Branch: Waffen SS
Born: 12 June 1908 in Vienna, Austria.
Died: 6 July 1975 in Madrid, Spain
Ranks:
SS-Obersturmbannführer
SS-Sturmbannführer
SS-Hauptsturmführer
SS-Obersturmführer
Decorations:
Iron Cross 1939
2nd Class 12 September 1943
1st Class 26 August 1941
Knights Cross 13 September 1943
Oak Leaves 9 April 1945
German Cross in Gold 16 October 1944
Honour Roll Clasp
SS Totenkopf Ring
Commands:
Other: Personnel
Articles:
Otto Skorzeny was born on 12 June 1908 and became an SS-Obersturmbannführer
in the German Waffen-SS during the Second World War. After
fighting on the Eastern Front, Otto Skorzeny was chosen as
the field commander to carry out the rescue mission that freed
the deposed Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from captivity.
Otto Skorzeny was also the leader of Operation Greif, in which
German soldiers were to infiltrate through enemy lines, using
their opponents' uniforms and customs. At the end of the war,
Otto Skorzeny was involved with the Werwolf guerrilla movement
and the ODESSA network where Otto Skorzeny would serve as
Spanish coordinator
Although Otto Skorzeny was charged with breaching the 1907
Hague Convention in relation with Operation Greif, the Dachau
Military Tribunal acquitted Otto Skorzeny after the war. Otto
Skorzeny fled from his holding prison in 1948, first to France,
and then to Spain.
Otto Skorzeny prewar years
Otto Skorzeny was born in Vienna into a middle-class Austrian
family which had a long history of military service. In addition
to his native German, Otto Skorzeny spoke excellent French.
In his teens, Otto once complained to his father of the austere
lifestyle that his family was suffering from, by mentioning
Otto Skorzeny had never tasted real butter in his life, because
of the depression that plagued Austria after its defeat in
the first world war. Otto Skorzeny father prophetically replied,
There is no harm in doing without things. It might even be
good for you not to get used to a soft life. Thus his underprivileged
upbringing helped make him the feared commando that Otto Skorzeny
became. Otto Skorzeny was a noted fencer as a university student
in Vienna. Otto Skorzeny engaged in thirteen personal combats.
The tenth resulted in a wound that left a dramatic duelling
scar known in academic fencing as a Schmiss (smite or hit)
on his cheek.
In 1931 Otto Skorzeny joined the Austrian National Socialists
Party and soon became a member of the National Socialists
SA. A charismatic figure, Otto Skorzeny played a minor role
in the Anschluss on 12 March 1938, when Otto Skorzeny saved
the Austrian President Wilhelm Miklas from being shot by Austrian
Nazis.
Otto Skorzeny on the Eastern Front
After the 1939 invasion of Poland, Otto Skorzeny, then working
as a civil engineer, volunteered for service in the German
the Luftwaffe, but was turned down because Otto Skorzeny was
considered too tall 1.92 meters and too old 31 years in 1939
for aircrew training. Otto Skorzeny then joined
Adolf
Hitler's bodyguard regiment, the Leibstandarte SS
Adolf
Hitler (LSSAH) as an officer cadet.
In 1940, as an SS Untersturmführer, Otto Skorzeny impressed
his superiors by designing ramps to load tanks on ships. Otto
Skorzeny then fought in Holland, France and the Balkans, where
Otto Skorzeny achieved distinction by forcing a large Yugoslav
force to surrender, following which Otto Skorzeny was promoted
to Obersturmführer in the Waffen-SS.
Otto Skorzeny went to war in the USSR with the 2. SS-Panzer-Division
Das Reich (2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich) and subsequently
fought in several battles on the Eastern Front. In October
1941, Otto Skorzeny was in charge of a technical section of
the German forces during the Battle of Moscow. His mission
was to seize important buildings of the Communist Party, including
the NKVD headquarters at Lubyanka, and the Central Telegraph
and other high priority facilities, before they could be destroyed.
