mario Lopez Escobar. But in Paraguay a leading official of the Ministry of Interior and also the President of the Supreme Court denied this report. “It is clear that one of the two sides didn’t speak the truth,” Wiesenthal said.
He said he understands that Mengele’s case will be brought before a U.S. Congressional hearing designed to review Washington’s economic aid for Paraguay. The hearing will be before a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee in September.
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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.
