During the years of the Holocaust, and shortly after, there was a man who instilled fear in the people imprisoned in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp: "the angel of death death". He was a man who showed up at the selections with a behavior that made one think he was handsome and casual, but one could absolutely not think of the monstrosities he committed during the Second World War. Even more disturbing is that "wherever it appeared, Death cast its shadow." (Wiesel xix)In 1911 Karl and Walburga gave birth to a boy, Josef Mengele, in Gunzburg, Germany. While studying medicine and anthropology, he developed an interest in genetics. His experimental ideas germinated from these interests. Mengele made his presence known in the camps where he lived with experiments involving sterilization, attempts to change eye color, gangrene, and “obsessive efforts to explore the mysteries of twins.” (Friedrich 56) In addition to twins, Mengele used dwarves, gypsies, and handicapped people as test subjects. The Angel of Death had absolutely no problem blaming the victim for being dead or sick and killed for science without a second thought as he was simply trying to make a name for himself in the world of medicine. Clearly, Mengele received his wishes as he continued experimenting on twins, which would have been revolutionary if he had succeeded. He experimented with trying to turn boys into girls and injected twins with different diseases to watch them side by side on the autopsy table when they died within hours of each other; if the sick one died, he would kill the otherwise healthy twin so he could perform his autopsies. “In those days we didn't know what the experiments were for or what we were for... middle of paper.. ....er, in their grave, before the world, forgetting them and acknowledging the pain they suffered. Works Cited Cefrey, Holly. Doctor Josef Mengele The Angel of Death (Biographies of the Holocaust). New York: Rosen Group, 2001. Print.Friedrich, Otto. Kingdom of Auschwitz. 1994. Print.Kor, Eva. Surviving the Angel of Death: The Story of a Mengele Twin in Auschwitz. 2009. Print.Lifton, Robert Jay. Nazi doctors: medical killing and the psychology of genocide. 1988. Print.Nimoy, Leonard. “The Angel of Death/Josef Mengele.” In search of... February 1, 1979. Television.Steinbacher, Sybille. Auschwitz A story. New York: Harper Perennial, 2006. Print.Wiesel, Elie. Preface. Doctors from Hell: The Horrifying Account of Nazi Experiments on Humans. 2005. XIX. Print.Wistrich, Robert S. Hitler and the Holocaust (Modern Library Chronicles). New York: Modern Library, 2003. Print.