Josef Mengele—Wolfram Bossert

Josef Mengele and Wolfram Bossert formed a relationship that joined ideological affinity to practical dependence. Bossert offered the fugitive companionship, a household in which he could briefly feel at ease, and assistance with daily needs and concealment. Yet he could not dispel Mengele’s fear of being recognized: even as Bossert encouraged him to re-enter the world, the older man continued to live as someone pursued.

Meeting and the concealed identity

Bossert entered Mengele’s Brazilian circle through Gerhard, whom he had met at a German club in São Paulo. A former Wehrmacht corporal who had come to Brazil after the defeat of the Reich, Bossert worked as a maintenance manager at a paper works in El Dorado. He was known as Musikus for his love of classical music, and enjoyed sharing his cultural and intellectual interests. Gerhard pressed Mengele to meet him, and the two men began visiting the Stammers’ home at Caieiras.

Mengele initially agreed to the introduction only on condition that his real identity remain hidden. At their first meetings he scrutinized Bossert and considered the possibility that the newcomer might be an Israeli agent or informer. Bossert’s background did not impress him, but his openly racist, antisemitic, and reactionary views did. In Bossert, Mengele encountered a committed Nazi who admired Hitler and spoke in terms that affirmed Mengele’s own ideological convictions. The shared outlook eased Mengele’s suspicion, though it did not immediately erase it.

Gerhard argued that Bossert was trustworthy and had already discussed the matter with Hans Sedlmeier, who had agreed after briefly meeting Bossert. Mengele eventually disclosed who he was, but only after making Bossert swear, in Gerhard’s presence and on the lives of his children, to keep the secret. The oath established the defining condition of their friendship: Bossert could come closer to Mengele, but only by accepting responsibility for concealing his identity.

A household outside isolation

The relationship became more intimate through regular visits. Every Wednesday evening, Mengele dressed carefully, concealed a revolver in his raincoat, and went to dinner at the Bosserts’ suburban home. At first Gerhard accompanied him because Mengele feared an ambush; later Bossert collected him at seven o’clock and drove him from Caieiras to São Paulo. In the Bossert household, severe family portraits, Alpine ornaments, and Gmunden pottery made a Germanic domestic setting. Bossert’s wife and children welcomed Mengele under the familiar name Uncle Peter.

There he could occupy a place in family life that was unavailable to him at Caieiras. He taught Sabine and Andreas to play Monopoly, ate several helpings of soup, and listened to classical music with Bossert after dinner. These visits offered him a temporary break from his difficult circumstances with the Stammers and from the fear that structured his days. Bossert, for his part, treated hosting the celebrated fugitive as an honor. Their dinners were not simply social occasions: they gave Mengele an attentive audience and Bossert a role as confidant and admirer.

Their conversations centered on Mengele’s familiar political and racial obsessions. He complained about Germany and Austria, argued for coercive policies in the name of racial purity, and portrayed himself as a guardian of a threatened Germany. Bossert listened approvingly and tried to learn from him, following his recommendations in reading and music and taking up subjects such as Hellenism, botany, and cockroaches. Mengele valued the influence he held over this receptive disciple. The exchange was unequal in its own way: Bossert supplied admiration, while Mengele supplied the authority of a self-styled scholar whose doctrines Bossert already shared.

Encouragement and the limits of trust

Bossert’s encouragement gradually widened Mengele’s life beyond the Stammers’ property. He urged him to stop living in self-imposed seclusion, argued that he was no longer recognizable, and photographed him during a weekend trip into the countryside—the first time Mengele had allowed anyone to photograph him since the late 1950s. With Bossert and Gerhard’s protection, Mengele began taking short excursions. He sometimes left off his hat and raincoat, and went by bus to shops and a cinema with the Bossert children. The change was real but limited: he remained afraid that an Auschwitz survivor or someone able to recognize him by his appearance would identify him.

Bossert’s reassurances therefore did not replace Mengele’s vigilance. On the drive home from dinner, the sociable guest could abruptly become silent and tense. The sight of a policeman made him sweat; when a car stopped beside theirs at a traffic light, he hid his face and bent down. The contrast marks the boundary of Bossert’s influence. He could offer a protected setting and encourage small acts of ordinary life, but once Mengele left that setting, fear returned. Their friendship made excursions possible without making Mengele feel safe.

