/specialCollection/nwcda6/154/MENGELE, JOSEF VOL. 2/MENGELE, JOSEF VOL. 2_0101.pdf

Doubts on Mengele's Time in Paraguay
To the Editor:
On ABC-TV's "This Week With
David Brinkley" on Feb. 17, Senator
.Adfonse Qt. D'Amato and others
stated they had information that the
Nazi torturer Dr. Josef Mengele en-
tered Paraguay in 1959, that he ac-
quired citizenship soon afterward and
moved freely_about. It was further as-
serted that Paraguayans are still
afraid to talk about Mengele because
of the country's dictatorship,
On Dec. 1, 1959, I took up duties at
the United States Embassy in Para-
guay as a political officer, and for
four years and two months, through
changes in ambassadors and charges
d'affaires, I held that position, often
for months at a time as acting chief of
the embassy's political section.
Throughout those years, there were
constant rumors that Martin Bor-
• mann, Hitler's vice fiihrer, was in
Paraguay, but never a mention of
Mengele. The half-Russian step-
daughter of a West German second
secretary assured me that the very
v bedroom she occupied in her step-
father's house had been used as a bed-
room by Bormarm. Strangers came to
me with tales of B-ormann.
The Minister of the Interior4dgar"
tInstran,-.1 who controlled security
forces, volunteered to me in confi-
dence that he believed Bormann left
Europe at the end of World War II on a
Vatican *passport and was then in
Paraguay. He promised to give me
further information. He never did, and
I asked him several times abcxn it. He
finally replied he had been mistaken.
Despite the dictatorship, Paraguay,
whose capital then had only 130,000 in-
habitants, did not keep secrets. Al-
most anybody who had indoor plumb-
ing knew everybody else who did.
It is conceivable that Mengele was
there and people thought it was Bar-
maim, buti strongly doubt either was
there between Dec. 1, 1959 and Jan. 25,
1964, when 1 had the responsibility of -
knowing and reporting to Washington
all political matters of interest to the
U.S. A. DANE. BO WEN JR.
Lock Haven, Pa'.;-Feb, 19, 1955
The writer is professor of history and
economics at Loth Haven University.
NAZI WAR CRIMES DISCLOSURE ACT
2000