Did the Nazi war criminal stay in Switzerland in the 1950s and 1960s and vacation here unmolested? The federal intelligence service provides access to previously secret files.
May 5, 2026, 7:43 am05/05/2026, 07:47
Anna Wanner / ch media
Nazi doctor Josef Mengele was involved in the murder of hundreds of thousands of people during World War II. As a camp doctor, he sorted out the deportees who arrived in Auschwitz. He decided who was fit to work. He sent the others to the gas chamber and to their deaths.
War criminal and Auschwitz doctor Josef Mengele was feared for his deadly experiments on people.Image: imago
The “Angel of Death” was also infamous for his cruel experiments on children, twins and people with physical anomalies. He carried out his experiments without their consent. He tortured and mutilated people. Most of them died in his experiments.
Although Mengele was guilty of serious crimes, he evaded prosecution by fleeing to South America. He died in Brazil in 1979 without ever having to answer for his outrages in court.
A 1956 police photo of Josef Mengele from Buenos Aires, Argentina.Image: imago
Could it have ended differently? Evidence suggests that Josef Mengele stayed in Switzerland several times in the 1950s and 1960s. Why wasn’t he arrested?
Did Mengele spend his skiing holidays in Engelberg?
The former SP National Councilor In 1999, Jean Ziegler demanded that the Federal Council carry out a corresponding investigation. In its detailed answer, the Federal Council writes: There was evidence that Mengele had gone on a skiing holiday in Engelberg (OW) in 1956. That is not guaranteed.
A second concrete indication exists in 1961, when a German Bild journalist informed the Zurich cantonal police that Josef Mengele was staying with his sister-in-law Martha Mengele in the apartment at Schwimmbadstrasse 9 in Kloten. Switzerland tried to obtain a picture or fingerprints of Josef Mengele through Interpol – in vain, as the Federal Council writes.
It is still unclear today whether the Zurich cantonal police managed to identify Mengele. Was he now in Switzerland or not? Historian Gérard Wettstein wants to clear up these speculations he told SRF says. He therefore requested access to the relevant files from the Federal Intelligence Service (NDB).
Administration freely disposes of censorship
But the process is complicated, even though the law basically provides for free access to the archives with a blocking period of 30 years. Wettstein fought for access: The NDB already refused access in February, and a complaint procedure is currently pending at the Federal Court. Against this background, the NDB has now decided “Grant access to the Josef Mengele dossier”. As early as 2001, the Federal Council specified a “liberal inspection practice” for documents that were used as part of the Bergier report.
Sacha Zala, President of the Swiss History Society, declares the incident a farce: The problem is not Mengele or the intelligence service. The general problem is the administration’s restrictive handling of its files. “Free access to federal files after 30 years actually only has two restrictions. However, with the argument of personal data protection, the federal administration can very easily extend the protection period for the Federal Archives.”
Zala therefore demands a neutral body that can easily question the denied access. Because:
“The administration can actively censor as soon as it considers a dossier to be halfway sensitive. Today, the only people who can question this decision are those who go to federal court, which means in fact no one.”
There is a lack of a counterweight that represents the interests of research. What does this mean for the Mengele dossier? Zala assumes that Switzerland does not have to rewrite its history despite having access to the files. “If the Bergier report says nothing more about it, the dossier is unlikely to reveal any explosive revelations.” (aargauerzeitung.ch)