Otto Skorzeny (Skorzeny) is one of the most odious personalities of the twentieth century.
This is the most famous Pole in the service of the Third Reich (along with Erich von Zelevsky and Gunter Grass), who, after the defeat of the Nazis, worked for American intelligence, and then... for Israeli.
The entire biography and merits of this man show him as a highly professional intelligence officer and agent who, in essence, did not give a damn about politics, conscience and international relations: he worked for those who paid him.
That is why this devoted worker of the anti-Semitic empire subsequently easily retrained himself as a faithful servant of the Jewish nation.
Early years
The future saboteur was born in Vienna, the capital of Austria-Hungary. As in present-day Austria, in this country, in addition to the Germans, lived representatives of different nationalities - Poles, Czechs, Hungarians, Ukrainians, etc. Skorzeny belonged to the Austrian Poles, whose ancestors came from the village of Skorzhencin, which exists in Poland to this day.
Otto's father worked as an engineer. Skorzeny was a real giant - 196 cm. At first, this served him badly - he was not accepted to serve in the Luftwaffe, where he tried to sign up as a volunteer. He studied at the University of Vienna, where he acquired a reputation as a bully - he took part in more than twenty student duels, which, like in the old musketeer days, were fought with swords.
In one of them he was wounded, evidenced by a scar on his left cheek that remained for life. At the same time he met Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the future head of the Main Directorate of Imperial Security, who brought him to the NSDAP. In 1934, Skorzeny joined the 89th SS Standard, which carried out the Nazi putsch in Vienna.
In this action, Otto showed himself to be a born leader. In 1938, he also participated in Kristallnacht, the all-German pogrom of Jews. This event marked the beginning of the political and economic persecution of Jews and, ultimately, the Holocaust. After this pogrom, Skorzeny took for himself a rich villa that belonged to a Jew, and gave a number of enterprises confiscated from Jews to his father-in-law. “High Nazi ideals” turned out to be a banal way of robbery and profit.
In World War II
At the beginning of the war, Otto Skorzeny worked as a civil engineer, like his father. But he quickly decided to join the SS troops. Nevertheless, his military career did not work out: first he was assigned to the Adolf Hitler reserve battalion, and then served in the French campaign in the German standard as an ordinary car driver.
For some time he took part in battles on Soviet territory (1941), but quickly developed cholecystitis - inflammation of the gallbladder. He was sent to Vienna, where he was supposed to be treated, and very fortunately, because just at this time (December 1941) the Red Army launched a counter-offensive.
After treatment, he worked in Berlin in a boring administrative position. He tried to enroll in tanker courses, but he also failed to become a tanker. It seemed that fate was keeping him for another job, keeping him away from the most deadly service. Since 1943, Skorzeny began working in SS special forces units as a saboteur. It was in this position that he gained worldwide fame.
Special operations carried out by Skorzeny
- Release from prison of Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini. This is Skorzeny's most famous action, called Operation Oak. Adolf Hitler himself directed him to this task, choosing it from six options. The Italian dictator at that time was staying at the Campo Imperatore hotel, which served as a makeshift prison. The hotel administration did not resist, so Mussolini was released without firing a single shot and quite quickly.
- Operation Long Jump: During the Tehran Conference, Skorzeny was obliged to destroy Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill or kidnap them. The operation was unsuccessful, as Soviet intelligence officers became aware of the Germans' actions.
- Operation “Knight's Move”: Skorzeny's group was to destroy Joseph Broz Tito, at that time the head of the partisan movement in the Balkans. Tito's headquarters was located in a cave near the city of Drvar, but when the Germans reached it, Tito had already moved out of there. The “knight's move” ended in failure.
- Suppression of the rebellion and assassination attempt on Hitler (1944). Skorzeny exposed the attackers and dealt with them.
- "Faustpatron" - operation in Hungary. The Hungarian regent Miklos Horthy wanted to join the USSR. Skorzeny kidnapped his son, and fearing for his life, Horthy gave up power. His successor was Ferenc Szálasi, an ally of Hitler's Germany.
- Operation Grif, in which the Germans tried to capture the American General Eisenhower. The affair ended unsuccessfully, as many members of Skorzeny's group were captured and killed.
- The murder of Glenn Miller, the famous American musician. This is just one of the many versions of the musician’s death, but quite plausible: according to it, Miller met with the Reich ambassador in Paris and conveyed to him a proposal for a ceasefire.
- Fighting in Pomerania (early 1945). For the defense of Frankfurt an der Oder, Skorzeny received a high award from Hitler himself - the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves.
Post-war biography
After World War II, the famous saboteur was arrested, but quickly began collaborating with American intelligence. Then he settled in Spain, which was then ruled by the fascist government of Franco. In 1962, he worked for the Israeli intelligence service Mossad - in particular, on its orders, he killed the scientist Heinz Krug, who was building missiles for Egypt.
Skorzeny lived happily until 1975, dying at the age of 67. He did not renounce his fascist views until the end of his life and organized the ODESSA community, a neo-fascist propaganda group for the “rehabilitation” of former Nazi criminals; He also participated in other neo-fascist organizations.
Otto Skorzeny is one of the most famous and most mysterious figures in the history of World War II. Officer for special assignments of Adolf Hitler, chief saboteur of the Third Reich, the man who kidnapped Mussolini, head of the SS special forces, who developed and led the largest military sabotage operations in Southern Iran, France, Italy, Yugoslavia and, of course, the USSR. He was called the number one German terrorist.
No one could have imagined that this man with scars on his face - traces of student duels with rapiers - worked for the Israeli intelligence service Mossad. These sensational facts were presented by his recruiter Rafi Eitan, former Israeli Mossad officer: “I was not surprised when, within the first half hour of conversation, he agreed to cooperate with us.”
Is Otto Skorzeny a double agent?
Otto Skorzeny was born in 1908 in Vienna into the family of an engineer: Skorzeny's house still stands there. During the Depression years, the family lived poorly. When a boy once asked his father why they never ate bread and butter, he replied that the lack of luxury would be useful to him in the future.
Otto graduated from the Technical University in Vienna, worked in a scaffolding company and subsequently created his own. Shortly before the war, he received a patent as an amateur pilot, but at the beginning of World War II, the Luftwaffe did not hire him due to his age - he was already over 30.
It is reliably known that Skorzeny was most often followed by failures on the Eastern Front. He ended up in Russia at the very beginning of the blitzkrieg. In his memoirs, he writes that he participated in the siege and storming of the Brest Fortress.
In the fall of 1941, Skorzeny found himself near Moscow. Here he received a shrapnel wound in the back, an Iron Cross for reuniting communications lost in battle, and severe dysentery. Sent to Germany for treatment, he, according to him, vegetated in the rear units for a year and a half as a reserve officer, and only in 1943 was he unexpectedly appointed leader of a sabotage group. It is known that Skorzeny attached very high importance to practicing actions in the mountains. From his own experience, he knew that well-trained saboteurs in mountainous terrain could operate effectively even with relatively small forces.
