Nazi doctor who was also known as the "Angel of Death." Josef grew up in a household where he did not receive proper affection from his parents. He was often ill as a child. He developed an intense passion for anthropology and attended university in Munich and Frankfurt, and other places. He became the assistant to professor Otmar Von Verschuer. He served in the 5th Panzer Wiking SS Division as a medic, and would have witnessed unthinkable atrocities. He was injured on the front and subsequently stationed at the German concentration camp Auschwitz. He was known for his inhuman experiments on inmates. He was involved in selections of arriving prisoners, and determined who would be spared and who would be sent to the gas chambers. Mengele is particularly remembered for his experiments on identical twins. He put eye drops containing steroids into the eyes of several twin subjects in a joint effort with the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute to find a cosmetic cure for heterochromia. He also did experiments on Romani children. The children called him Onkel Mengele and often grew attached to him. He gave them candy and nice clothing and was much gentler with injections and blood draws than the other medical staff. Josef left Auschwitz on January 17, 1945, to escape capture from advancing Soviets. In August of 1949, he went to Argentina. He would spend many years on the run from international authorities, eventually moving to Brazil. In 1985, a group of Auschwitz survivors recounted their treatment at Mengele's hands. This testimony was broadcast on worldwide television. As a result, the United States Justice Department and the Israeli government announced that the case of Josef Mengele was officially reopened, and strategies were discussed to bring him to justice. Later that year, Brazilian police identified families in Brazil that had aided Mengele in hiding. Through these families the police learned that Mengele had died in February of 1979 in a swimming accident in the waters off Bertioga, Brazil. While swimming, he had suffered a massive stroke, and drowned. Friends had brought his body back to the beach after seeing him struggle, and his death was kept a secret by family and friends. His remains were discovered in a grave marked "Wolfgang Gerhard," by Brazilian authorities in Embu, Brazil. His family then admitted to shielding him for years and turned over his diaries and letters to investigators. Forensic tests performed on the remains in 1992 confirmed that the body was indeed that of Josef Mengele.