Josef Mengele’s twin experiments in Brazil

Great Debates
1

The story has been going the rounds. An Argentine historian, Jorge Camarasa, with speciality in post-war Nazi flight to South America has written a new book on Josef Mengele, wherein he comes with the – rather bold – theory that Mengele somehow managed artificially significantlyincrease the number of twin births in a small Brazilian village wherein he worked in the years after WW-II. As much as 16 times as many twins are born in the town compared to a natural average. Apparently Josef Mengele had also been working on twin studies in the camps prior to his fleeing to South America.

Nazi angel of death Josef Mengele ‘created twin town in Brazil’

Isn’t that a terrible unlikely theory? As far as I remember, most of his so-called scientific experiments in the Third Reich camps were little more than infantile evil. And how could he ever have been able to locate the place on the human genome where he needed to manipulate. And even if he knew precisely where, he wouldn’t in the 60s have possessed the technology or knowledge on how to do such genetic manipulation. That technology isn’t even available today. Or perhaps it is imaginable that he had stumbled on some medicament or external force that increase the likelihood of conceiving twins. But since the twins have continued long after he has disappeared, that would mean the village should have kept this a secret all these years. Knowing human nature, that sounds if possible even more unlikely.

If there is an increase in the number of twins in this town that need to be explained, I’d say a much more likely explanation is that a small genetic variation had existed in one of the towns founders – resulting in a higher likelihood of twins. A genetic variation which has subsequently spread to the rest of the rather small, and I’d imagine fairly inbred, town.

2

Look, even today, genetics doesn’t seem to have much, or anything, to do with twinning. It’s a random phenomenon which occurs at a fairly regular rate in any given population. I suppose Mengele could in theory have exposed new parents to radiation sources which might have caused some possible split resulting in identical twins, or maybe could have fed them some primitive fertility drugs resulting in fraternal twins, but… no. The man was a scientific ignoramus. He was incapable of doing anything useful, because he was fundamentally a sadistic dumbass.*

*That is a technical assesment, not an insult. Seriously, look at his record. The man’s experiments were not jsut cruel, they were outright stupid.

3

Gee, an “Argentine historian” who laces his speculation with “may” and “might.”

Yeah, I’m with you on being pretty skeptical.

One sentence alone in mindnumbingly stupid:

Well gee, let’s focus on the embryologic “beliefs” of some farmer. In fact, artificial insemination has been well-understood since the late 1700s:

http://jas.fass.org/cgi/reprint/80/E-Suppl_2/1.pdf

What’s remarkable is that this historian could not know this, or that this alleged farmer, ini the '60s, had no idea that artificial insemination was old hat.

Nothing to see here, move along (although I do like the emphasis on the unusual prevalence of blond, blue eyed residents, in communities that the author several paragraph later admits were largely German. Impossible!).

4

I’d say sure, that’s definitely possible. Absolutely.

I could accomplish the same thing, as long as you don’t stipulate that the parents of the twins were residents of the town prior to the twins’ conception. If I were pathologically obsessed with twins, I could arrange to bribe a mother expecting twins to move to my town.

5

Sounds like it would make for a good movie – perhaps starring Peck and Olivier.

6

You beat me to it.

7

I actually thought some families were more likely to have twins than others. But on further examination it seems that this is merely a popular myth – and that there is only a very small genetic component to the twins we see today.

8

Mengele wasn’t a scientist or a geneticist. He was a sadistic murderer who won a doctorate by catering to Nazi era racial theories. Aside from being horrifically cruel, his experiments on twins were laughably unscientific, as the OP intimates. So there is no way he discovered anything of this sort. His experiments consisted of things like injecting dye into children’s eyes to see if he could change their color, vivisecting people, and many unnecessary deaths so he could perform autopsies. It’s true he was fascinated with twins, but it’s not as if he studied so many of them he became an expert on them. In some cases he sewed twins together to make create artificially conjoined twins. They were painful and lethal and of course, never worked. None of his experiments worked unless the goal was to kill the subject horribly. When you think of Mengele, think of a little boy who cuts up little animals, given run of a camp full of millions of people. You wouldn’t get science from that, you’d just get mutilations and deaths on a grand scale. The idea that he made some kind of medical advance through this butchery is incredibly stupid. This is basically a ghost story.

9

There’s the obvious simple snag that Mengele kept a private diary starting in May 1960. Between the parts of it that are in public hands and that owned by his family, but which they have made accessable to serious researchers, the contents have been thoroughly gone through. Given that the diary is known to be unpleasantly candid about his views and makes no attempt at concealing his identity, it seems unlikely that he would omit all references to a hitherto unknown career as a rural medic in Brazil, even if he was covering up a secret series of twin experiments.

For all the mystery at the time, Mengele’s postwar movements and activities have been pretty narrowly documented and reconstructed since. None of this new suggestion seems to fit.

10

Y’know, if all of those bulls died under suspicious circumstances when their offspring were the same age, I’d be getting just a little worried…

11

So perhaps the most likely explanation is that the Argentine historian Jorge Camarasa, was simply wrong and there has not been a surprising high rate of twin births in the village. But in case he is right afterall, what is a likely explanation for such an increase in twin-birth rates?

12

The town being the site of a Doublemint Gum factory might play a role.

13

If it is true that the village had, for a short time, a higher rate of twin births than usual, there could be several likely explanations:

One, small sample size. Twin incidence is usually about 1 in 90 births. Assume there’s a village of 500 people. 250 of them are women. If 20% of the women are from 18-35 (roughly childbearing age), that’s 50 women. If each of those women gives birth, and only one of those women gives birth to twins, that’s nearly twice the standard rate of twin births.

Two, random chance. Though twin incidence is about 1 in 90, it’s always possible to be slightly above or below this rate for a short period. If two women in the above scenario had twins, you’d end up with a rate of 1 in 25. Depending on how short a timeframe you’re speaking of, it could happen.

Three, diet. Scientists speculate that it’s possible the twinning rate can be affected by certain foods; see the Wikipedia twin article.

What I find much more likely is that the allegations aren’t true, because of:

Four: poor record-keeping. Small villages likely don’t track births as closely as the scientific community might like. Twins attract attention and are recorded, single births not so much — especially if the community is a low-tech, birth-at-home scenario. Failing to record just a few births in a small village could skew the average.

Five, bad memories. If the birth rate is reconstructed from the memories of the participants, error inevitably creeps in. Señora Midwife might recall most of the births, but not the precise year; she might remember a set of twins who was born in the village but not conceived there; she might remember a set of twins who lived in the village but were not born there.

Six, given that Mengele was obsessed with twins, he might have offered incentives to parents expecting twins in hopes that they would move to his village. In that way, it’s possible more twins were born there due to his influence, but nothing to do with his questionable medicine.

Seven: bad science. Comparing the twin rate in this village to a “natural average” is a wonderful theory, but one should really compare it to the birthrate of the village itself before Mengele. Some villages may naturally have a higher twin rate than others; it may have been why Mengele moved there.

In short: since we know much of Mengele’s methods and so-called science, one or more of the above seven reasons are far more likely than the Mengele Was A Misunderstood Genius alternative. It’s true that in some cases, Nazi “science” was used as the basis for other legitimate research, but in Mengele’s case, it’s extremely doubtful.

14

Advanced Maternal Age also increases the chance of twins. (I think they call AMA at about 32 years.) As does the number of pregnancies.

cite: http://www.gynob.com/obpre.htm

So, yeah I can see how the customs of a village could easily result in a higher rate of twins. Also, the racial discrepancies would tend to argue for a genetic component in the likelihood of twins.
ETC: Correction, AMA is at 35 years in the US.