Chapter 8, The Angel Retreats Summary and Analysis

In The Angel Retreats, after the ski trip to the Swiss Alps, Mengele found himself drawn to Martha, his brother Karl's widow. In a short period of time, Mengele and Martha were married. Martha and Karl Heinz came to live with Mengele in his large villa in Buenos Aires. Almost immediately after their marriage, Mengele was arrested for suspicion of practicing medicine without a license. However, no charges were ever leveled against him. About this same time, new interest in Mengele began to build due to a Holocaust survivor, Hermann Langbein, who spearheaded a campaign to locate and punish the remaining war criminals from the concentration camps. A warrant was issued for Mengele's arrest in June of 1959, causing Mengele to decide he could no longer safely remain in Argentina.

For the next two years, Mengele...