Josef Mengele, known as the “Angel of Death”, is a haunting figure remembered for his atrocities at Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. He gained the name for performing deadly experiments on prisoners at the Nazi concentration camp.

Born on March 16, 1911, in Gunzburg, Germany, he studied medicine and anthropology at the University of Munich and received his doctorate in 1935.

Mengele joined the Nazi Party in 1937 and the Schutzstaffel, a major paramilitary organisation under Adolf Hitler, in 1938.

He arrived at Auschwitz in May 1943 and was given the role of a camp physician. His main job was to decide the fate of prisoners as they arrived. He would choose who was to work under harsh conditions and who would go straight to the gas chambers to be killed.

His medical experiments were infamous for their extreme cruelty and lack of scientific value. He specifically focused on twins, believing that studying them could reveal genetic information useful to Nazi beliefs. Victims, including children and adults, endured surgeries, injections and other painful procedures without any form of pain relief, often leading to excruciating deaths. He even attempted to change eye colour through injections. These experiments were conducted without the consent of the victims.

“In a grotesque perversion of the physician’s role, Auschwitz’s so called Angel of Death employed his knowledge of the workings of life in order to destroy it. He determined who would die immediately in the gas chambers of Auschwitz and who would be exploited for labor or ‘Nazi “science before being killed,” the US justice department said in a report.

“When prisoners arrived at Auschwitz, Mengele and his ‘doctor’ colleagues selected for slave labor those who appeared medically fit (thus consigning them to toil under inhumane and often deadly conditions) or who could be used by the Third Reich in some other way. All other prisoners, the vast majority, were immediately murdered by gassing in specially designed asphyxiation chambers,” it added.

For his experiments, he would allegedly remove the organs of prisoners without anaesthesia and intentionally infected his subjects with diseases.

Because of his highly visible and significant role in the Hitler regime’s homicidal reign of terror, Mengele effectively became a symbol of the Holocaust; in particular, his name became synonymous with the evil of Auschwitz.

As World War II came to an end, Mengele left Auschwitz and avoided being caught for many years. Despite efforts by those searching for Nazi criminals and international authorities, he managed to evade prosecution using different aliases in several countries.

In 1979, there was enough evidence to confirm Mengele’s death in Brazil, where he had been living under a false name. Forensic investigations in 1985 conclusively identified his remains, confirming he had drowned in a swimming accident.

Mengele became known as the embodiment of evil at Auschwitz, where over a million people, mostly Jews, were killed. His actions, seen as a horrific misuse of medical knowledge, showed how low people can stoop under oppressive governments.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologises for the events surrounding Ukraine President Volodomyr Zelenskyy’s visit at a media availability in Ottawa, Ontario, on Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologised Wednesday, September 27, 2023, for Parliament’s recognition of a man who fought alongside the Nazis during last week’s address by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Mr. Trudeau said the speaker of the House of Commons, who resigned Tuesday, was “solely responsible” for the invitation and recognition of the man but said it was a mistake that has deeply embarrassed Parliament and Canada.

“All of us who were in the House on Friday regret deeply having stood and clapped, even though we did so unaware of the context,” Mr. Trudeau said before he entering the House of Commons. “It was a horrendous violation of the memory of the millions of people who died in the Holocaust, and was deeply, deeply painful for Jewish people.”

Mr. Trudeau repeated the apology in Parliament.

Just after Mr. Zelenskyy delivered an address in the House of Commons on Friday, Canadian lawmakers gave 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka a standing ovation when Speaker Anthony Rota drew attention to him. Rota introduced Hunka as a war hero who fought for the First Ukrainian Division.

Observers over the weekend began to publicise the fact that the First Ukrainian Division also was known as the Waffen-SS Galicia Division, or the SS 14th Waffen Division, a voluntary unit that was under the command of the Nazis.

“It is extremely troubling to think that this egregious error is being politicised by Russia, and its supporters, to provide false propaganda about what Ukraine is fighting for,” Mr. Trudeau said.

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier this week that the standing ovation for Hunka was “outrageous,” and he called it the result of a “sloppy attitude” toward remembering the Nazi regime. Russian President Vladimir Putin has painted his enemies in Ukraine as “neo-Nazis,” although Zelenskyy is Jewish and lost relatives in the Holocaust.

Speaker of the House Anthony Rota stepped down on Tuesday, September 26, after meeting with the House of Commons’ party leaders, and after all of the main opposition parties called on him to resign.

House government leader Karina Gould said that Mr. Rota invited and recognszed Hunka without informing the government or the delegation from Ukraine, and that his lack of due diligence had broken the trust of lawmakers.

In an earlier apology on Sunday, Mr. Rota said he alone was responsible for inviting and recognising Hunka, who is from the district that Rota represents. The speaker’s office said it was Hunka’s son who contacted NMr. Rota’s local office to see if it was possible if he could attend Zelenskyy’s speech.

The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies has called the incident “a stain on our country’s venerable legislature with profound implications both in Canada and globally.” (