Dr. Mengele Passport Found

[Erich B.]

Did anyone see this? Josef Mengele's Italian passport that he used to flee Europe!
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/...gele-passport/


Erich

[Craig Gottlieb]

Was brought to me at the MAX show, so thank you MAX SHOW!

[whatthecrunchyo]

Very cool!

[-Ray-]

Interesting. Hopefully this pans out in good favor.


-Ray-

[Seigfried]

So it's potentially worth $250,000 and the south American dealer just hands it over...really?

[Mil-Archive]

So it's potentially worth $250,000 and the south American dealer just hands it over...really?

Very good question !!

[Obersalzberg]

Its an interesting passport, but worth 250k.... of course not.
10k on a very good day...maximum.

[Jean-Loup]

It does not state anywhere in the article that the dealer from south America donated this item. It says he recently purchased it and said to the current owner "I have got something for you".

So would this be a period faked passport, or was it actualy a real passport made by an italian govermental agency?
JL

[james m]

I don't really care about who owns it or the circumstances it was acquired under. I do agree it belongs in a museum. Owning something that belonged to that beast and having it in my collection would give me the creeps! Every time I looked at it I would have visions of young children being tortured.
Jim

[Sepp45]

Wasn't this document already found a few years ago by an Argentine student during a search on the National Archives?

[Killerbee]

Its an interesting passport, but worth 250k.... of course not.
10k on a very good day...maximum.

Yep... $250k is laughable.

[Johnny R]

I love this especially the last phrase-

“People asked me how I know when something’s real, and I have a hard time explaining it. I just know. People forge documents all the time, but over the years I’ve learned how to look at the paper, the inks, the printing styles ... This was a self-authenticating artifact.”

[Craig Gottlieb]

Let's see if it's possible to have an educated conversation about SOMETHING history-related, and not succumb to the ever-present temptation to bicker over prices, or how much you hate Craig Gottlieb, etc.

Okay, I'll start ... for me, one of the most interesting pieces in this group was one of the police documents, wherein Mengele appears in front of a police official to attest to the fact that his name is NOT Gregor Helmuth, but Josef Mengele. So as far back as 1950 (the date of the document) he is trying to get his "good name" back.

Also interesting is that the passport is NOT an ICRC passport as had been previously believed, but is a standard Italian one. The Italian Embassy was very forthcoming in helping me get details about the "make and model" of the document, and were quite friendly, until I let them know who this really was. After that, silence.

Also of interest is a comparison between the world today and the world back then. Today, the Boston Bombers were caught within days, from a conglomeration of mobile phone photos and gosh-knows-what kind of government imaging. Back in the 1940s and beyond, it was possible for Mengele to be released not once but twice by the American POW system, then for Mengele to live for 4 years in Germany, then for him to escape to Argentina via Italy (I doubt he spoke Italian), and then to live in Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay, often in full view of the authorities. He even traveled back to Germany under his OWN name using a GERMAN passport! Pretty incredible that he escaped justice.

[crowback]

Passport

Thanks Craig.

[Tom B]

Great find ! Historical in it's nature. Tom