Otto Skorzeny was also ordered to capture the sluices of the
Moscow-Volga Canal because
Adolf
Hitler wanted them used to turn Moscow into a huge artificial
lake by opening them. The missions were cancelled as the German
forces failed to capture the Soviet capital.
In December 1942, Otto Skorzeny was hit in the back of the
head by shrapnel from Soviet Katyusha artillery rockets. Otto
Skorzeny refused all first aid except for a few aspirin, a
bandage, and a glass of schnaps. A few hours later Otto Skorzeny
rejoined his unit but his health deteriorated, and continuous
headaches and stomach pains forced him to evacuate for proper
medical treatment. Otto Skorzeny was awarded the Iron Cross
for bravery under fire and was hospitalised in Vienna. While
recuperating from his injuries Otto Skorzeny was given a staff
role in Berlin, where Otto Skorzeny read all the published
literature Otto Skorzeny could find on commando warfare, and
forwarded to higher command his ideas on unconventional commando
warfare.
Otto Skorzeny's proposals were to develop units specialised
in such unconventional warfare, including partisan-like fighting
deep behind enemy lines, fighting in enemy uniform, sabotage
attacks, etc. In April 1943 Otto Skorzeny's name was put forward
by Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the new head of the RSHA, and Otto
Skorzeny met with SS-Brigadeführer Walter Schellenberg,
head of Amt VI, Ausland-SD, (the SS foreign intelligence service
department of the RSHA). Walter Schellenberg charged Otto
Skorzeny with command of the schools organised to train operatives
in sabotage, espionage, and paramilitary techniques. Otto
Skorzeny was appointed commander of the recently created Waffen
Sonderverband z.b.V. Friedenthal stationed near Berlin. The
unit was later renamed SS Jagdverbände 502, and in November
1944 again to SS Combat Unit Centre, expanding ultimately
to five battalions.
Sonderverband z.b.V. Friedenthal's first mission was in summer
1943. Operation Francois saw Otto Skorzeny send a group by
parachute into Iran to make contact with the dissident mountain
tribes to encourage them to sabotage Allied supplies of material
being sent to the Soviet Union via the Trans-Iranian Railway.
However, commitment among the rebel tribes was suspect, and
Operation Francois was deemed a failure.
Operations by Otto Skorzeny
Operation Francois Co-ordination of Partisan operations in
Iran.
Unternehmen Eiche (Operation Oak, September 1943) The rescue
of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.
Der Betrieb Weitsprung (Operation Long Jump) A proposed attempt
to assassinate the Big Three (Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt)
during the 1943 Tehran Conference.
Unternehmen Rösselsprung (Operation Knight's Leap, May
1944) An attempt to capture Josip Broz Tito alive.
Unternehmen Panzerfaust a.k.a. Unternehmen Eisenfaust (Operation
Armoured Fist, October 1944) The kidnapping of Miklós
Horthy, Jr., son of Hungarian Regent, Admiral Miklós
Horthy, to force Admiral Horthy to resign as head of state
in favour of the pro-National Socialists leader of the Arrow
Cross Party, Ferenc Szálasi.
Unternehmen Greif (Operation Griffin, December 1944) A false
flag operation to spread disinformation during the Battle
of the Bulge.
Werewolf SS (Werwolf SS) A planned National Socialists underground
resistance movement in Allied-occupied Europe.
The liberation of Benito Mussolini
In July 1943, Otto Skorzeny was personally selected by
Adolf
Hitler from among six German Luftwaffe and Wehrmacht Heer
special agents to lead the operation to rescue Italian dictator
Benito Mussolini, who had been overthrown and imprisoned by
the Italian government.
Almost two months of cat and mouse followed as the Italians
moved Benito Mussolini from place to place to frustrate any
rescuers. There was a failed attempt to rescue Benito Mussolini
on 27 July 1943. The Ju 52 that the crew was aboard was shot
down in the area of Pratica di Mare. Otto Skorzeny and his
crew managed to bail out, except for one young Oberjäger.
