The diary of Josef Mengele, the Nazi doctor who conducted cruel experiments on Auschwitz inmates and sent hundreds of thousands of Jews and others to their death, is to be auctioned in the US state of Connecticut. The diary, which Mengele began in 1960 in Brazil, where he had fled at the end of World War II, is expected to fetch over US$ 60,000.
Mengele, nicknamed the ‘Angel of Death’ by Auschwitz inmates, decided which arrivals at the camp would work and which would go straight to the gas chambers, and some prisoners ended up on his operating table where he conducted brutal medical experiments. Most of them died in agony.
Mengele died in 1979 in Brazil. The diary, reportedly being sold by someone "close" to his family in Germany, includes a description of "lesser races" as "inferior morons". The president of the Connecticut auction house, Bill Panagopulos, said: " Make no mistake about it: I have no sympathy for these monsters. My father's home town was wiped out by the Nazis in a reprisal action. But it is of vital importance that such documents remain available as tangible evidence of the evil deeds of the past, as well as to provide further pieces of history's puzzle.”
It is not clear when the auction will take place. World-wide, the demand for Nazi memorabilia and relics has been on the rise in recent years.
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