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Josef Mengele (1911–1979) -

Known chillingly as the "Angel of Death," SS physician Josef Mengele conducted despicable, and often deadly, medical experiments on prisoners at Auschwitz. He also selected victims to be killed in the gas chambers. After the war, Mengele fled to South America, where he lived under a false name. The wanted war criminal drowned in 1979 after suffering a stroke while swimming off the coast of Bertioga, in Brazil. His remains were later disinterred and positively identified by forensic examination in 1985.

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Rolf Mengele -

On July 28, 1939, Mengele married Irene Schönbein. Their only son, Rolf, was born in 1944. In 1977, Rolf Mengele secretly visited his father in his São Paulo hideout, fully aware of Mengele senior's abhorrent deeds. Their meeting was by all accounts cordial, with Rolf later refusing to reveal the fugitive Nazi's whereabouts. Later asked why, he said, "I would never betray my father. No one in the world can ask me to do that." Josef Mengele is pictured in the 1970s with friends.

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Rudolf Hess (1894–1987) -

Appointed Deputy Führer to Adolf Hitler in 1933, Rudolf Hess was effectively second in command of the Third Reich. In 1941, Hess flew solo to Scotland in a bizarre attempt to broker a peace deal with the United Kingdom. Taken prisoner, Hess was later convicted as a war criminal at Nuremberg and given a life sentence. He died in Berlin's Spandau Prison in 1987, allegedly by his own hand.

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Wolf Rüdiger Hess -

Rudolf and Ilse Hess had one child, a son they named Wolf Rüdiger Hess. Hitler was his godfather. After the war, Wolf studied architecture, qualifying in 1961. He remained out of the pubic spotlight for decades until, that is, he openly criticized the official version of his father's death, insisting that the investigation was a cover-up, and that the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) had murdered him. He maintained this belief right up to his own passing, succumbing to a stroke age 63 in 2001.

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Hermann Göring (1893–1946) -

One of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, Hermann Göring created the Gestapo before being appointed commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe. He was convicted of war crimes at Nuremberg, but took his own life before meeting the hangman.

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Edda Göring -

Göring married Emmy Sonnemann, his second wife, on April 10, 1935. The couple had a daughter, Edda, born June 2, 1938. As a child, she received many gifts from her doting father, including several stolen works of art, notably a painting of the 'Madonna and Child' by Lucas Cranach the Elder. Edda Göring chose not to speak publicly about her father's career, though she described both her parents in glowing terms. In later life, she was forced to return much of the artworks gifted to her by Göring and was unapologetic to the end, insisting that many people probably held a favorable opinion of the second most influential man in Nazi Germany. Edda Göring died in 2018.

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Hans Frank (1900–1946) -

Hans Frank served as Hitler's personal lawyer and later the Nazi Party's legal adviser. He eventually became governor-general of the occupied Polish territories. Frank was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity at Nuremberg and was executed by hanging.

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Niklas Frank -

Hans Frank and his wife Brigitte had five children including Niklas (pictured), born March 9, 1939. Niklas Frank became a journalist and wrote a book about his father called 'In the Shadow of the Reich.' In it, he totally denounced the evil of Frank's actions and sought to totally eradicate his memory.

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Rudolf Höss (1901–1947) -

As the longest-serving commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss was instrumental in the extermination of the Jewish and Romani populations of Nazi-occupied Europe. While he acknowledged the enormity of his crimes during his trial, Höss was hanged at Nuremberg in 1946 for his part in the Final Solution.

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The Höss children -

Rudolf Höss married Hedwig Hensel on August 17, 1929. The couple had five children. In his farewell letter to his family, Höss told his eldest son Klaus to keep a "good heart" and "become a person who lets himself be guided primarily by warmth and humanity." In 2014, Reiner Höss, the offspring of second-eldest son Hans-Juergen Höss, published a book about his grandfather called 'The Legacy of the Commandant.' Reiner Höss today travels widely to tell his family story in an attempt to educate the public about the awful crimes committed by the Third Reich.

