timeline

Education and Beginning of WWII

1930 graduated from the Gymnasium
March 1931 joined the Steel Helmuts (Stahlhelm)
January 1934 SA absorbed Stahlhelm
October 1934 left SA because of kidney trouble
1935 awarded PhD from the University of Munich
January 1, 1937 appointed a research assistant at the Third Reich Institute for Heredity, Biology, and Racial Purity at the University of Frankfurt; worked with Professor Otmar Freiherr von Vershuer
May 1937 joined the Nazi Party (member #5574974)
May 1938 admitted to the SS
July 1938 awarded medical degree by University of Frankfurt
October 1938 began basic training with the Wehrmacht (lasted three months)
July 1939 married Irene Schoenbein
June 1940 joined the medical corps (Sanitätsinspektion) of the Waffen SS
August 1940 appointed an Untersturmführer
Attached to Genealogical Section of the Race and Resettlement Office in occupied Poland
June 1941, sent to the Ukraine as part of the Waffen SS; received the Iron Cross, Second Class
January 1942 joined the Waffen SS's Viking Division medical corps; earned the Iron Cross, First Class by pulling two soldiers out of a burning tank while under enemy fire; also awarded the Black Badge for the Wounded and the Medal for the Care of the German People; wounded
End of 1942 reposted to the Race and Resettlement Office, this time in its headquarters in Berlin

appointed to Haupsturmführer (captain)

Auschwitz

On the Run

Arrived at Gross-Rosen camp; then left before Russians liberated it on February 11, 1945
Spotted at Mauthausen
Captured as prisoner of war and held in a POW camp near Munich
Received papers from fellow prisoner, Dr. Fritz Ulmann; for vanity reasons had not gotten blood type tattooed beneath arm, American Army did not realize he was a member of the SS and released him
Aliases include: Fritz Ulmann, Fritz Hollmann, Helmut Gregor, G. Helmuth, Jose Mengele, Ludwig Gregor, Wolfgang Gerhard
Remained on George Fischer's farm for three years
1949 escaped to Argentina
1954 his father came to visit him
1954 divorced from Irene
1956 had his name officially changed to Josef Mengele
1958 married his brother, Karl's, widow - Martha Mengele
June 7, 1959 West Germany issued its first arrest warrant for Mengele
1959 moved to Paraguay
1964 the Universities of Frankfurt and Munich withdrew his academic degrees
Assumed that his remains were buried in Embu, Brazil in a grave marked "Wolfgang Gerhard"
Believed to have died on February 7, 1979 on the beach at Bertioga in Embu, Brazil while suffering a stroke while swimming in the ocean.
February 1985 a public trial, in absentia, was held at Yad Vashem
In June 1985, the body in the grave was exhumed for forensic identification.