My kindergarten teacher harbored the Nazis' Angel of Death - and was haunted by her secrets

One of Betina Anton’s earliest memories increasing up in Brazil in the 1980s is of her kindergarten teacher, the kindly ‘Tante’ Liselotte.

But the slim German pistillate with permed hairsbreadth and a halting Portuguese accent - who she lovingly referred to arsenic ‘aunt’ - was hiding a horrific secret, 1 that would instrumentality decades to unravel.

Liselotte Bossert and her hubby Wolfram harbored the notorious ‘Angel of Death’ Josef Mengele - arguably the astir wanted Nazi of each time.

Mengele lived with them and their 2 children - who called him 'Uncle Peter' - astatine their location successful the Brooklin vicinity of São Paulo for 10 years, enjoying barbecues and taking regular vacations to the beach, each portion being hunted for his evil war crimes.

It was said that the doc enjoyed his sadistic enactment - selecting which prisoners would dice successful the gas chambers and who mightiness unrecorded different time - truthful much, helium would adjacent amusement up connected his days off.

But his main root of involvement was uncovering twins, radical with dwarfism and different uncommon conditions, to usage them arsenic quality guinea pigs successful his perverse, often deadly, experiments.

After the war, helium went connected the tally and yet recovered refuge successful Brazil, acknowledgment to a loyal set of followers, including Liselotte. 

'At slightest 18 of the 34 years that Mengele lived successful hiding pursuing the extremity of World War II, helium spent successful Brazil,' writes Anton successful her blockbuster caller book, Hiding Mengele, 'the past 10 nether extortion of Liselotte and her husband.'

That each ended 1 sunny time successful 1979, erstwhile Mengele died of a bosom onslaught portion swimming astatine the edifice of Bertioga. He was 67. And, due to the fact that helium was already surviving successful Brazil nether an assumed name, with falsified papers, his burial had to beryllium arranged rapidly and quietly.

It was Liselotte's occupation to grip the paperwork and practicalities. The assemblage was buried astatine a cemetery successful Embu, utilizing the sanction he'd been surviving with since 1971: Wolfgang Gerhard.

‘For much than six years, Liselotte had thought these events were down her, virtually buried,’ writes Anton. 'She went astir her routine, teaching tiny children astatine the German school. 

'However, successful June 1985, the concealed was unexpectedly revealed and her beingness was turned upside down.’

Anton turned up for schoolhouse to larn that Liselotte had been replaced by a caller teacher. 'There was nary farewell. It was a abrupt disruption successful the mediate of the semester,' she writes

'I was lone six years old, and I was shocked to suffer my teacher each of a sudden.’

In the end, Liselotte was indicted for conscionable 1 crime: ideological falsehood related to the forged burial documents. And erstwhile her lawyer appealed connected the grounds that the statute of limitations had passed, she was escaped to go.

But for years galore believed the communicative of his decease was a fraud, and that the assemblage successful the coffin was really that of idiosyncratic other entirely.

‘The stories of Mengele’s cruel and bizarre experiments person ever haunted me,’ writes Anton, ‘even much truthful knowing that, erstwhile hiding from justice, helium received extortion from my puerility teacher.

‘I’ve ever wondered wherefore Tante Liselotte had protected him and what had moved her to bash it.’

More than 30 years aft she’d near the school, and unsure if her aged teacher was adjacent inactive alive, she decided to way her down.

‘The code wherever Liselotte lived astatine the clip of the Mengele lawsuit - 1985, the twelvemonth Mengele’s skeleton was found successful the Embu cemetery and the lawsuit became a worldwide scandal, was disposable successful assorted places,’ she writes.

It was a logical spot to start.

‘I arrived astatine the location connected a Sunday, conscionable earlier 11am. A car was parked successful beforehand of the gate. From the sidewalk, I could spot done the model idiosyncratic successful the surviving country speechmaking the newspaper.

‘I rang the doorbell. The idiosyncratic connected the sofa didn’t adjacent move. I was astir to ringing again erstwhile a pistillate appeared astatine the second-floor window. My God, it was her!

‘It was similar seeing a fictional quality successful the flesh.'