Otto Skorzeny was a model Nazi. Back in Austria, during Kristallnacht, he honestly fulfilled his duty by taking part in the burning of synagogues. Moreover, they claim that he took possession of the house of the missing Jew, in which he subsequently lived with his family.
This is what he claims Ephraim Zuroff, Wiesenthal Foundation Fellow: « Skorzeny is without a doubt a war criminal who escaped punishment."
Surprisingly, Nazi hunters, primarily Simon Wiesenthal, did not particularly pursue Skorzeny. Moreover, it seems that the Israeli Mossad, known for its success in the post-war search and capture of Nazi criminals, was not involved in this case at all. However, this impression is deceptive: the Mossad simply recruited Skorzeny. In 2006, the Maarif newspaper published an article authored by Mikhail Kheifetz, where all the details were outlined.
Mikhail Kheifets, journalist: « German specialists worked for Egypt. They made missiles for Egypt, they made modern weapons for Egypt. These were excellent specialists, and the Jews had to somehow get there.”
It is alleged that Skorzeny actively worked for Egypt in the post-war years, in particular, he “wooed” a large party of military and civilian specialists to the Egyptian leadership. Rumor has it that he personally supervised the training of Egyptian commandos and that among the Arabs who passed through the Special Training Center was Yasser Arafat himself, who maintained friendly relations with Skorzeny for a long time. Whether this is true or not in detail is not so important: in any case, the problem of creating an Egyptian army and modern weapons greatly worried Israel.
Meir Amit became the head of the Mossad in the mid-1960s. Born Meir Slutsky, Amit was born in 1926 in Palestine into a family of immigrants from Ukraine. Israeli military leader, Ben Gurion's closest assistant, from 1963 to 1969 he was the head of the Mossad. Under Amit, Mossad switched from hunting Nazis to actually conducting intelligence activities in the interests of Israel. It was Amit who began recruiting among German military specialists in Egypt.
Remembers Meir Amit, former head of the Israeli intelligence service Mossad: « These were the highest ranks of the German army. But we were more flexible and were able to get more out of them, and they didn’t learn anything from us.”
And the operation was directly led by Rafi Eitan. He received a degree in economics from the University of London. He served in various Israeli intelligence services, including the Mossad. Participated in the capture of Eichmann and other Nazi criminals.
From memories Rafi Eitan: “We were looking for a person, a former Nazi, an ex-Nazi, as we said, who could get to the information and tell us about the German groups that were working illegally in Cairo. And then the name of Otto Skorzeny, who was already famous then, came up.”
Otto Skorzeny wrote four books of memoirs, in which he spoke in detail and with humor about the events of the war years, but did not say a word about working for Israel in the post-war years. Otto Skorzeny's only daughter and heir, Waltraud Riess, lives today in Vienna.
This is what he remembers Waltraud Riess: “My father was married three times, I was an only child. After my parents divorced, my father married a German woman, and when I got married and had children, he was very proud when he became a grandfather, he was proud that I gave birth to two sons. After all, for a person like my father, it was important to have boys, and they wanted to name me Klaus, because they didn’t think there would be a girl.”
In 1975, after the death of Otto Skorzeny, all his archives and personal papers were transferred to his daughter. “I received my father’s inheritance in full. It was approximately a cubic meter of papers, books, manuscripts and letters.", - speaks Waltraud Riess.
Otto Skorzeny’s daughter carefully preserves all these documents and portraits of her father and, not without pride, tells journalists about him. She never renounced him: “My mother and I had no problems with our names after the war. On the contrary, wherever I went and wherever I mentioned the name Skorzeny, they asked me if I was the daughter of the famous Skorzeny. There were even advantages to this. The reason is that many people in both Austria and Germany sympathized with the Nazi regime, and my father was not a war criminal - he became a famous person thanks to the release of Mussolini."
Many of those who sympathized with the Nazis are today in shock: their idol, the indomitable Otto Skorzeny, is a secret Mossad agent. In Israel they knew that Skorzeny settled in Madrid after the war. They also knew that he was a wealthy man with connections. Otto Skorzeny's wife was the owner of her own business, and he himself headed a fairly large company. So it is unlikely that he could be very interested in money.
From memories Rafi Eitan: « He was a successful businessman in 1964: what could you offer the man who had everything? I decided that I would come and offer him freedom from fear. We must not forget that not long before this, the operation to capture Eichmann, which I led, was successful.”
Skorzeny gave his agreement in principle to cooperate at the very first meeting with the Mossad agent: the details were already discussed with Rafi Eitan.
From memories Rafi Eitan: “I was at his house once. It was a villa in the suburbs of Madrid. The house is very rich, luxurious, impressive, I was immediately treated to coffee and cake. We sat comfortably in armchairs, and the conversation was very businesslike. We talked in detail: what we will do now, what then, who will be the liaison officer, how you will work, where you will go, how you will convey the information, and so on. The conversation was purely business.”
Mossad managed to recruit not only Skorzeny, but also the officer responsible for the safety of German military experts in Egypt. According to journalist Michael Kheifets, this officer was a former SS soldier and was in the Mossad under the pseudonym “Valentin”.
This is what he writes Mikhail Kheifets: “He was offered a good sum for photographs of the documents that German engineers were working on: he had completely free access to them. Moreover, he was responsible for ensuring that no one else got into them, so he could take them, take photographs, and so on. It was he who passed them on to Skorzeny.”
As a result, German military specialists left Egypt. Mikhail Kheifetz claims that the lists of all Germans working illegally in Egypt, obtained with the help of Skorzeny and Valentin, were placed on the table of the German Defense Minister Strauss, and he, in order to avoid an international scandal, simply recalled the military experts to their homeland. Eitan's version differs only in details.
From memories Rafi Eitan: “The result was this: we turned to the German government in Bonn, and Strauss was then the Minister of Defense. Then, together with Strauss and the ministry, we approached every engineer, every German who worked in Egypt, and offered compensation even greater than their future fees. And most, except one or two, agreed to receive compensation and leave Egypt. This, in essence, ended the stage of German missile construction in Egypt against Israel.”
Of course, intelligence is a cynical business, and yet, weren’t there any moral qualms in Israel about collaborating with a former Nazi?
Remembers Meir Amit: “Of course, he was on the other side of the fence, no doubt, but we knew exactly what was going on in his head. We had a goal - something we wanted to get. We considered it kosher.”
Of all the special operations of Otto Skorzeny, the most famous is the kidnapping of Mussolini in the mountains of Italy in 1943. It was after this episode that Hitler personally hung a knight's cross on his neck and promoted him from captain to major.
