Declassified Swiss Files Reveal 1964 Israeli Attempt to Track Josef Mengele
Declassified Swiss files reveal a 1964 Israeli intelligence attempt to locate Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele by questioning his teenage stepson at a Swiss boarding school.
Declassified Swiss archives reveal a previously unknown 1964 Mossad operation to track down Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele through his nephew and stepson, Karl-Heinz Mengele.
The Visit to Montreux
On May 14, 1964, a man identifying himself as "Soker" arrived at the prestigious Monte Rosa boarding school in Territet-Montreux, Switzerland. Posing initially as a representative of the World Jewish Congress, the 33-year-old agent claimed to have arrived from Tel Aviv or Jerusalem on an urgent matter. After initially claiming the visit was medical, Soker admitted that he was searching for Josef Mengele, the notorious Auschwitz doctor who had eluded capture for 19 years.
According to the Swiss police report, Soker eventually dropped his cover regarding the World Jewish Congress and hinted at his ties to Israeli intelligence. He believed that Mengele's former wife and the boy's mother, Martha Mengele, knew his whereabouts and sought permission to question the teenager.
A "Bad Liar" and Swiss Investigation
The Swiss director described Soker as a thin, athletic man with hair combed forward in a "quarter-Beatles style" who spoke excellent German. Despite claiming to be a history student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the agent struggled to answer basic cover-story questions, leading the school director to dismiss him as a "bad liar" and warn him against espionage on Swiss soil.
Swiss authorities launched an internal investigation following the incident. While documents show Soker allegedly confessed to working for Israeli intelligence, no formal official confirmation exists in the files. Karl-Heinz left the Swiss boarding school shortly after, at the end of May 1964, concluding a tense chapter in the global hunt for the architect of Auschwitz.