Liselotte yet came down and the 2 chatted for a while.

It was wide she felt nary guilt implicit her portion successful concealing the Nazi who had sent thousands of Jews to their deaths; that she had conscionable been helping a friend.

Then she made an astonishing, though vague, outburst.

‘Look, it’s similar this,’ she said to Anton. ‘We agreed that if I stayed quiet, the Jews volition permission maine alone. So I stayed quiet. Because I had a family, truthful I don’t speech astir this subject.’

Anton was confused. ‘What Jews?’ she asked.

‘It was Menachem Russak. He was the Nazijäger, the Nazi hunter.’

Menachem Russak was caput of the peculiar Israeli portion successful complaint of hunting down Nazi warfare criminals, and was successful São Paulo erstwhile Mengele’s remains were exhumed.

Liselotte past implied that she had been forced to enactment soundless due to the fact that of a information to her children.

‘My puerility teacher was scaring me,’ writes Anton.’ 

‘Suddenly she asked, “Do you privation to cognize something? Just from person to friend, permission the case.”

‘My eyes widened. Was it a threat? “It’s amended for you,” she continued. “There’s a lot, a batch that cipher knows yet. I know,” she said and laughed.

‘You’d amended support quiescent astir this. It’s a batch of money,’ the teacher said, enigmatically.

‘Look for thing other that is not truthful unsafe to investigate. Because this lawsuit is dangerous, judge me.’

Anton was chilled. Liselotte was by present successful her nineties, truthful her caput could person been wandering.

On the different hand, no-one survives 3 decades being hunted by Mossad, Israeli quality and the German authorities without being highly well-connected. Was she hiding something?

What Mengele had recovered successful Brazil was a fiercely loyal web of supporters, European immigrants whose lives were intertwined with his - radical who would interruption the instrumentality for him. And perchance more.

After six years of researching and penning her communicative - talking to survivors of Mengele’s experiments, poring implicit unpublished documents and quality sum from that epoch - Anton was inactive funny astir thing Liselotte had said: That determination was 'a batch of money' astatine stake.

Then, precocious astatine nighttime portion speechmaking an obscure Mossad survey that had lone precocious go disposable to the public, she ‘almost fell disconnected my chair: determination was a concealed Mossad communicative involving Liselotte herself.

‘The communicative was related to Israel’s vigorous absorption to judge that the assemblage buried successful Embu was so Mengele’s,’ she writes. ‘Menachem Russak, the caput of the Nazi-hunting unit, insisted that everything was conscionable a fraud and that Liselotte had invented the communicative of the drowning.

‘Of course, a DNA trial of the remains would person solved everything. However, astatine that time, it was not yet available. So, successful July 1985, Mossad main Nahum Admoni decided that the main witnesses to Mengele’s beingness successful Brazil should acquisition a polygraph test.’

However, Liselotte refused to instrumentality the test.

‘Almost 4 years passed earlier she changed her mind. But she imposed a hefty terms connected the Israelis: $100,000. After a agelong dialog mediated by her lawyer, they agreed to $45,000.

‘The result,’ she writes, ‘was unequivocal. Josef Mengele was, indeed, dead.’

But Liselotte had said that wealth was inactive rolling successful today. What had she meant?

At the clip she’d said: ‘I’m not going to talk. The woody I person with them… it’s serious.’

So, successful 2022, Anton decided to get successful interaction with her erstwhile teacher erstwhile more.

After getting nary reply connected the phone, she again turned up astatine her location successful Brooklin.

As soon arsenic she arrived, she could archer thing had changed. Unsurprisingly, the caller proprietor told her Liselotte had died.

And so, ‘unless caller concealed documents appear, her cognition astir the Mengele lawsuit is yet buried with her,’ writes Anton.

‘And, portion his victims suffered carnal and intelligence torment passim their lives, the “Angel of Death” ended his days with friends, writing, reading, walking his dogs, tending to his garden, barbecuing, bathing successful waterfalls and successful the oversea of his "tropical Bavaria".’

Hiding Mengele: How a Nazi Network Harbored the Angel of Death by Betina Anton is published by Diversion Books