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Switzerland to open long‑sealed files on Auschwitz doctor Josef Mengele

newsMay 16, 2026552

The Swiss Federal Intelligence Service announced it will open long-sealed intelligence files on Auschwitz doctor Josef Mengele, but it gave no timetable for releasing them. Historians have repeatedly requested access after years of refusals, and researchers hope the archives will clarify whether Swiss institutions knew of or assisted Mengele's postwar movements. Mengele fled Europe in 1949 and took a skiing holiday in the Swiss Alps with his son Rolf in 1956, so the records could provide new evidence important to survivors, descendants, and accountability efforts.

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