Twins of Auschwitz: Where Science Became Evil
During World War II, Auschwitz became the gruesome theatre of mass murder of humans in the name of ideology. In the midst of never-ending terror, one figure raised chills down the spines: Josef Mengele, the so-called "Angel of Death." The sinister fascination with twins by Mengele turned children into subjects for some of the most grotesque experiments ever recorded. He committed torture, cloaked under the guise of science, which robbed these young lives of innocence, robbed them of their humanity, and robbed them of their hope.
The Historical Background—A World Consumed by Hate
The Second World War was that rare period in history when humanity appeared to come unhinged. Both the Nazi regime, conflagrated by its ideology of hate, and other people, in some kind or another, pursued Jews, Romani, political dissidents, and other undesirables in its genocidal mission. Central to this was Auschwitz, a sprawling complex of death camps in occupied Poland, with its towering chimneys belching black smoke, an eldritch symbol of industrialized killing. But Auschwitz-Birkenau was not just a death camp; it was a well-thought-out extermination machinery. Day after day, the trains came in, carrying into a well-oiled machine with death grease thousands of men, women, and children.
Whereas most of them met their gassed deaths upon arrival, several prisoners—twins, dwarfs, and persons with any bodily peculiar features—were selected for "special treatment." The price their survival came at was to deliver them into the hands of Josef Mengele, where the border between science and sadism became blurred.
Twins held a particular fascination for the Nazi hierarchy, who largely perceived them as keys to unlock certain genetic secrets that would, in turn, validate their eugenic fantasies. Mengele's preoccupation with twins, however, went far beyond scientific curiosity. It was an act in power, cruelty, and unremitting urge to manipulate life itself.
Josef Mengele: The Angel of Death