Nor did Bossert’s loyalty mean that he always agreed with Mengele’s treatment of others. When Bossert suggested that Mengele recognize the Stammers’ better qualities, Mengele abruptly ended the conversation in anger. The disagreement exposed the strain beneath the dinners: Bossert was willing to serve as an admirer, but his defense of the Stammers challenged the contempt through which Mengele interpreted his life with them. For Mengele, the household that offered Bossert a family life was also a source of resentment and grievance.

Practical care and growing dependence

Bossert’s role became more consequential as Gerhard prepared to leave Brazil. Shortly after Mengele’s sixtieth birthday, Gerhard told him that he would be returning to Europe because his wife and son needed medical examinations and treatment there. He proposed that Bossert take over some of the support he had provided: forwarding Mengele’s mail, shopping for him, and acting as an intermediary between Günzburg and the Stammers. Gerhard also gave Mengele his identity card as a farewell gift. Bossert could help replace its photograph and laminate it, making it useful for bureaucratic dealings; the false document Mengele held in the name of Hochbichler seemed less dependable.

That practical trust extended to a serious illness. When Mengele later developed severe abdominal symptoms and resisted seeking medical attention, Bossert bought remedies and stayed with him. As the condition worsened, Mengele finally accepted that he needed specialist care, and Bossert drove him to a hospital in São Paulo. The hospital records prompted questions because the date of birth on the identity papers made the patient appear much younger than his condition suggested. Bossert explained the discrepancy as an administrative mistake and paid the bill in cash after an operation revealed the cause of the intestinal obstruction. Mengele then disappeared under the assumed identity of Wolfgang Gerhard. Bossert’s assistance had helped him obtain treatment, but the episode also showed how the false identity that enabled practical transactions could invite scrutiny.

The arrangement became harder after Mengele struck Gitta Stammer during an argument. Geza Stammer demanded that he leave, and Bossert was telephoned. Mengele stayed with friends while Hans Sedlmeier made arrangements, but the rupture narrowed the options available to him. Bossert lacked Gerhard’s connections, and his own household was not an uncomplicated refuge: his wife, Liselotte, objected to Mengele’s attention to her. The Stammers’ sale of Caieiras forced Mengele to leave the property, and he ended up paying rent to Geza for a modest bungalow in Eldorado. Bossert’s friendship could cushion the crisis, but it could not restore the earlier household or provide a secure, permanent home.

Separation, illness, and the aftermath

Gerhard returned to São Paulo in early 1976 and again asked Bossert to spend time with Mengele. Bossert suggested introducing him to Ernesto Glawe and his family, and Gerhard approved. Because Gerhard’s own identity could not be disclosed, Glawe was given a cover story about his military service and family connection. Bossert thus helped maintain the network of companionship around Mengele even as Gerhard prepared to leave once more. Gerhard did not see Mengele again, and later arranged a burial place in Embu das Artes for the man he described as a sick uncle.

Bossert and Glawe were at Mengele’s bedside after he suffered a stroke in May 1976. When Mengele returned home from the hospital, Glawe’s son Norberto moved in because Mengele was not fit to live alone. That arrangement quickly failed under the strain of caring for his anxiety and anger, and the Glawe family withdrew. The episode underlined the limits of informal protection: people could take turns visiting and provide a temporary household, but Mengele’s need for care exceeded what those relationships could sustain.

The secrecy surrounding the friendship persisted after Mengele’s death. When German police searched Hans Sedlmeier’s home in 1985, they found correspondence involving Mengele, Bossert, and the Stammers, including a letter from Bossert announcing that Mengele had died. After police inquiries reached Brazil, Bossert disclosed that Mengele was dead and buried in Embu cemetery under the name Wolfgang Gerhard. Investigators also found recent photographs and other belongings linking the Bossert family to him. Bossert’s relationship with Mengele had therefore outlasted their regular visits: the same loyalty that had enabled companionship and practical aid had also helped preserve the secret of the fugitive’s identity and burial place.