Rating: 
Summary: The Complete Story of the Manhunt of the 20th Century
Review: A comprehensive account of the education, career, life as a fugitive, and strange death of one of the most notorious of the Nazi war criminals.Posner and Ware use thoroughly researched historical sources, including Mengele's own autobiography to tell this story. To his education and strange doctoral thesis in anthropology on "Racial Morphological Research on the Lower Jaw Section of Four Racial Groups," to his bizarre medical career involving his well know human experimentation and his less well known job of interviewing and examining subjects to determine their racial purity, the authors do a fine job of recounting Mengele's early education and career. Of greater interest, however, is the story of his escape from Europe and life on the run in various South American countries. The story of how he was able to evade for 33 years the most comprehensive manhunt (probably in history), makes for interesting reading. The book recounts how he was able to make and maintain strategic friends and alliances, in South America, and hold onto contacts, friends, and family still living in Germany. Included is the story of a fascinating account of the visit of his son Rolf, about 1 year before his father's death, in a secret rendezvous in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in which Rolf confronted his father and made him justify his involvement in some of histories worst atrocities. This book shows how the world's most hunted man was able to evade capture, cultivate friends and alliances, and even receive medical care under an assumed identity. In light or recent events, raises questions in the reader's mind if such a notorious figure (such as Osama bin Ladin) could do as well, escaping capture over a manhunt lasting decades. A truly interesting story, well worth the moderate time investment to read. ...
Rating: 
Summary: what does it profit a man?
Review: After all the accolades for this book have been expressed let us turn to another viewpoint- did the author's of this book and the publisher donate profits to any humanitarian organization or charity? If we are not using this book to promote the improvement of humanity aren't we at least to some degree profiting from the innate fascination with evil that attracts readers to this kind of book? Why was it not published with a plain black cover instead of the sensationalist image that appears on the front cover? It appears that even one of the most unhuman human beings that ever lived is not beyond being promoted like some kind of antichrist pop hero. In the final analysis lets ask ourselves just one final question- what does this book do heal the world from the destruction created by this man?
Rating: 
Summary: skip this one...
Review: Boring... It got exiting; that it was ok and than it was boring... Looks like an author had much more information about after war activities of Mengele than during war. The part that made him "famous" which are his war crimes and actions are discussed very shallowly and don't really provide any insights. His post war years are just dry relations during which it's hard to stay awake. In my opinion author was trying to satisfy general public with being politically correct and glorifying Israel, the US and Russia while presenting Mengele as a retarded, corrupted and crazy woman chaser. Even if those descriptions might be true Mr. Posner could have done much better job in proving his arguments. But I guess two things happened: either he couldn't prove his case and became the reporter instead of writer or he was scared that nobody would buy his book with truth inside. I'm not trying to change the facts and we all agree that Mengele was a war criminal and a murderer that deserved nothing less but the death sentence. But Mr. Posner could have done much better job. Two stars go to his writing (two for the idea and none for the effort).
Rating: 
Summary: The Life of Mengele After Auschwitz
Review: Having read over 25 books on this dark part of history, I had always wondered how the nazi's who lived years after their crimes could function in life. This book answered those questions for me. If one carefully ovserves his life before and after Auschwitz you will see that he lived with the consequences of his crimes and still never acknowledged them.
