Swiss files on Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele to be unsealed after decades
Switzerland’s Federal Intelligence Service will soon release long-classified documents tied to Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele. The files, kept secret for decades, may reveal new details about his movements after World War II. A legal challenge by historian Gérard Wettstein forced authorities to grant access to the records. Mengele, a physician in the Nazi Waffen-SS, oversaw selections for gas chambers at Auschwitz and performed brutal medical experiments on prisoners, often targeting children and twins. After the war, he fled Europe, securing a Red Cross passport at the Swiss consulate in Genoa before escaping to South America.
In 1956, he returned to Switzerland for a skiing holiday in the Alps with his son, Rolf. Five years later, his wife rented an apartment in Zurich and applied for permanent residency. That same year, Austrian intelligence alerted Swiss officials that Mengele might be in the country, possibly using a false identity.
Swiss historian Regula Bochsler has raised doubts about whether Mengele visited Switzerland again after an international arrest warrant was issued in 1959. The Swiss Federal Archives blocked access to related files in 2019 and 2025, citing national security and family privacy. Wettstein’s court challenge in 2025 finally led to the decision to declassify the documents. The newly released records could confirm or debunk long-standing claims about Mengele’s presence in Switzerland. The files may also shed light on why authorities kept the information hidden for so long. Historians now await the chance to examine the documents in full.
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