Josef Strau

Josef Mengele (German: [ˈjoːzɛf ˈmɛŋələ] ; 16 March 1911 – 7 February 1979), often dubbed the "Angel of Death" (German: Todesengel), was a Nazi German Schutzstaffel (SS) officer and physician during World War II at the Russian front and then at Auschwitz during the Holocaust. He performed deadly experiments on prisoners at the Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration camp, where he was a member of the team of doctors who selected victims to be murdered in the gas chambers.
Before the war, Mengele received doctorates in anthropology and medicine, and began a career as a researcher. He joined the Nazi Party in 1937 and the SS in 1938. He was assigned as a battalion medical officer at the start of World War II, then transferred to the Nazi concentration camps service in early 1943.