Knight, Death and the Devil

Knight, Death and the Devil is an engraving by Albrecht Dürer that marks two contrasting moments in Josef Mengele’s life in exile: a birthday celebration among former Nazi associates and, years later, a gesture toward his nephew Karl-Heinz. First given to Mengele in 1951, it returns as a reproduction during a period when he has become increasingly anxious and isolated.

The Birthday Gift

In mid-March 1951, Mengele invited his circle to a large estancia in the pampas to celebrate his fortieth birthday. Uli Rudel, Gerard Malbranc, Eberhard Fritsch, Willem Sassen, and Frederico Haase were among those who came. Their gift was an engraving by Dürer, Knight, Death and the Devil. The work thus entered the account within a gathering of comrades who met to celebrate one another and their shared past; it was not introduced as an object of private study, but as a gift presented amid the fellowship of the group.

A Reproduction for Karl-Heinz

The engraving reappears in the account of Mengele’s last months in Paraguay in 1958. His nephew Karl-Heinz visits regularly, and the narrative describes him as a kind, comforting, and intelligent presence. Mengele is said to think that Karl-Heinz deserves the reproduction of the Dürer engraving he had received for his fortieth birthday. The passage distinguishes the reproduction from the original birthday gift and makes its transfer an expression of regard for his nephew.

The Engraving and Mengele’s Foreboding

The object’s return is set against a marked change in Mengele. He has lost heart, appears prematurely aged to his friends, and has become taciturn and irritable. In the Chaco, he thinks of a different work of art: a painting in Munich of Jonah in the whale’s mouth, which had frightened him as a child. That remembered image is not the Dürer engraving, but its appearance nearby creates a contrast between the two works: the engraving is passed on to family, while the childhood painting surfaces in a period of foreboding. The narrative gives the engraving no stated power to explain or alter Mengele’s fate; its significance lies in its recurrence, first as a token of his Nazi circle’s celebration and later as an object he means to leave with Karl-Heinz.