On July 26, 1943, Otto Skorzeny unexpectedly received a call to Hitler's headquarters. He had no idea about its purpose. In addition to him, three lieutenant colonels and two majors were waiting to receive the Fuhrer in the carefully hidden Wolf's Lair shelter in East Prussia. SS Hauptsturmführer - that is, captain - Otto Skorzeny was the junior in rank in this company. Nevertheless, it was he who Hitler asked to stay to continue the conversation.
A month and a half later, the whole world would learn that Skorzeny received a special assignment from Hitler in July 1943, but for now Operation Oak was an absolute secret. “I have a task of extreme importance for you,” said the Fuhrer, “you will go and save my friend Mussolini.”
A day earlier, it became known that the Italian king had removed and arrested Mussolini. The entire Wehrmacht reconnaissance vehicle was involved in the search for the place of his imprisonment, and Skorzeny’s sabotage group came under the command of Luftwaffe General Kurt Student.
The student was the founder of the German Airborne Forces. Since 1937, he commanded an airborne battalion, and from 1940, the 11th Aviation Corps. His subordinates secured bridgeheads in Norway and Holland, and an airborne assault under his command captured the island of Crete. For his years of service he was awarded the Knight's Cross. Died in 1978.
Together with General Student, Skorzeny flies to Italy under the guise of an Air Force officer. Soon his group of 50 special forces arrives there too. The task of finding Mussolini is extremely difficult, and yet one soon manages to get on his trail. Mussolini was kept in a sea fortress on the island of Sardinia. To make sure of this, Skorzeny resorted to a trick.
“My plan was based on the fact that all Italians are fierce debaters,” Otto Skorzeny writes in his memoirs. The lieutenant, dressed as a simple German sailor, had to hang out in taverns and listen to conversations. Having heard a conversation about the Duce, he will have to intervene and state that he knows for certain that Mussolini was seriously ill. It is very likely that this version will cause protests and it will be possible to make a bet.
The plan worked: the bet was accepted by a traveling merchant, who, to confirm his words, showed the terrace - the place where the Duce walked. After this, it was necessary to conduct an aerial reconnaissance of the area. Skorzeny flew himself. But the reconnaissance plane came under fire from British fighters and sank. During the fall, Skorzeny broke several ribs and lost consciousness, but the pilot pulled him out, and then Skorzeny himself saved a camera and a briefcase with documents from the cabin of the sinking plane.
Returning to base, Skorzeny urgently began preparing the operation. However, the day before the assault, it was discovered that Mussolini had been taken away from the fortress. Luck was clearly not on Skorzeny’s side: the main operation in his life was, more than ever, close to failure.
It was only a couple of weeks before they were able to get on Mussolini’s trail again: according to intelligence data, the Duce could be kept in a hotel in Campo Imperatore, at an altitude of about 2000 meters. Only a cable car led there from the valley.
Skorzeny and Student decided that the landing should be carried out using landing gliders, which would fly to the target on a trailer from the aircraft. The operation was scheduled for September 12, 1943. On the day of the combat mission, the airfield from which the capture group was supposed to launch was bombed by the Allies, but the equipment remained intact. The flight took place at 13:00. In addition to the pilot, each of the 12 gliders housed nine fighters: Skorzeny was in the third machine. The weather was favorable to the operation: the cloud cover was quite low, so surprise was ensured.
When approaching the target, however, it was discovered that the first two gliders had disappeared. As it turned out later, they didn’t even take off. Skorzeny takes command. When instructing glider pilots, General Student strictly forbade landing from a dive - in the mountains this would lead to unjustified losses. But at the last moment, Skorzeny notices that the site he had explored near the hotel has a serious slope, and gives the order to land from a dive. Two gliders crashed when landing on a tiny site, but the group managed to use the effect of surprise - they quickly found Mussolini and soon established control over the situation.
They say that the Italian carabinieri guarding Mussolini did not particularly resist and even helped clear the landing area for a light plane, on which Student’s personal pilot Gerlach flew to evacuate the Duce. Perhaps Skorzeny would have remained a little-known captain if he had not decided to sit third in this tiny two-seater apparatus.
This is what he writes Richard Hufschmid, Master of History from Vienna: “Skorzeny was a very big, dense and heavy man, and besides, he was squeezed in there with Mussolini. And you also need to take into account the fact that the plane was flown by a pilot. Thus, the plane supported three people.”
The pilot was against the third passenger, but Skorzeny lied something about Hitler’s categorical request and climbed behind the seat backs into the tail of the plane, curling up. “After all, if the flight ends in disaster,– writes Otto Skorzeny in memoirs, “I have no choice but to shoot myself in the forehead without waiting for a decision from above.”
Everything went well: Mussolini was delivered to Hitler’s headquarters, and the operation to free him became a classic and was included in textbooks on sabotage. Skorzeny received many insignia, which he modestly keeps silent about in his memoirs. He also kept silent about several details of that operation: they contained some of the secrets of the craft.
Otto Skorzeny with the liberated Benito Mussolini
Vladimir Makarov, intelligence service historian, states: “Nowhere, at least in Skorzeny’s own memoirs, is there any mention of the fact that in order to reduce the braking distance of the gliders, they were tied with barbed wire. And the second episode: the site is small, and when the single-engine plane that was supposed to take out Skorzeny and Mussolini had already landed, a special springboard for the plane was built there. Here are two important nuances.”
Hitler and Mussolini were happy and grateful to Otto Skorzeny. After a warm reception in Germany, Mussolini was assigned security from the SS troops. With her, he returned to Italy and then for several months headed the so-called republic of Italian fascists in the northern part of the country, which fought with the partisans and allied forces of the British and Americans.
Remembers Igor Peretrukhin, intelligence veteran: “I heard about Skorzeny during the war, because the rumor about the liberation of Mussolini, the rumor about such an extraordinary feat of German saboteurs and intelligence officers spread all over the world.”
It should be noted that the NKVD already looked closely at Otto Skorzeny during the war. And for good reason.
This is what he writes Vladimir Makarov: “Unfortunately, we do not know under what code name this operation took place in the German intelligence services, but in the history of Soviet counterintelligence it left a mark under the name “Tavrin Case.” In the fall of 1943, an aircraft of the latest design, Arado-332, which was equipped specifically for carrying out secret sabotage and terrorist acts, landed on the territory of the Smolensk region.”
In the fall of 1944, the NKVD arrested a certain Pyotr Ivanovich Tavrin, who had been abandoned in the USSR on a special mission. According to another version, he voluntarily came to the authorities immediately after being dropped off.
Tells Vladimir Makarov: “He had eight pistols, several of which were equipped with special explosive cartridges filled with bullets. In addition, it had special devices, a hand-held grenade launcher with a firing range of about 300–400 meters.”
During interrogation, Tavrin stated that he had three meetings with Skorzeny, who instructed him on the task. That's what he claimed Tavrin: “I got the impression that Skorzeny was developing a plan to kidnap one of the leaders of the Soviet government.” He was asked: “Didn’t Skorzeny tell you this directly?” Tavrin replied: “No, Skorzeny did not tell me about this directly.”