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Martin Bormann (1900–1945) -

As Adolf Hitler's private secretary and head of the Nazi Party Chancellery, Martin Bormann wielded immense power within the Third Reich. Bormann was in the Führerbunker when Hitler and Eva Braun took their own lives. He lost his own life while trying to flee the Red Army through Berlin, though his remains weren't discovered until 1972.

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Martin Adolf Bormann -

Martin and Gerda Bormann had 10 children. Nine survived the war. The most high-profile sibling was Martin Adolf Bormann, born April 14, 1930. As revelations about his father's Nazi past came to light, the young Martin converted to Catholicism. In 1958, he was ordained as a priest and remained so until the 1970s. He later taught theology, and after retiring toured schools in Germany and Austria, speaking about the horrors of the Third Reich. He died in 2013.

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Heinrich Himmler (1900–1945) -

One of the most feared members of the Nazi regime, Heinrich Himmler was the Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel (SS) and head of the Gestapo. He was also the principal architect of the Holocaust. Himmler was captured by the British in May 1945. He took his own life by biting down on a hidden cyanide capsule before he could be properly interrogated.

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Gudrun Himmler -

Himmler met his future wife, Margarete Boden, in 1927. They married the following year and had one daughter, Gudrun, in 1929 (Himmler had two other children with his mistress). The SS chief doted on Gudrun, calling her "Püppi," or "Doll." Margarete and Gudrun were both made to testify against Himmler during the Nuremberg trials. Post-war, Margarete remained a committed National Socialist and fiercely anti-Semitic. For her part, Gudrun never renounced Nazi ideology. In later life, she was affiliated with Stille Hilfe ("Silent Aid"), an organization formed to aid former SS members. She cherished Himmler's memory and repeatedly sought to justify the actions of her father. Gudrun Himmler died in 2018.

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Albert Speer (1905–1981) -

Albert Speer was Hitler's architect who, during the Second World War, served as the Minister of Armaments and War Production. Speer narrowly escaped the death penalty at Nuremberg, instead serving 20 years in Spandau Prison. He died in a London hospital in 1981.

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The Speer children -

With his wife Margarete, Albert Speer had six children—Albert, Hilde, Margret, Arnold, Ernst, and Fritz. Two rose to prominence: like his father, Albert succeeded as a respected architect. Hilde, meanwhile, became a prominent European political figure.

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Joseph Goebbels (1897–1945) -

One of Adolf Hitler's closest and most devoted acolytes, Joseph Goebbels was chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 1945. On May 1, 1945, Goebbels and his wife Magda took their own lives on the grounds of the Reich Chancellery but not before Magda Goebbels, with her husband's blessing, committed one of the most vile acts of infanticide in modern history.

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The Goebbels children -

The couple had six children—Helga, Hilde, Helmut, Holde, Hedda, and Heide, their names all beginning with "H" as a tribute to Hitler. As the Red Army closed in on the Reich Chancellery, Madga Goebbels took the decision to murder their offspring, using a cyanide compound. Harald Quandt (pictured in uniform), Magda's grown-up son from her first marriage, survived the war. Quandt and his older half-brother Herbert Quandt ended up running the industrial empire left to them by their father and which continues today—with the family owning a stake in Germany's luxury car manufacturer BMW.

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Amon Göeth (1908–1946) -

SS functionary Amon Göeth—also spelled Göth—was notorious as the commandant of the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp in Płaszów in German-occupied Poland (in the 1993 film 'Schindler's List,' Göeth is portrayed by Ralph Fiennes). Sentenced to death after the war, Göeth was hanged at Montelupich Prison in Kraków, not far from the site of the Płaszów camp.

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Monika Hertwig -

Göeth married twice. But it was his affair with Ruth Kalder that resulted in the birth of Monika Hertwig, on November 7, 1945. Hertwig has struggled all her life with her father's infamy, discovering the truth about him only as a young adult. She is the subject of a 2006 documentary called 'Inheritance.' The film centers around her meeting a Holocaust survivor, Helen Jonas-Rosenzweig, who was interned at Płaszów (pictured) and personally knew Göeth.

