For decades the well-respected family in the picturesque Bavarian town of Gunzburg had kept the secret, much as Sicilian clans honor omerta, the code of silence. Stories about searches for and sightings of the Auschwitz death doctor had come and gone, but the Mengeles of Gunzburg said nothing, never offering so much as a sliver of information about Josef Mengele's possible fate to the West German investigators assigned to the case. "Not once," said - Hans-Eberhard Klein, the federal prosecutor who has handled the West German part of the probe since 1974. "Never."
Last week, as forensic experts in Brazil worked to determine whether the bones unearthed at Embu were those of Josef Mengele, the family's dam of silence crumbled. In announcing his father's death in a 100-word statement, Rolf Mengele, 41, briefly expressed "profound sympathy" to concentration- camp victims and their families. A few days later Rolf, with the family's consent, turned over to the West German magazine Bunte a batch of photographs and documents said to depict his father's 36 years on the run. At the same time, Dieter Mengele, one of Josef's nephews, told an Augsburg newspaper that the family had kept silent because "we did not want to risk the necks" of people linked to the hunted man.
Until last week no Mengele had publicly expressed an iota of remorse for the doctor's activities or cooperated with the West German inquiry. The family's aloofness and secrecy had convinced some of the frustrated West German investigators that the clan bore no sense of shame or sorrow for Josef's wartime crimes. The lack of cooperation was a major drawback for the probers, since West German law does not require family members to aid in any investigation of their kin, no matter how distant the relationship.
Even as Rolf and Dieter finally spoke out, attempts last week to question other Mengeles proved unsuccessful. In Gunzburg (pop. 19,000), the town where most of the clan resides, family members were "not available," either at their homes or at the headquarters of Karl Mengele & Sons, the family-run farm-machinery and hydraulic-press concern that is Gunzburg's largest employer. In Munich, 120 miles to the southeast, some Mengele relatives were so wary of newsmen that they took nameplates off their doorbells.
Nonetheless, the Mengeles seemed certain to retain the loyalty of many of Gunzburg's citizens, in large measure because of local pride in and reliance on the Mengele firm. The company was founded in 1907 by Karl Mengele, Josef's father and the man to whom the family's passion for privacy and self-reliance can be traced. During his military service in World War I, the elder Mengele left his wife in charge of his business, establishing a tradition of keeping the firm securely in family hands.
Karl Mengele & Sons now has a payroll of 1,200; 1984 revenues amounted to $82 million. The firm is run by Dieter Mengele and his cousin Karl-Heinz and is considered a fair employer and a generous civic donor. According to local police, the Mengeles have never reported a threat against their lives or their properties. Advertising signs saying MENGELE-GUNZBURG dot the sides of roads in the vicinity of the town; the firm's slogan, MENGELE -- THE BETTER IDEA, is splashed across the side of a plant building, clearly visible to motorists passing on a nearby expressway.