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40 Fascinating Facts About the Relatives of Nazis After WWII

Khalid Elhassan March 14, 2019 24 min

33. Rolf Mengele Refused to Betray His Father

Rolf and Josef Mengele in 1977, in Brazil. The Daily Mail

With his father on the lam, Rolf Mengele was raised by his grandparents, who told him that his father had died. He was shocked to discover, at age 16, that his father was not only still alive, but was a war criminal at large. While rejecting his father’s beliefs, Rolf nonetheless sought to know him better. After years of secret preparations, he finally met Josef Mengele in Brazil, in 1977. His father downplayed responsibility for his war crimes and even argued that his conduct at Auschwitz had saved the lives of thousands. Rolf, contending that it was impossible to betray his father, never revealed his location. He did, however, change his surname in the 1980s.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.