In 1985, six-year-old Beti­na Anton watched Brazil­ian author­i­ties appre­hend her kinder­garten teacher for alleged­ly using doc­u­ments to bury in secre­cy the remains of Josef Men­gele, known world­wide for cru­el human exper­i­ments and for send­ing thou­sands to the Auschwitz gas cham­bers. Josef Men­gele was a fugi­tive in South Amer­i­ca for thir­ty-four years after World War II, sought by the Israeli secret ser­vice and Nazi Hunters. Hid­den for half that time in Brazil, thanks to a small group of expa­tri­ate Euro­peans, Men­gele cre­at­ed his own par­adise where he could speak Ger­man with new friends, main­tain his beliefs, stay one step ahead of the glob­al man­hunt, and avoid answer­ing for his crimes.

Trans­lat­ed from the Brazil­ian Trop­i­cal Bavaria edi­tion and based on exten­sive research, includ­ing rev­e­la­to­ry inter­views and nev­er-before-seen let­ters and pho­tos, Hid­ing Men­gele is a sus­pense­ful nar­ra­tive not only haunt­ed by the doctor’s hor­rif­ic actions but also by the moti­va­tions dri­ving a com­mu­ni­ty to pro­tect an evil man.