The Fake Prison Doctor of Auschwitz

Uncovering the Truth Behind Holocaust Fraudsters

Bogdan Musial

• Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
• Year: 2024
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781399044073
• Subtopic: Holocaust History
• Index: History

After over half a century of secrecy, a Swiss bank safe was opened, it contained the long-lost research notes of Josef Mengele, as well as those of his chief assistant in Auschwitz. They had been deposited there by the assistant who himself had been a Jewish doctor. Sent to Auschwitz, he was forced to participate in Josef Mengele's gruesome human experiments. Following the war, he completely disappeared, assuming a new identity and shrouding himself in silence. He did write his story down, but ordered the documents to be sealed away until decades after his death. With the release date drawing closer, his granddaughter, a well-connected Vatican doctor, wanted to have the documents examined by a professional historian. Thus, a great investigation was launched to track him down and pin down his place in the medical system in Auschwitz and the horrendous medical experiments conducted there. However, after some time, doubts regarding the authenticity of the documents began to emerge. Thus, what promised to be a sensational historical breakthrough, soon turned into a criminal investigation into one of the greatest historical fraud attempts in recent decades. At the end of the second investigation, the person behind the forged documents was brought to trial and sentenced on 22 counts of fraud. This book thoroughly examines the way the fraud evolved over the span of three decades and how it succeeded in convincing so many people, while also comparing it to other historic hoaxes, particularly those concerning the Holocaust.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Chapter 1 An Unexpected Call
• Chapter 2 First Moves
• Chapter 3 The Battle Over the Rights
• Chapter 4 The Research Continues: Experiments on Prisoners
• Chapter 5 Finally: The Handover
• Chapter 6 The Pressure Rises
• Chapter 7 The State of Research
• Chapter 8 Investigation Part I: Initial Breakthroughs
• Chapter 9 ‘This is the Heart, the Central Piece.’
• Chapter 10 Investigation Part II: The Search for the Source
• Chapter 11 Feints
• Chapter 12 ‘This Little Wonder’
• Jan Philipp Reemtsma: Promises of Glamour and Invented Darkness
• Notes
• Words of Thanks
• Archives and Literature
• Plates