Remembers Igor Peretrukhin: “Stalin had a mania, including persecution. A lot of people died in our country precisely because of this, and Stalin was afraid, organically afraid of assassination attempts. He was never at the front, unlike the Fuhrer, and the Fuhrer was in both Smolensk and Vilnius.”
If the German leadership had other plans to assassinate Stalin, it is no longer possible to find confirmation.
Otto Skorzeny surrendered to American forces in May 1945. Before the trial, he spent almost two years in various camps. The trial of him and nine other officers of the 150th Tank Brigade, which he commanded, took place in August–September 1947 in Dachau. All 10 people were acquitted. And in 1948, Skorzeny was arrested again by the German administration. The authorities of Czechoslovakia demanded his extradition for war crimes on its territory. Skorzeny was kept in the Darmstadt camp, and on July 27, 1948, he escaped from there.
According to the most famous version, it happened like this. A truck with American license plates arrived at the camp, and three men in American police uniforms demanded that the commandant hand over Skorzeny to them for questioning. These three turned out to be former German soldiers. In a nearby forest, Skorzeny received clothes, documents and a train ticket to Paris. Skorzeny himself, in an interview several years before his death, said with a smile that the camp commandant personally took him out in the trunk of his own limousine.
And here is the version Richard Hufschmid: « Skorzeny was undoubtedly a very educated man. During the Second World War, thanks to his special operations, he gained a lot of experience, and after the war, many secret services wanted to use this experience. Why? Because the Cold War played a very big role: former allies the Soviet Union and the United States now clashed in the so-called Cold War.”
In Soviet sources there is a statement that after the escape of Otto Skorzeny, under the pseudonym “Able,” he was used by American intelligence in a special camp in Georgia to train personnel in the techniques of transporting saboteurs into the Soviet Union. However, no documents confirming this are provided. Some historians claim that NKVD officers also made contact with Skorzeny while he was in the camp, but there is no documentary evidence left to support this version either.
According to an FBI agent who met with Skorzeny in Madrid in 1950–1951, Skorzeny had plans to create an army of 500,000 former German soldiers in Spain because he believed that the Soviet Union would invade Europe in 1951.
One of the biggest mysteries in Otto Skorzeny's post-war activities is his alleged participation in harboring prominent Nazis. There are many statements that Skorzeny headed the Spider organization, which was created after his escape (according to other sources, while he was still in the camps, and according to others, at the end of the war). In addition, his brainchild is called the organization “ODESSA” - an abbreviation of the German name “Organization of Former SS Members” - whose goal was to shelter and transport Nazi officers abroad. It is believed that about 500 former SS men were able to find shelter in other countries through this organization.
Much has been written about Skorzeny’s post-war connections with former Nazis - he allegedly helped Aribert Heim, who was called “Doctor Death”, escape (he was found in Spain only in 2005), contributed to the concealment of Treblinka commandant Stangl, as well as Mengele and Eichmann. And the organizer of the extermination of 32,000 Latvian Jews, Hubert Kerps, who in 1965 offered Israel to buy information about Mengele for $150,000, was killed in Uruguay three days later.
But this mystery still remains a mystery: serious historians find no traces of a single organization that sheltered war criminals.
Rafi Eitan states: “I can say with full responsibility that he was never at the head of the ODESSA organization. It's true, ODESSA is more of a virtual structure than a real one. Journalists came up with a lot of things.”
He is echoed Richard Hufschmid: “I doubt that this organization actually existed. The fact remains that there were many small networks where former Nazis helped each other. Argentina can serve as an example of this. Skorzeny was a fairly successful businessman and felt that he had an obligation to help his former comrades, the National Socialists of the Third Reich.”
How successful was Otto Skorzeny as a businessman? Was he a multimillionaire and what were the sources of his supposed wealth?
After his escape from the Darmstadt camp, Skorzeny settled in Francoist Spain. According to some allegations, during wartime he saved a relative of Generalissimo Franco himself from repression in Germany, which won his favor and full support. His main work became engineering firms.
Here's what it says about it Carlos Collado Seidel, professor at the University of Marburg (Germany): “It was said that he was capable of surpassing the so-called Nazi foundations in wealth at the end of the Second World War. A lot of money, jewelry, and gold remained hidden in these funds. This may have been the basis of the wealth of this German colony after World War II."
The opinions of people who met with Otto Skorzeny differ about his material well-being. The FBI agent's report from Skorzeny's life in Spain in the early 1950s, mentioned above, speaks of affluence, but not wealth. But already in the early 1960s, Skorzeny bought a 160-acre farm in Ireland, where he vacationed with his family. In the mid-1960s, at an exhibition in South Africa, he represented Spanish engineering firms, concluding many deals.
Remembers Waltraud Riess: “My father was a successful businessman, but he was never rich or prosperous. These are all media exaggerations, sometimes even funny. Sometimes false information that had nothing to do with reality was leaked to the press. Towards the end of his life, things were not going so well for him, but sometime before 1965 the business was thriving. His wife was also a successful businesswoman, but there was no talk of wealth.”
It was rumored that a significant part of Skorzeny's income came from the arms trade, which he supplied to African and Latin American countries. Perhaps things actually got worse in the 1970s, since no traces of wealth and luxury could be found in his only daughter and heiress. But Skorzeny is sometimes called the manager of the so-called “Bormann's gold” - did he have anything to do with it?
“Bormann's Gold” is usually called the valuables collected by Nazi No. 2 in a kind of cash register. During World War I, Bormann fought on the Western Front, where he met Adolf Hitler. Since 1928 he has been the commander of a stormtrooper detachment in Munich, since 1941 he has been Hitler’s deputy in the party, and since 1943 he has been the head of the Reich Chancellery. On May 1, 1945, Bormann disappeared without a trace. Presumably, "Bormann's gold" was confiscated from victims of death camps. According to one version, even during the war, Skorzeny helped Martin Bormann transport some of these funds to Argentina, and President Juan Peron became their manager. By the year the war ended, they were valued at billions of dollars in currency, gold and precious stones. Then, in 1945, Peron married Evita Duarte, who quickly transferred a significant part of the funds to her accounts in Buenos Aires. After the war, Bormann never appeared, and the Perons began to behave as if it were only their wealth.
Otto Skorzeny came to Argentina in search of “Bormann's gold,” but carefully disguised his intentions. There are suggestions that it was he who trained the Argentine secret police, and also headed Evita’s personal security. To prove his necessity to her, he staged a false assassination attempt on the president’s wife and, of course, immediately saved her. According to the same version, they soon became lovers. After Evita's death in 1952 and Peron's resignation four years later, Skorzeny helped Peron move to Madrid under Franco's wing, but in return for his services he demanded and received control of Bormann's gold, using the funds to help fugitive Nazis.