For reasons unknown, he was not able to make it out of the
plane. He perished in the crash and is now buried in the war
cemetery in Pomezia. Benito Mussolini was first held in a
villa on La Maddalena, near Sardinia. Otto Skorzeny was able
to smuggle an Italian-speaking commando onto the island, and
a few days later he confirmed Benito Mussolini was in the
villa. Otto Skorzeny then flew over in a Heinkel He 111 to
take aerial photos of the location. The bomber was shot down
by Allied fighters and crash landed at sea, but Otto Skorzeny
and the crew were rescued by an Italian destroyer. Benito
Mussolini was moved soon after.
Information on Benito Mussolini's new location and its topographical
features were finally secured by Herbert Kappler. Herbert
Kappler reported Benito Mussolini was held in the Campo Imperatore
Hotel at the top of the Gran Sasso mountain, and only accessible
by cable car from the valley below. Otto Skorzeny flew again
over Gran Sasso and took pictures of the location with a handheld
camera. An attack plan was formulated by General Kurt Student,
Harald Mors a paratrooper battalion commander, and Otto Skorzeny.
On September 12, Gran Sasso raid (a.k.a. Operation Oak and
Unternehmen Eiche), was carried out perfectly according to
plan. Benito Mussolini was rescued without firing a single
shot. Flying out in a Storch aeroplane, Otto Skorzeny escorted
Benito Mussolini to Rome and later to Berlin. The exploit
earned Otto Skorzeny fame, promotion to Sturmbannführer
and the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.
Benito Mussolini created a new Fascist regime in northern
Italy, the Italian Social Republic (Repubblica Sociale Italiana).
Operation Long Jump
Operation Long Jump was the codename given to the unsuccessful
plot to assassinate the Big Three Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill,
and Franklin Roosevelt at the 1943 Tehran Conference. The
plot was approved by
Adolf
Hitler and headed by Ernst Kaltenbrunner. German intelligence
had learned of the time and place of the conference in mid-October
1943, after breaking a US Navy code. Otto Skorzeny, as the
man who always seemed to have luck on his side, was chosen
by Ernst Kaltenbrunner to head the mission.
However, Soviet intelligence first became aware of the plot
when legendary Soviet spy Nikolai Kuznetsov got SS Sturmbannfuhrer
Hans Ulrich von Ortel to tell him about the operation while
drunk. Six German radio operators were dropped by parachute
and made their way to Tehran, but were eventually found by
Soviet agents led by Gevork Vartanian. One of the Germans
realised they were under surveillance and the operation was
called off; Otto Skorzeny himself considered the intelligence
coming from Tehran to be inadequate and did not believe the
complex scheme could have worked.
Raid on Drvar
In the spring of 1944, Sonderverband z.b.V. Friedenthal was
redesignated SS-Jäger-Bataillon 502 with Otto Skorzeny
staying on as commander. They were assigned to Operation Rösselsprung,
known subsequently as the Raid on Drvar. Rösselsprung
was a commando operation meant to capture the Yugoslav commander-in-chief,
Marshal Josip Broz Tito, who was also recently reorganised
by the Allies as the Yugoslav prime minister. Marshal Josip
Broz Tito led the Yugoslav Partisans resistance army from
his headquarters near the Bosnian town of Drvar, in the centre
of a large non-occupied area held by the Partisans.
Adolf
Hitler knew that Josip Broz Tito was receiving Allied
support and was aware that either British or American troops
might land in Dalmatia along the Adriatic coastline with support
from the Partisans. Killing or capturing Josip Broz Tito would
not only hinder this, it would give a badly needed boost to
the morale of Axis forces engaged in the Yugoslav Front in
occupied Yugoslavia.
Otto Skorzeny was involved in planning Rösselsprung and
was intended to command it. However, Otto Skorzeny argued
against implementation after Otto Skorzeny visited Zagreb
and discovered that the operation had been compromised through
the carelessness of German agents in the Independent State
of Croatia a German puppet state on occupied Yugoslav territory.
