suffering from kidney trouble, had to resign from the organization exhausted and in poor health. The lack of commitment allowed more time for his research and the pursuit of his degree. With five years of hard work at the University of Munich under his belt, Mengele was awarded a Ph.D. by his long-time mentor, Professor T. Mollinson. Mollinson openly upheld Hitler's ideals and even allowed it to taint his scientific work with racial prejudice and slander. Mengele, however, remained unbiased when it came to his research. His dissertation that earned him his degree, entitled "Racial Morphological Research on the Lower Jaw Section of Four Racial Groups" argued that there was a clear and concise difference between the groups, but lacked the explanation of inferiority and superiority that many of his colleagues included in their scientific research. In the summer of the following year, Josef passed his medical examinations and was quickly placed in a full-time paying position as a resident junior doctor at the University Medical Clinic in Leipzig. There he met the love of his life and first wife, Irene Schoenbein, the daughter of the University's president, who was studying art in Florence.After four months in the difficult resident junior doctor position, Mengele grew tired of hospital work and yearned desperately to perform the work that struck his passion, genetics. On New Year's Day of 1937, through a recommendation by Professor Mollinson, Mengele was appointed to a research assistant position in the laboratory of Professor Otmar Freiherr von Vershuer at the Third Reich Institute for Hereditary, Biology, and Racial Purity at the University of Frankfurt. A distinguished geneticist in Europe, von Vershuer engaged in twin research, the very beast that would eventually consume Mengele's work at Auschwitz.Von Vershuer became a mentor and father figure to Mengele, who in turn became von Vershuer's favorite pupil. At the Institute, the...
