Historian and author David G. Rowell has written a very intriguing and intuitive book for anyone curious about who Josef Mengele was and why he’s one of the most notorious Nazis that have lived. Rowell uses many primary sources such as archives from around the world and even Mengele’s journal where we’re able to see him from his perspective. For those who don’t know who Josef Mengele was, he’s known as one of the cruelest people to have lived in the 20th century. This is due to his horrendous human experiments where he used prisoners of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau as test subjects. Mengele was a German doctor in the camp where he had access to the infirmary and could pick whoever he wanted for his experiments. Mengele is also known as “The Angel of Death'' due to his having control over who lived and died during selections where one was determined whether or not they’ll be sent to the gas chambers or would be held as prisoner and used for labor. The book recounts many details of the numerous tests and experiments that Mengele conducted during his time as a doctor in Auschwitz-Birkenau such as his fascination with identical twins and the inhuman things that he committed on them. Rowell also includes what Mengele did in the aftermath of WWII. Word traveled about what the Nazi doctor had done during his time working in the concentration camp which made him wanted by the Allied powers so that they could bring him to justice. As a result of this, Mengele fled to South America where he spent the rest of his life before passing away. He never faced justice for what he had done.
When I first found this book while I was looking for a copy of another WWII-related book, I instantly had to buy it. I couldn’t help myself to buy such a book, even though the cashier gave me a weird look when I went to pay for it. I’ve known about Josef Mengele before as I’ve come across his name several times while reading other WWII-related books. I had done minor research about him before reading this book, but I was ultimately shocked and honestly disgusted that someone could do such inhuman and torturous things to other people, especially considering that most of Mengele’s subjects were children. To conclude this review, I wouldn’t recommend people with faint hearts to read this book. It can be a lot in some parts, and I had to put the book down sometimes because some parts were too horrifying to read. But then again, it could be me reading it at night and then being terrified that Mengele would appear in a dark corner of my room. Overall, a great read for anyone who’s interested in historical books and wants to know more about what experiments were conducted by the Nazis during WWII. I would read it all over again and would recommend it but I’ll have to remind myself not to read in the middle of the night.