The version is interesting, but no one stood with a candle over Skorzeny and Evita. There is no documentary evidence of Skorzeny's long-term presence in Argentina, although his acquaintance with Peron was confirmed by journalists from the newspaper Epoka. "Bormann's Gold" was also not found, at least not in the form of an impressive wealth collected together. Another version looks much more plausible - it is indirectly connected with the already mentioned release of Mussolini.
This story could cost Winston Churchill not only his post, but also his reputation. They say that he sympathized with Mussolini for a long time and was in personal correspondence with him until 1944. It would have been a sin for Germany not to use such leverage on Sir Winston.
Mussolini allegedly kept all his correspondence in a suitcase, which he planned to take with him during the evacuation. But since Skorzeny was also applying for a seat on a light plane, the suitcase had to be left behind. Before returning it to its owner, the Germans made copies of the most important letters. Mussolini was already preparing to retire, but was forced to yield to Hitler and head a pro-German government in northern Italy. In April 1945, he was shot by partisans, having caught him along with his mistress Claretta Petacci while fleeing.
Remembers Igor Peretrukhin: “But I must say that Claretta Petacci was a courageous woman. When they stood at the wall where Mussolini was to be shot, he lost his composure and began to beg... Claretta shouted to him: “Benito, die like a man!” – and tried to cover him with her body. Petacci was an informant for the Deputy Minister of the Interior of Italy.”
Shortly before this, Claretta Petacci sent her bodyguard to Milan with the task of placing Mussolini's correspondence in safe hands. But the bodyguard, an SS officer, chose to hand them over to Otto Skorzeny. They say that after the war, Churchill himself came to Italy more than once, ostensibly on vacation to paint pictures - but in fact in search of his letters. Their publication could have closed his path to politics forever. And only in 1951 in Venice, at a personal meeting, Skorzeny gave letters to Churchill in exchange for a promise to release the SS men from British prisons.
Churchill became prime minister again. It is claimed that former Nazis were released. This story caused a lot of noise in the European press, but no convincing evidence of Skorzeny’s personal involvement in blackmailing Churchill was presented.
In the 1960s, Skorzeny still had problems due to his military background. He was charged with various episodes of military operations, including the production of poisoned bullets that were tested on prisoners in concentration camps. But not a single court case ended with a verdict. The Austrian passport, which was temporarily confiscated from him, was returned to him again.
In 1970, Skorzeny was diagnosed with cancer. The operation was successful, and the 62-year-old saboteur-businessman even got back on his feet, but five years later the disease took its toll.
Remembers Waltraud Riess: “My father died on July 5, 1975 in Madrid. Before that, he was treated in a German clinic for lung cancer. He died at home. His body was cremated, and the urn with his ashes was transported to Austria to the family cemetery."
By some irony of fate, he rests there next to the ashes of the former Austrian President Miklas, in whose arrest during the preparation of the Anschluss in 1938 Skorzeny took an active part.
Tells Waltraud Riess: “Before my father’s funeral, the police approached me. They feared neo-Nazi speeches at the funeral. I couldn’t answer anything because I didn’t know who was coming. In the end, everything went very peacefully. The police kept order. And there were no provocations from the radical left.”
There are many more legends about Skorzeny than proven facts. His name is associated with the assassination of President Kennedy and with the preparation of every conceivable terrorist group, including militants in Ireland. Conspiracy theorists claim that Skorzeny did not die in 1975, but went to Paraguay, where he is still alive. Some call it a precursor to September 11, 2001: “It is necessary that on the agreed day and hour, announced in advance on the German radio, the V-1 should raze one of the New York skyscrapers to the ground.”, - exactly so, in his own words, Otto Skorzeny presented a project for using the so-called “weapons of retaliation” of the Third Reich at a meeting with Himmler. Skorzeny worked to make uncontrollable projectile aircraft controllable by attaching cockpits to them and seating pilots. Only a lack of fuel prevented this idea from being brought to completion. Then, in 1944, New York's skyscrapers stood, and the glory of the kamikaze remained with the Japanese.
How many more secrets of Skorzeny lie dormant somewhere in the archives? What did he choose to keep silent about?
This is what he claims Vladimir Makarov: “If there was such a secret, it went away with him, because in his memoirs he left a lot behind the scenes and didn’t tell anyone about it. He took all his secrets with him to the grave.”
Remembers Waltraud Riess: « My father was a strong personality. People always saw him as an officer, accustomed to giving orders and demanding their execution.”
If Otto Skorzeny had been born in another country, any schoolchild would know his name by heart today. His exploits - real and fictional - would become the subject of many blockbusters.
But he was born in Austria, and faithfully served the Nazis and the Third Reich. "If Hitler were alive, I would be next to him"- he said in a public interview already in the 1960s. He will never be good again - in history Otto Skorzeny will remain a bad guy. And new information about cooperation with the Mossad is bad news for his like-minded people.
Igor Stanislavovich Prokopenko
On both sides of the front. Unknown facts of the Great Patriotic War
Otto Skorzeny (German: Otto Skorzeny, 1908-1975) - SS Obersturmbannführer, who became famous during the Second World War for his successful special operations. Skorzeny's most famous operation was the release of the overthrown Benito Mussolini from prison.
Biography
Otto Skorzeny was born on June 12, 1908 in Vienna into a family of hereditary military men. As a student in the 1920s, Skorzeny was a famous duelist, with fifteen sword fights to his name. The scar on his left cheek is the result of a wound received during one of these fights.
Skorzeny joined the NSDAP in 1931 and joined the SA shortly thereafter. In these organizations, he showed his leadership qualities from the very beginning and even played a small role during the Anschluss of Austria by Nazi Germany, when he prevented the assassination of the removed Austrian President Wilhelm Miklas.
Skorzeny in World War II
LSSAH
At the outbreak of World War II, Skorzeny, who worked as a civil engineer, tried to volunteer for the Luftwaffe, but was rejected because he had already reached the age of thirty. As a result, Skorzeny joined the Waffen-SS. On October 21, 1940, he went to war with the famous 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte-SS Adolf Hitler. He took part in the battles of 1941-42 on the territory of the Soviet Union. At the end of 1942, Skorzeny was wounded, and in December he returned to Germany as a holder of the Order of the Iron Cross, which he received for bravery shown under enemy fire.
Reich saboteur
Having recovered from his injury, Otto Skorzeny was recommended to the German military command to take the place of the head of the special units being created, designed to conduct reconnaissance and sabotage operations behind enemy lines. In this capacity, in July 1943, he led the operation to free the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, who was imprisoned after his overthrow. The decision to entrust Skorzeny with the leadership of the operation was made personally by Adolf Hitler, who chose him from six candidates.
Operation Oak
The game of cat and mouse continued for almost two months, during which time the Italians constantly moved Mussolini around the country in order to prevent any attempts to free him. Finally, Mussolini’s location was established, topographical data of the area was obtained, and reconnaissance of the area from the air was carried out, carried out by Skorzeny himself. On September 12, 1943, Operation Oak began, during which a group of German paratroopers led by Skorzeny landed in the mountainous Gran Sasso region of Abruzzo and attacked the Campo Imperatore hotel, where Mussolini was imprisoned. The dictator of Italy was released without firing a shot and taken to Rome and later to Berlin. The success of this daring operation brought Otto Skorzeny world fame and another award - the Knight's Cross.