Rösselsprung was put into action nonetheless, but it
was a complete disaster. The first wave of paratroopers, following
heavy bombardment by the Luftwaffe, jumped between Josip Broz
Tito's hideout in a cave and the town of Drvar; they landed
on open ground and many were promptly shot by members of the
Partisan headquarters Escort Battalion, a unit numbering fewer
than a hundred soldiers. The second wave of paratroopers missed
their target and landed several miles out of town. Josip Broz
Tito was gone long before paratroopers reached the cave; a
trail at the back of the cave led to the railway tracks where
Josip Broz Tito boarded a train that took him safely to Jajce.
In the meantime, the Partisan 1st Brigade, from the 6th Lika
Partisan Division, arrived after a 19 km forced march and
attacked the Waffen-SS paratroopers, inflicting heavy casualties.
The 20 July 1944 plot against Hitler
On 20 July 1944, Otto Skorzeny was in Berlin when an attempt
on
Adolf Hitler's
life was made. Anti-National Socialists German Army officers
tried to seize control of Germany's main decision centres
before
Adolf
Hitler recovered from his injuries. Otto Skorzeny helped
put down the rebellion, spending 36 hours in charge of the
Wehrmacht's central command centre before being relieved.
Otto Skorzeny got to the Bendlerstrasse offices a half hour
after Claus Von Stauffenberg and the others were executed.
Hungary and Operation Panzerfaust
In October 1944,
Adolf
Hitler sent Otto Skorzeny to Hungary after receiving word
that Hungary's Regent, Admiral Miklós Horthy, was secretly
negotiating with the Red Army. The surrender of Hungary would
have cut off the million German troops still fighting in the
Balkan peninsula. Otto Skorzeny, in a daring snatch codenamed
Operation Panzerfaust known as Operation Eisenfaust in Germany,
kidnapped Miklós Horthy's son Miklós Horthy,
Jr. and forced his father to resign as head of state. A pro-National
Socialists government under dictator Ferenc Szálasi
was then installed in Hungary. In April 1945, after German
and Hungarian forces had already been driven out of Hungary,
Ferenc Szálasi and his Arrow Cross Party-based forces
continued the fight in Austria and Slovakia. The success of
the operation earned Otto Skorzeny promotion to Obersturmbannführer.
Operation Greif and Eisenhower
As part of the German Ardennes offensive in late 1944 (The
Battle of the Bulge) Otto Skorzeny's English speaking troops
were charged with infiltrating Allied lines dressed and equipped
as American soldiers in order to produce confusion to support
the German attack. For the campaign, Otto Skorzeny was the
commander of a composite unit, the 150. SS-Panzer-Brigade
(150th SS Panzer Brigade).
As planned by Otto Skorzeny, Operation Greif involved about
two dozen German soldiers, most of them in captured American
Jeeps and dressed as American soldiers, who would penetrate
American lines in the early hours of the Battle of the Bulge
and cause disorder and confusion behind the Allied lines.
A handful of his men were captured and spread a rumour that
Otto Skorzeny personally was leading a raid on Paris to kill
or capture General Eisenhower, who was not amused by having
to spend Christmas 1944 isolated for security reasons. Eisenhower
retaliated by ordering an all-out manhunt for Otto Skorzeny,
with Wanted posters distributed throughout Allied-controlled
territories featuring a detailed description and a photograph.
Otto Skorzeny spent January and February 1945 commanding regular
troops in the defence of the German provinces of East Prussia
and Pomerania, as an acting major general. Fighting at Schwedt
on the Oder River, Otto Skorzeny received orders to sabotage
a bridge on the Rhine at Remagen. His frogmen tried but failed.
For his actions in the East, primarily in the defence of Frankfurt,
Adolf Hitler
awarded him one of Germany's highest military honours, the
Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross. Otto Skorzeny was then sent
on an inspection tour along the rapidly deteriorating Eastern
front.
Operation Werwolf and surrender
With German defeat inevitable, Otto Skorzeny played an instrumental
role in selecting and training recruits for a stay behind
National Socialists organisation, the Werwölfe (Werewolves),
who would engage in guerrilla warfare against the occupying
Allies. However, Otto Skorzeny quickly realised that the Werewolves
were too few in number to become an effective fighting force
and instead used them to set up the ratlines, a secret underground
railroad that helped leading Nazis escape after Germany's
surrender.