Rating:
Summary: Mengele: A Study in Unapologetic and Pitiless Evil
Review: I do not claim to be an expert in holocaust studies, but I suspect that the collaboration of Gerald Posner and John Ware on this work dealing with the diabolically evil Josef Mengele is among the very best analysis of the Nazi phenomenon ever put together. The fact that these two gentlemen were essentially outsiders who found themselves thrust into a world and a mind set alien to their everyday life may have provided them with the objectivity and clear thinking needed to truly pursue such an enigma as Mengele. William Shirer and other foreign journalists had to control an overwhelming urge to laugh at the Nazis while covering their meetings in the late 1920's and early 30's. Nobody took these comical losers seriously. The consensus was that the Adolph Hitler and his bizarre cronies would shortly disappear into political oblivion never to be heard from again. Josef Mengele was barely a teenager during this time and lived in a solidly upper middle class family that probably would have snubbed Hitler, the former WW1 corporal, if their paths had ever crossed. The young Mengele was raised a staunch Catholic, a religious belief system he would later reject for the secular absolutist faith of Nazism. Nonetheless, it is virtually certain that the pervasive anti-Semitism of German Catholicism was Mengele's first introduction to an intense hostility towards Jews he would forevermore embrace. Mengele, an unexceptional student, had a driving ambition to succeed and make a name for himself. It appears that Mengele was indifferent about politics when he opted to study "anthropology and human genetics, so I could study the whole range of medicine." This fateful educational choice, though, would allow Mengele to offer talents to the Nazis who were more than willing to reward the young medical student with the respect and position he so desperately desired. Mengele was a quintessential result of a politically correct educational system that prohibited the academic freedom and search for truth valued as a mandatory norm in viable democratic societies. Nazi dogmas pervaded every department of the universities during Mengele's critical intellectual formative years. Dissent was not tolerated. There simply was no such thing as a give and take exchange of ideas that would have revealed the Nazi views on race and ethnicity as ludicrous ramblings of immature and hateful minds. The new introduction by Michael Berenbaum failed miserably to even deal with the threat of political correctness to the educational and political institutions of modern day America. Does Berenbaum mistakenly perceive that Liberals may occasionally goof up, but the real enemy is always to the Right? Could this also explain the peculiar infatuation of many American Jews with Evita Peron? Posner and Ware aptly prove that Juan and Evita Peron provided shelter to fugitive Nazis and were never friendly towards Jews. Do Evita's socialist economic ideas somehow make her seem more virtuous and humane? Why were there not protests and rage directed towards Andrew Lloyd Webber when his musical was released some twenty years ago? Also, the authors never once address the socialistic economic policies of the Third Reich. Hitler's Germany was never in any way, shape, or form, a paragon of conservative Libertarian economic values. Why do Liberal prefer to downplay, if not outright ignore this fact? Mengele was sane and easily grasped the reality that people and institutions adhering to the values of Western Civilization would severely take him to task if they ever got their hands on him. Often those who primarily advocate a therapeutic way of looking at the world prefer to believe that someone who commits the horrifying crimes of a Josef Mengele are mentally unbalanced. How does someone torture and murder children and not even require copious amounts of alcohol and drugs to get through the day? The vast majority of us, thankfully, would not inflict such cruel suffering on animals much less our fellow human beings. Yet, other than Mengele's proclivity of losing his temper at any given moment, the man would have probably pass a series of tests dealing with his sanity with flying colors. Many people, especially Mengele's own family, protected him. The only thing one can say in their defense is that they perhaps deluded themselves into believing that someone so dear could not actually commit such horrifying deeds. Mengele, the convinced Nazi, evaded justice on this side of the grave. The only real price he paid during his last years was that of extreme loneliness and severely restricted finances. "Mengele: The Complete Story" reads like a fictional thriller. The book, needless to add, is not escapist entertainment. It may, however, be a moral obligation to read in order to more completely understand how such monstrous incidents occurred in the not so distant past. We might even learn how to limit such crimes against humanity in our own century.
Rating:
Summary: Mengele: A Study in Unapologetic and Pitiless Evil
Review: I do not claim to be an expert in holocaust studies, but I suspect that the collaboration of Gerald Posner and John Ware on this work dealing with the diabolically evil Josef Mengele is among the very best analysis of the Nazi phenomenon ever put together. The fact that these two gentlemen were essentially outsiders who found themselves thrust into a world and a mind set alien to their everyday life may have provided them with the objectivity and clear thinking needed to truly pursue such an enigma as Mengele. William Shirer and other foreign journalists had to control an overwhelming urge to laugh at the Nazis while covering their meetings in the late 1920's and early 30's. Nobody took these comical losers seriously. The consensus was that the Adolph Hitler and his bizarre cronies would shortly disappear into political oblivion never to be heard from again. Josef Mengele was barely a teenager during this time and lived in a solidly upper middle class family that probably would have snubbed Hitler, the former WW1 corporal, if their paths had ever crossed. The young Mengele was raised a staunch Catholic, a religious belief system he would later reject for the secular absolutist faith of Nazism. Nonetheless, it is virtually certain that the pervasive anti-Semitism of German Catholicism was Mengele's first introduction to an intense hostility towards Jews he would forevermore