Mengeles may have remains

Press, 24 June 1985, Page 6

Mengeles may have remains

NZPA-AP Sao Paulo The bones that forensic experts say are those of the Nazi doctor, Josef Mengele, will be "put at the disposal of. the Mengele family” in West Germany, says Brazil’s Federal police chief, Mr Romeu Tuma.

“The investigation is not over,” he said, and those who sheltered Mengele could be prosecuted for harbouring an illegal alien. Mr Tuma announced on Saturday the positive forensic identification of the re-

mains unearthed at Embu, a small town 27km from Sao Paulo.

If the family did not want the remains, “I imagine they will be reburied at the Embu cemetery, but it will be up to the courts to decide.” At the news conference, a team of United States, West German, and Brazilian scientists unanimously declared that a body dug up on June 6 was that of Mengele, the fugitive World War II criminal wanted for the deaths of 400,000 people

and the medical experiments done at Auschwitz.

The police believe that Mengele died on February 7, 1979, while swimming at Bertioga beach resort, about 75km from Sao Paulo. Witnesses testified that his body was buried the next day under the name of Wolfgang Gerhard, an Austrian citizen, in the Embu cemetery. Mr Tuma said that if the bones did go back to Embu, “they would probably be reburied under the name of Josef Mengele. But it’s the

morgue that will issue the death certificate.”

The police discovered Mengele’s trail when West German officials found a letter written from Brazil by the Nazi fugitive.

Mr Tuma said that although he wanted to get a complete picture of Mengele’s life in Brazil, including hospitals he had been taken to, he would not broaden the investigation into a search for other Nazi sympathisers or Nazi networks.