Operation "Knight's Move"
In the spring of 1944, Skorzeny was assigned to carry out Operation Knight's Move. Its goal was to decapitate the anti-fascist Resistance in the Balkans by capturing the partisan leader Josip Broz Tito, who was hiding in the area of the Serbian city of Drvar in western Bosnia. On May 25, the city and the mountains in its vicinity were subjected to massive bombardment, after which SS troops landed. Several hundred paratroopers, led by Skorzeny, entered into battle with enemy forces many times superior in number. Having suppressed the partisans, German troops managed to capture Drvar, however, when Skorzeny's men reached the cave where Tito's headquarters was located, there was no one there. Tito, along with his closest associates, left using cave passages and mountain paths. Skorzeny's mission ended in failure.
07/20/1944 - assassination attempt on Hitler
On July 20, 1944, on the day of the attempt on Hitler's life, organized by a group of senior Wehrmacht officers, Skorzeny was in Berlin. He took part in suppressing the rebellion and for 36 hours, until communication with the Fuhrer's headquarters was restored, he controlled the headquarters of the ground forces reserve, whose chief, Colonel von Stauffenberg, was one of the conspirators.
Operation Faustpatron
In the autumn of 1944, Otto Skorzeny went to Hungary. His task was to interfere with the separate peace negotiations that the Hungarian regent Miklos Horthy was conducting with the Soviet Union. On October 15, as part of Operation Faustpatron, the son of the dictator was kidnapped in Bucharest. Under the threat of depriving his son of his life, Horthy abdicated and transferred power to the pro-German government of Ferenc Szalasi. Hungary continued to participate in the war on the side of Germany until its complete defeat by Soviet troops in April 1945.
Operation Vulture
Winter 1945 - battles for Pomerania
In January-February 1945, Otto Skorzeny, with the rank of major general, commanded units of the regular army in defensive battles for Prussia and Pomerania. For his participation in the defense of Frankfurt an der Oder, Hitler awarded him one of the highest military insignia of the Third Reich - the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves.
1945-1948. “Werewolves” and surrender to the allies. Escape.
After the events of World War II
Skorzeny settled in Franco's Spain with a passport given to him personally by Franco and a note indicating his pre-war profession as an engineer. In 1952 he was declared "entnazifiziert" - denazified - by the German government and conscripted into Germany. After this declaration, he could have been interned in Germany or Austria, if he had recognized his beliefs, as well as the beliefs of his former leaders, as erroneous.
Skorzeny spent part of his life in Ireland (approx. 1959-1969), where he bought Martinston House (eng. Martinstown House) - a 200-acre farm in County Kildare.
Under Franco's protection, Otto Skorzeny was a key figure in organizing the secret escape of the inner ODESSA ex-Nazi community. According to publications in the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, Otto Skorzeny was the leader in organizing one of the largest ODESSA bases, which was located in Spain. According to this article, it was his actions that later helped Aribert Heim, better known as “Doctor Death,” to successfully evade justice in Spain until 2005.
Skorzeny also founded the Paladin Group in 1970, a neo-fascist organization that brought under its wing former members of the OAS (French Organization de l'arme secrte), SAC (French Service d'Action Civique) and other similar organizations, making up members These meetings are the core of the anti-communist struggle. Later, he worked as a consultant to Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser[Source] and Argentine President Juan Peron[Source](approx. - Perón was president of Argentina three times and, like Skorzeny, was in Spain until 1976).
Further fate and death
Died on July 6, 1975 in Madrid.
Controversy
Some researchers believe that the role of Otto Skorzeny in special operations of the German troops is greatly exaggerated, and that Skorzeny was more of a successful hoaxer than a successful saboteur. In particular, an article by BBC employee Vladimir Starostin, published under the pseudonym volk59, is widely known online - "Super-Saboteur" by Otto Skorzeny. In this article, the author argues that Skorzeny did not commit anything in his life that could be called a successful special operation. In particular, in his opinion, Skorzeny was chosen to lead the operation to free Mussolini by chance - only because he had once been to Italy; that the operation itself was adventurous and unprofessional - only non-combat losses in it amounted to about 40% of the personnel; and that the Italians guarding Mussolini offered no resistance to Skorzeny’s men. After the war, according to Starostin, Skorzeny was not at all interested in the allies who knew about his hoaxes, and in the end he had to almost demand to be arrested. Starostin points out numerous inconsistencies in Skorzeny’s memoirs, and concludes that he was “only a super talker who knew how to escape from danger in time.”
Literature
Otto Skorzeny. "Secret missions of the RSHA." AST, 1999 (Munich 1998, (ISBN 3-598-23169-5)
Footnotes
Mysteries of Otto Skorzeny
Otto Skorzeny (1908–1975), the most famous worldwide commander of the sabotage special forces of the Main Directorate of Imperial Security of Nazi Germany, in many ways remained a mysterious, one might even say, a mysterious figure. Almost all the operations that he planned and carried out - with rare exceptions - invariably ended in success. Amazing audacity, surprise, unexpectedness of plans and the clarity of their implementation have always distinguished the “handwriting” of Skorzeny, who was often called “Reich saboteur No. 1” and “personal saboteur of the Fuhrer.” The latter, in general, corresponded to reality, since many of Otto Skorzeny’s tasks and instructions were given personally by Adolf Hitler.
Skorzeny was born in 1908 in ancient and beautiful Vienna, into a wealthy family of an engineer. After graduating from high school, Otto went to study at the University of Vienna. In those years, duels between students became extremely popular, in which it was considered a sign of masculinity to get a scratch on the face with a sword, after which a scar remained. The more scars, the more cocky and brave the student was considered, and in adulthood such a man was respected and feared as a person capable of defending his positions to the end, no matter what. After his student years and merry parties mixed with duels, Otto Skorzeny’s face still bears fourteen scars!
While still a student, Otto Skorzeny became seriously interested in the ideas of National Socialism and joined the pro-fascist organization “Volunteer Corps”, and then the “Heimwehr” - the so-called “Union for the Defense of the Motherland”. This armed organization was created by representatives of the wealthy Austrian bourgeoisie in 1919–1938 to effectively fight the labor movement. In 1930, the Heimwehr began to openly focus on the fascist regime in Italy, where Benito Mussolini became dictator. He willingly helped the Austrian fascists financially and supplied weapons across the border. In fact, the Heimwehr declared itself to be a Nazi organization when it adopted a National Socialist program of action.
Unlike many of his “comrades-in-arms,” Skorzeny was more inclined towards the Germans and in the same 1930 he joined the National Socialist Workers’ Party of Germany, and then became very close to the Austrian SS, among whom Ernst Kaltenbrunner played a prominent role.
