MENGELE The Complete Story

CHAPTER
12
"I've Seen Mengele"
Josef Mengele was a regular visitor to the best restaurants in Asuncion,
the Paraguayan capital. Naturally, he also visited the German
Club—his black Mercedes 280SL regally sweeping up and armed
guards jumping out, anxiously surveying the scene. One evening
he made a spectacle of himself by slamming his pistol on the bar.'
To most people the source for this colorful story was a credible
one. it was Simon Wiesenthal, the Nazi-hunter from Vienna, a
familiar figure on TV screens. The evidence had come from his
network of informants who were said to be scattered around the
globe.
Wiesenthal would often claim that his informants had "seen"
Mengele. Sometimes they had "just missed" Mengele. One of the
closest shaves, according to Wiesenthal, had occurred in the summer
of 1960, when Mengele was seeking refuge in Egypt. Concerned
for his international image, President Nasser barred Mengele's entry,
and the doctor was taken by a former SS Obersturmfuhrer Schrawz
on a chartered yacht, together with his wife, Martha, to the tiny
Greek island of Kythnos. "I was about to leave for Jerusalem to
attend the Eichmann trial," Wiesenthal wrote in his book about his
sleuthing exploits:*
• The Murderers Among Ur (London: Heinemann, [967).
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