Besides organising the ratlines, which would form the basis
of the supposed ODESSA network after the war, Otto Skorzeny
had been employed since August 1944 by high-ranking Nazis
and German industrialists to hide money and documents, some
of which was buried in the mountains or dropped in the lakes
of Bavaria, and some shipped overseas.
Otto Skorzeny surrendered on 16 May 1945, feeling that he
could be useful to the Americans in the forthcoming Cold War.
Otto Skorzeny emerged from the woods near Salzburg, Austria,
and surrendered to a Lieutenant of the US 30th Infantry Regiment.
Otto Skorzeny after the Second World War
Otto Skorzeny was held as a prisoner of war for more than
two years before being tried as a war criminal at the Dachau
Trials in 1947 for allegedly violating the laws of war in
the Battle of the Bulge. Otto Skorzeny and officers of the
150. SS-Panzer-Brigade (150th SS Panzer Brigade) were charged
with improperly using American uniforms to infiltrate American
lines. Otto Skorzeny was brought before a US military court
in Dachau on 18 August 1947. Otto Skorzeny and nine fellow
officers of the 150. SS-Panzer-Brigade (150th SS Panzer Brigade)
would face charges of improper use of military insignia, theft
of US uniforms, and theft of Red Cross parcels from prisoners
of war. The trial lasted over three weeks. The charge of stealing
Red Cross parcels was dropped for lack of evidence. Otto Skorzeny
admitted to ordering his men to wear American uniforms, but
his defence argued that providing that enemy uniforms were
discarded before combat started such a tactic was a legitimate
ruse de guerre. On the final day of the trial, 9 September,
Wing Commander F. F. E. Yeo-Thomas, recipient of the George
Cross and the Croix de guerre, and a former British Special
Operations Executive agent, testified that he had worn German
uniforms behind enemy lines. Realising that to convict Otto
Skorzeny could expose their own agent to the same charges,
the tribunal acquitted the ten defendants, the military tribunal
drawing a distinction between using enemy uniforms during
combat and for other purposes including deception. They could
not prove that Otto Skorzeny had given any orders to actually
fight in a US uniform.
Otto Skorzeny escape from prison and ODESSA
Otto Skorzeny was detained in an internment camp at Darmstadt
awaiting the decision of a denazification court. On 27 July
1948 Otto Skorzeny escaped from the camp with the help of
three former SS officers dressed in US Military Police uniforms
who entered the camp and claimed that they had been ordered
to take Otto Skorzeny to Nuremberg for a legal hearing. Otto
Skorzeny afterwards maintained that the US authorities had
aided his escape, and had supplied the uniforms.
Otto Skorzeny hid out at a farm in Bavaria which had been
rented by Countess Ilse Lüthje, the niece of Hjalmar
Schacht
Adolf
Hitler's former finance minister, for around 18 months,
during which time Otto Skorzeny was in contact with Reinhard
Gehlen, and together with Hartmann Lauterbacher former deputy
head of the Hitler Youth recruited for the Reinhard Gehlen
organisation
Otto Skorzeny was photographed at a café on the Champs
Elysées in Paris on 13 February 1950. The photo appeared
in the French press the next day, causing him to retreat to
Salzburg, where Otto Skorzeny met up with German veterans
and also filed for divorce so that Otto Skorzeny could marry
Ilse Lüthje. Shortly afterwards, with the help of a Nansen
passport issued by the Spanish government, Otto Skorzeny moved
to Madrid, where Otto Skorzeny set up a small engineering
business which helped serve as a front for his operations
with the ODESSA network as Otto Skorzeny had become the Spanish
coordinator On April 1950 the publication of Otto Skorzeny's
memoirs by French newspaper Le Figaro caused 1500 communists
to riot outside the journal's headquarters.
Otto Skorzeny in the Middle East
Otto Skorzeny had also been spending time in Egypt. In 1952,
the country had been taken over by General Mohammed Naguib.