After graduating from university, Otto Skorzeny worked as a manager of a construction company and carried out some confidential assignments in Berlin. After the Anschluss of Austria, high-ranking SD officials paid the most serious attention to him. Skorzeny was distinguished by his tall stature, athletic build, courage, cunning, good ideological preparation and impeccable origins, from the point of view of the Nazis. In 1939, Otto Skorzeny was enlisted in Hitler's personal guard regiment. Needless to say, this unit consisted entirely of carefully vetted and selected members of the “black order” of the SS.
Otto Skorzeny's abilities as a saboteur and a good specialist in intelligence work began to manifest themselves with the beginning of World War II. It should be noted that many documents about the activities and operations carried out with the participation and under the direct leadership of Otto Skorzeny were later carefully destroyed. However, what is known is quite enough to present a portrait of this mysterious and enigmatic man.
At the beginning of World War II, as part of the SS troops, Skorzeny took an active part in the fighting in France and in the attack on the Soviet Union. It was to him that Hitler and Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler gave a super-secret and secret assignment to conduct a search for the “Holy Grail” in the mountains in the south of France and northern Spain. There is information that Otto Skorzeny did not abandon this super-secret operation until the surrender of Germany in 1945. Independent Western experts on the Third Reich claim that the search for the “Grail” continued with Skorzeny and much later - already in the 50s, 60s and even the early 70s of the 20th century. In their opinion, “saboteur No. 1” sacredly remembered much of what he was once entrusted with personally by Adolf Hitler and Reichsführer Himmler and continued to carry out secretly almost until his last breath.
In April 1943, with the rank of SS Hauptsturmführer, Otto Skorzeny was personally invited by the famous Walter Schellenberg to serve in the foreign intelligence department. "Ausland-SD" - VI department of the Main Directorate of Imperial Security. The talented intelligence officer Schellenberg highly valued Skorzeny's abilities and, given the trust that Adolf Hitler and Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler personally placed in him, he instructed the SS Sturmbannführer to manage intelligence work and sabotage activities in foreign countries. However, by and large, Schellenberg was a pure pragmatist and a high-class professional. It was precisely these same qualities that attracted him to Otto Skorzeny. He understood perfectly well that the leaders of the Third Reich loved the Austrian with scars on his face not at all for his devotion to the ideals of National Socialism, but for his high professionalism, which was associated with his extraordinary success in carrying out sabotage operations, which seemed absolutely impossible to carry out.
Otto Skorzeny gained great fame and wide recognition due to the release of the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, who was arrested on the orders of the Italian king. On July 23, 1943, Skorzeny received an order from Hitler to free Mussolini, and on September 13, a specially trained detachment of paratroopers-saboteurs had already landed on gliders in the seemingly impregnable Abruzzo mountains in the Apennines. The entire operation, as Skorzeny had expected, took place literally in a matter of minutes. Mussolini was taken from Gran Sasso on a light plane to Rome, from there he was taken to Vienna, and saboteur No. 1 became a national hero in Germany. His image was strongly supported and inflated by the Reich Minister of Propaganda, Dr. Goebbels.
At the same time, Skorzeny was actively involved in the preparation and training of a significant number of saboteurs and professional intelligence officers at special courses located in ancient castles, surrounded by high walls with live barbed wire and vigilant SS guards. What other operations were developed with his participation and carried out by him personally during this period is unknown. Most likely, some of the operations carried out by Otto Skorzeny are known precisely because they turned out to be so high-profile that they caused a strong international resonance. Therefore, it was no longer possible to hide their conduct, nor to veil the participation of Otto Skorzeny. Even if the Germans really wanted it.
It was not for nothing that the Fuhrer and Reichsfuhrer SS Heinrich Himmler included Otto Skorzeny among the officers directly involved in eliminating the consequences of the unsuccessful assassination attempt and conspiracy against Hitler on July 20, 1944, when several tens of thousands of people were arrested at once. Including about five thousand high-ranking Wehrmacht officers.
One cannot deny Otto Skorzeny his personal courage. In the fall of 1944, when the Red Army had already reached the line of the former state border of the USSR and began the liberation of the countries of Eastern Europe, Soviet counterintelligence and intelligence officers significantly intensified their efforts to combat German agents. This was helped to a large extent by the serious successes of the Soviet troops at the fronts. In particular, the Hungarian pro-fascist dictator Horthy, under pressure from circumstances and hoping to save his life, decided to surrender to Soviet troops, about which he began to conduct secret negotiations. However, many years of close “friendship” with the National Socialists were not in vain: the Germans knew their business very well, and the dictator’s entourage was literally filled with SD agents - they immediately reported to Berlin about the developing situation.
This scoundrel must be here! - the angry Fuhrer slammed his fist on the table.
Naturally, the operation in Hungary was assigned to be developed and carried out personally by Otto Skorzeny. He boastfully stated that such events should be carried out with minimal forces and minimal losses, but with maximum results!
Let’s give this operation the code name “Mickey Mouse,” the “man with scars” grinned sarcastically.
It's hard to believe such incredible luck and luck. Most likely, this is a finely calibrated calculation, surprise, exceptional audacity, composure and high professionalism. It was not in vain that Skorzeny boasted; he kidnapped the son of the Hungarian dictator Horthy, wrapped him in a carpet and took him to the airfield. Not stopping there, “saboteur No. 1” with only one battalion of paratroopers, although they had undergone special training under his personal leadership, attacked the palace-fortress, in which Horthy himself was constantly located. Skorzeny took the building in half an hour, and his losses amounted to no more than seven people!
Later, similar operations were carried out more than once around the world. For example, during the capture of Amin's palace in Kabul by the Soviet special forces "Alpha". Of course, in the post-war years a different situation arose, a fundamentally new weapon appeared, but one cannot help but pay tribute to the specific talents of Otto Skorzeny - in such matters he was a pioneer.
Skorzeny’s operation, codenamed “Greif,” which ended in failure and was aimed at assassinating the commander of the Anglo-American forces, General Ike Eisenhower, is no less widely known. In January 1945, Skorzeny carried out a similar operation on the Eastern Front, but representatives of the Soviet command and intelligence services still prefer not to talk about its results.
It seems strange that such a dexterous and experienced person was arrested by the Americans in Steyermark on May 15, 1945. We can only assume that Skorzeny himself decided to make contact with them, like General Gehlen. However, the expected effect did not follow: Otto Skorzeny was imprisoned for almost two and a half years. There is no doubt that during this period representatives of the American intelligence services actively worked with him. Perhaps they still reached some kind of agreement with the main saboteur of the Reich. Otherwise, how can we explain the fact that in September 1947 Skorzeny appeared before the American military tribunal in Dachau and... was acquitted of all charges!
