Uruguay occupies two distinct places in the account: it is the setting for a private marriage in Nueva Helvecia and, several years later, a point in the pursuit of Josef Mengele. These episodes connect an outwardly domestic occasion to the mobile networks of Nazi fugitives, their associates, and the investigators seeking them.

The wedding in Nueva Helvecia

On 25 July 1958, Josef Mengele married Martha Mengele in Nueva Helvecia. The ceremony was described as unremarkable and very private. Karl-Heinz, Uli Rudel, and Hans Sedlmeier served as witnesses; Frederico Haase, Mertig, and friends from Paraguay were among the guests, alongside Jung and Alejandro von Eckstein. Willem Sassen was not invited. Mengele’s father, Karl Sr, remained in Günzburg because he was ill, while Alois attended the Bayreuth Festival.

The Uruguayan ceremony marked a brief pause in a life shaped by concealment and movement. After the meal, the newlyweds entrusted their son to Haase, packed their bags, and set out for Bariloche. The account follows them onward from Uruguay rather than treating the wedding as a settled domestic beginning.

Sassen’s move to Uruguay

Uruguay reappears in 1960, after the abduction of Adolf Eichmann intensified scrutiny of Nazi figures in South America. Suspected of betraying Eichmann, Sassen sold recorded interviews to Life magazine and German and Dutch media, then fled to Uruguay, presenting himself as a reformed Nazi. His departure placed him beyond the Buenos Aires circle where he had previously associated with Mengele and other German-speaking fugitives.

A source in the manhunt

In the spring of 1962, Zvi Aharoni tracked Sassen down in Uruguay. Sassen was willing to denounce his former friend, principally because he needed money to sustain his expensive lifestyle. Mossad paid him for information. Although Sassen had lost track of Mengele, he learned that Mengele had fled to Brazil and identified Wolfgang Gerhard as the fugitive’s new protector and sole outside contact. The information shifted the investigation toward Gerhard and the farm where Mengele was hiding.

A recurring waypoint

Uruguay’s significance in these episodes lies in its changing function: first a discreet venue for a family ceremony attended by associates from across the region, then a place where a former confidant surfaced as an informant. The country is not presented as the center of the pursuit, but as one of its crossings, linking the fugitives’ social world to the investigators’ expanding search across South America.