Otto Skorzeny was sent to Egypt the following year by former
General Reinhard Gehlen, who was now working for the CIA,
to act as Naguib's military advisor. Otto Skorzeny recruited
a staff made up of former SS officers to train the Egyptian
army. Among these officers were SS General Wilhelm Farmbacher,
Panzer General Oskar Munzel, Leopold Gleim, head of the Gestapo
Department for Jewish Affairs in Poland, and Joachim Daemling,
former chief of the Gestapo in Düsseldorf joined Otto
Skorzeny in Egypt. In addition to training the army, Otto
Skorzeny also trained Arab volunteers in commando tactics
for possible use against British troops stationed in the Suez
Canal zone. Several Palestinian refugees also received commando
training, and Otto Skorzeny planned their raids into Israel
via the Gaza Strip in 1953-1954. One of these Palestinians
was Yasser Arafat. Otto Skorzeny would eventually serve as
an adviser to Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser.
Otto Skorzeny later provided intelligence to Mossad, Israel's
external intelligence service, on ex-National Socialists scientists
working for the Egyptian government. Otto Skorzeny agreed
to co-operate with Israel on condition that Simon Wiesenthal
erase his name from the list of wanted National Socialists
war criminals and act to have an arrest warrant against him
cancelled. Though Simon Wiesenthal rejected this request,
Otto Skorzeny decided in the end to co-operate with Mossad
anyway.
Otto Skorzeny Die Spinne
Using the cover names of Robert Steinbacher and Otto Steinbauer,
and supported by either National Socialists funds or according
to some sources Austrian Intelligence, Otto Skorzeny set up
a secret organisation named Die Spinne which helped as many
as 600 former SS men escape from Germany to Spain, Argentina,
Paraguay, Chile, Bolivia, and other countries. As the years
went by, Otto Skorzeny, Reinhard Gehlen, and their network
of collaborators gained enormous influence in Europe and Latin
America. Otto Skorzeny travelled between Franquist Spain and
Argentina, where Otto Skorzeny acted as an advisor to President
Juan Perón and bodyguard of Eva Perón, while
fostering an ambition for the Fourth Reich centred in Latin
America.
Otto Skorzeny CEDADE
Otto Skorzeny also acted as an advisor to the leadership of
the Spanish neo-Nazi group CEDADE, which had been established
in 1966, and which counted him as one of its founding fathers.
Otto Skorzeny Spain and Ireland
Like thousands of other former Nazis, Otto Skorzeny was declared
entnazifiziert (de-nazified) in absentia in 1952 by a West
German government arbitration board, which now meant Otto
Skorzeny could travel from Spain into other Western countries.
Otto Skorzeny spent part of his time between 1959 and 1969
in Ireland, where Otto Skorzeny bought Martinstown House,
a 0.81 km2 farm in County Kildare in 1959. Otto Skorzeny also
had property in Mallorca.
Otto Skorzeny Paladin Group
In the 1960s Otto Skorzeny set up the Paladin Group, which
Otto Skorzeny envisioned as an international directorship
of strategic assault personnel that would straddle the watershed
between paramilitary operations carried out by troops in uniforms
and the political warfare which is conducted by civilian agents.
Based near Alicante, Spain, the Paladin Group specialised
in arming and training guerrillas, and their clients included
the South African Bureau of State Security and Muammar al-Gaddafi.
They also carried out work for the Greek military junta of
1967 to 1974 and some of their operatives were recruited by
the Spanish Interior Ministry to wage clandestine war against
Basque separatists. The Soviet news agency TASS alleged that
Paladin was involved in training US Green Berets for Vietnam
missions during the 1960s, but this is considered unlikely.
Otto Skorzeny Death
In 1970, a cancerous tumour was discovered on Otto Skorzeny's
spine. Two tumours were removed in Hamburg, but the surgery
left him paralysed from the waist down. Vowing to walk again,
Otto Skorzeny spent long hours with a physical therapist,
and within six months was back on his feet.
Otto Skorzeny finally succumbed to cancer on 5 July 1975 in
Madrid. Otto Skorzeny was 67. Otto Skorzeny was cremated and
his ashes were later brought to Vienna to be interred in the
Skorzeny family plot at Döblinger Friedhof.
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