Village of the 'cloned'

Mr S · Post by **Mr S** » November 30th, 2009, 2:55 am

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/internatio ... AG29s2KQ4H

Mystery of Brazil's 'Mengele' twins

By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

Last Updated: 3:33 PM, November 29, 2009

It's been an inexplicable phenomenon for decades: a remote Brazilian village full of blond-haired, blue-eyed twins. Dozens and dozens of twins, all with the clean-cut Aryan features that Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele wanted in his genetically altered master race. Could Mengele -- who fled to South America in 1949 -- have had a hand in the bizarre outbreak of Germanic twins in Candido Godoi, Brazil? That's the puzzle the National Geographic Channel tries to solve in its latest documentary, "Nazi Mystery: Twins from Brazil," which airs tonight at 9 p.m. The show pits Argentine historian and journalist Jorge Camarasa against Mengele expert Gerald Posner. Camarasa grabbed headlines around the world when he published a book in January touting his theory that Mengele not only traveled to Candido Godoi in the 1960s, he posed at various times as a vet and a doctor who treated pregnant women. But Posner, who has examined just about every top-secret document filed by Argentine, Brazilian and Israeli authorities on Mengele, is unequivocally convinced that Mengele never visited the remote village. Weighing in as a neutral arbiter is a team of geneticists and biologists from Porto Alegre in southern Brazil, who visited Candido Godoi to gather bloodwork from every living mother who has given birth to twins -- a staggering percentage of the tiny town's population. Candido Godoi covers 1.5 square miles and is inhabited by 6,000 people -- or about 80 families. Currently, there are 44 sets of twins living there. That's 100 percent above the global average for twin births. Mengele's connection to the village can be traced back to his mad-scientist experiments at the Auschwitz concentration camp, where he sent some 400,000 men, women and children to the gas chambers. Others he would hold back for lab experiments. Mengele was obsessed with finding out what triggers twin births, as a way to fulfill Adolf Hitler's demand for a highly fertile Aryan race. A 1978 movie, "The Boys from Brazil," featured Gregory Peck as Mengele, creating Fuhrer clones in South America. Ten days before Allied forces swept Germany in 1945, Mengele disappeared, taking a medical bag full of lab notes, medical samples and bloodwork. The next time anyone saw him, he was in Buenos Aires, Argentina, living a life of luxury and complete freedom until 1959. Mengele wasn't interested in leaving his cushy city life for the Brazilian outback. At least, not until 1960, when Israeli intelligence officers plucked notorious Nazi Adolf Eichmann off the streets of Buenos Aires. Eichmann's fate sent waves of panic through the underground network of Nazi criminals hiding in South America. Israeli agent Rafi Eitan, who worked on Eichmann's capture, said Mengele was next. With Mossad breathing down his neck, Mengele fled. He had motive and means to continue his medical experiments -- and his travels then gave him opportunity, argues Camarasa. According to Camarasa's detective work, Mengele moved to a town in Paraguay where he had a Nazi friend. From there, it's 40 miles to Candido Godoi -- an area settled in the 1920s by a small colony of German immigrants. "This was a free zone, no borders, no boundaries," Camarasa says. Mengele could have traveled freely, visiting houses and farms as either a traveling doctor or a vet. According to locals, a strange doctor often visited the area back in the 1960s. When shown a picture of Mengele, they say it looked like him. Sometimes Mengele said he was a doctor who gave shots to pregnant women. Other times he was a vet who treated sick cows. Strangely, the twin phenomenon in Candido Godoi isn't limited to just humans -- the town's cows also give birth to a high number of fraternal twins. gotis@nypost.com 

It's been an inexplicable phenomenon for decades: a remote Brazilian village full of blond-haired, blue-eyed twins. Dozens and dozens of twins, all with the clean-cut Aryan features that Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele wanted in his genetically altered master race.

Could Mengele -- who fled to South America in 1949 -- have had a hand in the bizarre outbreak of Germanic twins in Candido Godoi, Brazil?

That's the puzzle the National Geographic Channel tries to solve in its latest documentary, "Nazi Mystery: Twins from Brazil," which airs tonight at 9 p.m.
REICH STUFF? A Brazil town has twice the normal number of female and male (picture) twins, which may be the work of Nazi Josef Mengele (inset).
Photos: NGT
REICH STUFF? A Brazil town has twice the normal number of female and male (picture) twins, which may be the work of Nazi Josef Mengele (inset).

The show pits Argentine historian and journalist Jorge Camarasa against Mengele expert Gerald Posner.

Camarasa grabbed headlines around the world when he published a book in January touting his theory that Mengele not only traveled to Candido Godoi in the 1960s, he posed at various times as a vet and a doctor who treated pregnant women.

But Posner, who has examined just about every top-secret document filed by Argentine, Brazilian and Israeli authorities on Mengele, is unequivocally convinced that Mengele never visited the remote village.

Weighing in as a neutral arbiter is a team of geneticists and biologists from Porto Alegre in southern Brazil, who visited Candido Godoi to gather bloodwork from every living mother who has given birth to twins -- a staggering percentage of the tiny town's population.

Candido Godoi covers 1.5 square miles and is inhabited by 6,000 people -- or about 80 families. Currently, there are 44 sets of twins living there. That's 100 percent above the global average for twin births.

Mengele's connection to the village can be traced back to his mad-scientist experiments at the Auschwitz concentration camp, where he sent some 400,000 men, women and children to the gas chambers. Others he would hold back for lab experiments.

Mengele was obsessed with finding out what triggers twin births, as a way to fulfill Adolf Hitler's demand for a highly fertile Aryan race. A 1978 movie, "The Boys from Brazil," featured Gregory Peck as Mengele, creating Fuhrer clones in South America.

Ten days before Allied forces swept Germany in 1945, Mengele disappeared, taking a medical bag full of lab notes, medical samples and bloodwork.

The next time anyone saw him, he was in Buenos Aires, Argentina, living a life of luxury and complete freedom until 1959.

Mengele wasn't interested in leaving his cushy city life for the Brazilian outback. At least, not until 1960, when Israeli intelligence officers plucked notorious Nazi Adolf Eichmann off the streets of Buenos Aires.

Eichmann's fate sent waves of panic through the underground network of Nazi criminals hiding in South America. Israeli agent Rafi Eitan, who worked on Eichmann's capture, said Mengele was next.

With Mossad breathing down his neck, Mengele fled.

He had motive and means to continue his medical experiments -- and his travels then gave him opportunity, argues Camarasa.

According to Camarasa's detective work, Mengele moved to a town in Paraguay where he had a Nazi friend. From there, it's 40 miles to Candido Godoi -- an area settled in the 1920s by a small colony of German immigrants.

"This was a free zone, no borders, no boundaries," Camarasa says.

Mengele could have traveled freely, visiting houses and farms as either a traveling doctor or a vet. According to locals, a strange doctor often visited the area back in the 1960s. When shown a picture of Mengele, they say it looked like him.

Sometimes Mengele said he was a doctor who gave shots to pregnant women. Other times he was a vet who treated sick cows. Strangely, the twin phenomenon in Candido Godoi isn't limited to just humans -- the town's cows also give birth to a high number of fraternal twins.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/internatio ... z0YL58bj15