embrace. Mengele, an unexceptional student, had a driving ambition to succeed and make a name for himself. It appears that Mengele was indifferent about politics when he opted to study "anthropology and human genetics, so I could study the whole range of medicine." This fateful educational choice, though, would allow Mengele to offer talents to the Nazis who were more than willing to reward the young medical student with the respect and position he so desperately desired. Mengele was a quintessential result of a politically correct educational system that prohibited the academic freedom and search for truth valued as a mandatory norm in viable democratic societies. Nazi dogmas pervaded every department of the universities during Mengele's critical intellectual formative years. Dissent was not tolerated. There simply was no such thing as a give and take exchange of ideas that would have revealed the Nazi views on race and ethnicity as ludicrous ramblings of immature and hateful minds. The new introduction by Michael Berenbaum failed miserably to even deal with the threat of political correctness to the educational and political institutions of modern day America. Does Berenbaum mistakenly perceive that Liberals may occasionally goof up, but the real enemy is always to the Right? Could this also explain the peculiar infatuation of many American Jews with Evita Peron? Posner and Ware aptly prove that Juan and Evita Peron provided shelter to fugitive Nazis and were never friendly towards Jews. Do Evita's socialist economic ideas somehow make her seem more virtuous and humane? Why were there not protests and rage directed towards Andrew Lloyd Webber when his musical was released some twenty years ago? Also, the authors never once address the socialistic economic policies of the Third Reich. Hitler's Germany was never in any way, shape, or form, a paragon of conservative Libertarian economic values. Why do Liberal prefer to downplay, if not outright ignore this fact? Mengele was sane and easily grasped the reality that people and institutions adhering to the values of Western Civilization would severely take him to task if they ever got their hands on him. Often those who primarily advocate a therapeutic way of looking at the world prefer to believe that someone who commits the horrifying crimes of a Josef Mengele are mentally unbalanced. How does someone torture and murder children and not even require copious amounts of alcohol and drugs to get through the day? The vast majority of us, thankfully, would not inflict such cruel suffering on animals much less our fellow human beings. Yet, other than Mengele's proclivity of losing his temper at any given moment, the man would have probably pass a series of tests dealing with his sanity with flying colors. Many people, especially Mengele's own family, protected him. The only thing one can say in their defense is that they perhaps deluded themselves into believing that someone so dear could not actually commit such horrifying deeds. Mengele, the convinced Nazi, evaded justice on this side of the grave. The only real price he paid during his last years was that of extreme loneliness and severely restricted finances. "Mengele: The Complete Story" reads like a fictional thriller. The book, needless to add, is not escapist entertainment. It may, however, be a moral obligation to read in order to more completely understand how such monstrous incidents occurred in the not so distant past. We might even learn how to limit such crimes against humanity in our own century.
Rating:
Summary: A dispicable Man's tale.
Review: Posner delves deep into the life of one of the sickest, most disgusting human beings to ever walk the planet earth. The Angel of Death, as Mengele has been refered to was the chief "medical" officer at the Aushwitz death camp, during its hayday in the latter part of WWII. Posner examines his life from boyhood, through the end of his life, hiding in Peru. The chapters that involve Auswitz are the most horrific I have ever read. This book is an absolute must for anyone who is interested in the war or the Holocust. Mengele is arguably as sick as Adolf Hitler himself, and his life must be examined to ensure it never happens again. I am a huge fan of Posner. I believe this is his most important work.
Rating:
Summary: A dispicable Man's tale.
Review: Posner delves deep into the life of one of the sickest, most disgusting human beings to ever walk the planet earth. The Angel of Death, as Mengele has been refered to was the chief "medical" officer at the Aushwitz death camp, during its hayday in the latter part of WWII. Posner examines his life from boyhood, through the end of his life, hiding in Peru. The chapters that involve Auswitz are the most horrific I have ever read. This book is an absolute must for anyone who is interested in the war or the Holocust. Mengele is arguably as sick as Adolf Hitler himself, and his life must be examined to ensure it never happens again. I am a huge fan of Posner. I believe this is his most important work.
Rating:
Summary: Satan Revisited
Review: The one chapter about all the horror in Auschwitz is enough to show that Mengele was not a member of the human species and no human attributes should ever be applied to "him" in the past, present, and future. He thought the Jews and other victims were sub-human. Why doesn't this apply to him exponentially? It is absolutely devastating that someone like Mengele, who deserved the absolute worst evaded capture for decades as this book clearly shows. He will now have a much harder time evading capture from God. This book needs to be read by more people in the world so hopefully something more positive in society could come about from these horrors.
Rating:
Summary: Satan Revisited
Review: The one chapter about all the horror in Auschwitz is enough to show that Mengele was not a member of the human species and no human attributes should ever be applied to "him" in the past, present, and future. He thought the Jews and other victims were sub-human. Why doesn't this apply to him exponentially? It is absolutely devastating that someone like Mengele, who deserved the absolute worst evaded capture for decades as this book clearly shows. He will now have a much harder time evading capture from God. This book needs to be read by more people in the world so hopefully something more positive in society could come about from these horrors.
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