São Paulo 1985: The Exhumation of Josef Mengele

On the other end of the line was the young forensic doctor Daniel Muñoz, head of the Anthropology sector at the Iml and, moreover, the only employee in that department. His boss wanted him to identify the skeleton, and the Federal Police had requested that the exhumation proceed that very day.

Certainly, Dr. Muñoz did not expect this request at the beginning of the long Corpus Christi holiday. That Thursday, which promised to be sunny, he left his three small children at home and rushed to the Iml. Obviously, Dr. Muñoz would not work alone on a mission of such magnitude and began to think about which colleagues to involve in the team. He needed at least a specialist in dentistry and an anatomist to help reconstruct the skeleton.

Cemetery of Our Lady of the Rosary, in Embu das Artes, 25 kilometers from downtown São Paulo. The agents had to wait for the judge's authorization before proceeding with the exhumation. Romeu Tuma arrived accompanied by the deputy consul general of Germany and the Bossert couple. Given the intense media interest, the two Austrians were placed inside the chapel under strict surveillance. Judicial authorization arrived only in the early afternoon, when the sun was already high, despite it being almost winter.

By that point, the news that Mengele's body might have been found had already spread around the world and dozens of journalists—Brazilian and foreign—stormed the small cemetery in Embu. Cameramen and photographers competed for space to try to obtain the best shot of grave 321, where the grass had grown so much that it appeared completely abandoned. Only a closer look revealed a plaque stating that Friederike Gerhard, the mother of Wolfgang Gerhard, was buried there. 

Armed with hoes, rubber boots, and gloves, two gravediggers began the spectacle. Blow after blow, they started removing the earth from the grave. It had long been there keeping company with worms when one of them opened the coffin, so rotten it was almost completely decomposed. From the bottom of the pit, the gravedigger grabbed a skull and handed it to Dr. Mello. The Iml physician took it in his hands as if it were a trophy and showed it to the astonished journalists before that Shakespearean scene. The gravedigger continued retrieving the bones, handing them one by one to the doctor, who placed them in a crate. To the great dismay of the three German police officers witnessing the exhumation, there were no protective measures whatsoever: not on the hands, not on the shoes, nor in the container, where Dr. Mello walked as if he were in a canoe. In a later report, the Germans harshly criticized the lack of professionalism of their Brazilian colleagues and stated that the gravedigger's boots had damaged the frontal part of the skull. But what was lacking in rigor was abundant in irony. In a solemn tone, Tuma declared to journalists: "I can state with absolute certainty that this man is definitely dead."

Seven natural teeth were found in Mengele's jaw: four upper molars and three lower ones. In addition to a gold crown. Dr. Mello, enthusiastic about the discovery, told journalists that the teeth could be decisive for identification. But it would not be so simple. He said it would take at least fifteen days. Tuma declared that there was a 90% chance that the remains were indeed Mengele's and stressed that the forensic analyses would be conducted by the Brazilians. 

Eventually, nine American scientists arrived in Brazil to follow the Mengele case: three from the Department of Justice and three from the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. The United States government also sent three experts in documents and handwriting analysis. Germany also sent a specialist in the field, as well as a dentist and a forensic anthropologist. From Israel, meanwhile, came Menachem Russak, head of the police division responsible for investigating Nazis. That Friday, at Guarulhos International Airport, Neal Sher, head of the Osi (Office of Special Investigations), the American unit responsible for prosecuting Nazis, landed in Brazil.

THE EXHUMATION OF MENGELE'S BODY

Although foreign experts distrusted the abilities of the Brazilians, they could only take part in the investigations as observers. Over the weekend, Dr. Muñoz assembled his team of high-level specialists. He involved Moacyr da Silva, an expert in forensic dentistry from the University of São Paulo (Usp), and the physicians Ramón Manubens, professor of anatomy at the Faculty of Medicine of Marília, and Marcos de Almeida, from the Paulista School of Medicine. Dr. Muñoz also needed to compare reports on Mengele's physical data with those of the recovered skeleton. For this, he relied on the collaboration of the Osi, which brought to Brazil the SS file relating to Mengele.

At the General Directorate of the Federal Police, journalists began to arrive. Due to lack of space, the press conference was moved to the twentieth floor, where the restaurant and game room were located. When the interview began, Tuma was surrounded by more than twenty microphones and cameras from Brazil and around the world. He presented the results of the examination. According to the Brazilian experts, it was "highly unlikely" that the remains belonged to anyone other than Josef Mengele. The Americans released a preliminary report stating: "The skeleton is that of Josef Mengele, with a reasonable level of scientific certainty." Even after the long-awaited announcement, the Israeli government continued to harbor doubts. The spokesperson for Israel's Ministry of Justice declared that the country would continue its efforts to locate Mengele and bring him to justice.

Nearly forty years after his death, Mengele returned to the Faculty of Medicine, this time as an object of study. For decades, his skeleton remained forgotten at the Iml of São Paulo. In 2017, Dr. Muñoz, now with a white beard, decided that those bones could be useful to his students and requested permission to use them in forensic medicine classes. And so, Josef Mengele concluded his story in the way he had long hoped: in a university and with international fame, but in a manner he could never have imagined.