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Reinhard Heydrich (1904–1942) -

Top Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich chaired the infamous January 1942 Wannsee Conference, which formalized plans for the "Final Solution to the Jewish question." Heydrich, founding head of the Sicherheitsdienst (Security Service, or SD), was mortally wounded in Prague after Czech nationals Jan Kubiš and Jozef Gabčík headed an attack on his vehicle on May 27, 1942.

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The Heydrich children -

Heydrich and his wife Lina had four children: Klaus, born in 1933, killed in a traffic accident in 1943; Heider, born in 1934; Silke, born in 1939; and Marte, born shortly after her father's death in 1942. Little is known about the Heydrich children. Lina, however, who eventually remarried, defended the reputation of her first husband until her own death at the age of 74 on August 14, 1985. Pictured is Klaus and Heider meeting Hitler and Himmler in the Reich Chancellery, Berlin.

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Adolf Eichmann (1906–1962) -

Adolf Eichmann also participated in the Wannsee Conference, and was one of the major organizers of the Holocaust. Eichmann's abduction from Argentina by Mossad agents in 1960 ended in one of the most sensational trials of any Nazi war criminal. He was found guilty of genocide and executed by hanging on June 1, 1962.

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The Eichmann children -

Eichmann married Veronika Liebl in 1935. They had four sons: Klaus was born in Berlin, Horst Adolf in Vienna, and Dieter Helmut in Prague. Ricardo Francisco was born in 1955 in Buenos Aires after Eichmann had fled Europe. Ricardo Francisco Eichmann is today a highly educated archaeologist. He long ago rejected the Nazi ideology of his father and accepted that his execution was justified. In 1995, he met Zvi Aharoni, the Mossad agent who was chiefly responsible for Eichmann's capture. Pictured is the sparse property the family called home before Eichmann was spirited away.

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Hans Lammers (1879–1962) -

Nazi bureaucrat Hans Lammers served as Chief of the Reich Chancellery under Adolf Hitler, making him a hugely influential figure in the Third Reich, controlling as he did access to the Führer. Lammers was found guilty of war crimes at Nuremberg and sentenced to 20 years in prison. He died on January 4, 1962.

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The Lammers children -

After Lammers was captured by the Americans, his wife Elfriede, fearing recriminations, killed herself. His daughter, Ilse, took her life two days later. Both women mingled in Hitler's inner circle and enjoyed a privileged existence. They are pictured with their father together with Hitler and other high-ranking officials.

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Claus von Stauffenberg (1907–1944) -

Claus von Stauffenberg was a German officer best known for his role in the 20 July plot—the failed attempt to assassinate Hitler on July 20, 1944. Stauffenberg, along with other ringleaders, was summarily executed the following night.

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The von Stauffenberg children -

Claus von Stauffenberg married Nina Freiin von Lerchenfeld on September 26, 1933. They had five children: Berthold, Heimeran, Franz-Ludwig, Valerie, and Konstanze, born after her father's murder. The children were placed in foster care for the remainder of the war. All went on to enjoy success in their chosen fields. In 2008, Konstanze wrote a best-selling book about their mother. Claus von Stauffenberg, meanwhile, remains a revered figure whose legacy is recognized at the German Resistance Memorial Center in Berlin.

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Erwin Rommel (1891–1944) -

Erwin Rommel, the celebrated "Desert Fox" of the Wehrmacht's North Africa campaign was implicated in the 20 July plot. He was forced to take his own life rather than face trial as a supposed traitor and died by his own hand on October 14, 1944. He is pictured with wife Lucia Maria and son Manfred.

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Manfred Rommel -

Manfred Rommel grew up to become a Christian Democratic Union (CDU) politician and mayor of Stuttgart. Rommel was one of the most popular municipal politicians in Germany, known for his tolerant and liberal views. By the time of his death in 2013, he had established a number of museums in his father's memory.

Sources: (The New York Times) (The Jewish Chronicle) (Time) 

See also: Lesser-known facts about World War II

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