The Americans even offered him a job in the archives. However, Skorzeny was soon arrested by the new German authorities and sent to a camp in Darmstadt. Under completely mysterious circumstances, in July 1948, Skorzeny escaped from the camp. A year later, under the name of Robert Steinbacher, he created the underground organization "Spider", akin to "ODESSA", which helped more than five hundred former active SS members escape beyond the borders of Germany. Where exactly Skorzeny himself was at this time is unknown. Perhaps he was actively operating under the covert cover of American intelligence services.
Skorzeny soon appeared in Spain, where he had long-standing strong connections and secured the full patronage of the dictator General Francisco Franco. Having settled in Madrid, the former saboteur was allegedly engaged in commercial activities. But is this really so? Almost nothing is known about this period of his life, except that saboteur No. 1 died in 1975...
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The German saboteur Otto Skorzeny became known to a wide circle of people during the Second World War due to successfully carried out special operations. The most successful and discussed operation was the release of a man from prison, who had previously been overthrown.
Otto was born in the summer of 1908 in the city of Vienna, Austro-Hungarian Empire. The boy's family had Polish roots, hence the unusual surname for Germans.
The father of the family worked as an engineer, so the family was not rich. The guy entered the Vienna Higher Technical School to study. Otto had a hot temper, so during his student years he fought more than one duel.
In a sword fight, the young man received the legendary scar, which later became the saboteur’s calling card. In the photo of the man, the scar is clearly visible on the left side of his face.
Career and party activities
Despite his temper, Skorzeny also had leadership qualities. He easily made acquaintances, one of which later led the man to the headquarters of the National Socialist German Workers' Party, where he became involved with Nazism, and soon became one of the leaders. Otto even tried to join the German air force, the Luftwaffe, but an interesting fact is the reason why he was not accepted. Due to his height (almost 2 meters), the man was rejected because the Air Force has physical limitations.
However, this did not stop Skorzeny, and he continued to build a career on earth. At the age of 26, a man becomes an organizer and participant in the Nazi putsch in Vienna. People listened to Otto’s opinion, because he showed himself as a leader, which attracted interest, which later used the man in the interests of the party.
In 1938, the party carefully prepared for war with Europe, and in March of the same year Skorzeny became a participant in the Anschluss, during which he personally arrested the Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg and the then-current President Wilhelm Miklas.
The next significant event in Otto’s career was Kristallnacht, which resulted in the destruction of cafes, shops and other establishments owned by Jews. Moreover, Skorzeny not only led, but also personally participated in this process along with the German attack aircraft.
Otto's second attempt to join the Luftwaffe took place with the outbreak of World War II, but since he had reached the age of 30 by that time, he was rejected, and Skorzeny joined the SS military formation.
In 1939, the man was enlisted in the reserve battalion of the 1st Panzer Division "Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler", a year later he already held the rank of non-commissioned officer and even participated in the French campaign. And a year later he received his first officer rank of Untersturmführer. At that time, Otto served in the artillery battalion of the 2nd SS Panzer Division.
On the territory of the former Soviet Union, Skorzeny had a chance to participate in battles in 1941. However, he soon contracted dysentery, so he was sent to the hospital for treatment. As the man later described in his memoirs, his gallbladder became inflamed, which prevented him from further participating in hostilities. In his native Vienna, Otto was cured, but this was the end of his front-line career. After being discharged from the hospital, the man goes to Berlin and joins the reserve regiment.
A year later, in 1943, senior military officials recommended appointing Skorzeny as the head of new SS units that had a special purpose. The work of the units consisted of reconnaissance and sabotage operations against the warring side.
After the end of World War II, in the spring of 1945, Otto was arrested and placed under heavy guard. But cooperation with American intelligence officers allowed the man to be released after 2 years. Skorzeny was immediately recruited by the Americans, who helped him escape to the United States, where he later trained special paratrooper agents.
After some time, Otto moved to Paris, but since his name was included in the UN lists for investigating war crimes, in 1950 he was sent to Germany again. There he took the name Rolf Steiner and began publishing the memoirs he had written. A year later Skorzeny moved to Italy and then to Spain. At the same time, the German government removed his name from the wanted list, so if he wanted and recognized his beliefs as erroneous, he could easily come to Germany.
The saboteur spent part of his life in Ireland and even purchased a farm there. He worked as a personal consultant to Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser and Argentine President Juan Peron. The Russian writer, screenwriter and publicist said that he met with Otto Skorzeny and personally interviewed him. The man claimed that this happened during his trips abroad to Spain.
Secret Operations
In 1943, Adolf Hitler saw Skorzeny's potential and personally appointed him to lead the operation to free Benito Mussolini. The Italian dictator was taken into custody after being overthrown. The task of the saboteur of the Third Reich was to find out the whereabouts of Mussolini and deliver the man to Hitler.
The Italians tried to carefully confuse their tracks, but despite this they found Benito. It was a rocky area that was extremely difficult to reach. 40% of the group participating in the operation died. But Skorzeny remained alive and brought the Italian to Hitler. The performed operation brought Otto fame throughout the world.
In the spring of 1944, the saboteur was assigned a new operation, the goal of which was to capture partisan leader Josip Broz Tito in western Bosnia and end resistance to the Nazis in the Balkans. However, this mission ended in failure. Although Tito was captured, he and his closest associates later escaped using mountain paths and cave passages. But in his memoirs, Skorzeny assures that neither he nor his group took part in this operation.
In the summer of 1944, Otto performed another operation. A few days before the assassination attempt on Hitler, the man suppressed the rebellion of those who rebelled against him. The murder was organized by senior Wehrmacht officers. Skorzeny took control of the army headquarters of the ground forces. The man was awarded for his impeccable work.
However, not all of Skorzeny's seizures were successful. Operations “Long Jump” and “Grif” were unsuccessful for the saboteur.
Personal life
Despite his military biography, Otto arranged his personal life. He was married three times and had a daughter. Perhaps the man wanted more children, or at least dreamed of a son. When his wife was carrying a child, he even came up with a name - Klaus, but a girl was born, who was named Waltrauda.
Having already matured, Skorzeny’s daughter did not hide her affiliation with her father, and there were no problems with this. She gave birth to two sons, Otto loved and was very proud of his grandchildren. Waltrauda Riess called her father a strong personality, in whom people saw an officer who gave orders and demanded their execution.
During his lifetime, Skorzeny wrote more than one book, these are events from the life and reasoning of the author. Among the published works are “The Unknown War”, “Secret Assignments of the RSHA”, “Why We Didn’t Take Moscow”, etc. More than one documentary film has been made about Otto Skorzeny; contemporaries are interested in his life and military history.
Death
Skorzeny died in the summer of 1975. In recent years, the man suffered from a serious illness and was treated in a German clinic. He was first diagnosed in 1970, but after a successful operation he lived a normal life. The cause of death was lung cancer, which was again discovered by doctors, and Otto was no longer able to overcome the disease. The saboteur died at home at the age of 67, his body was cremated.
Before the funeral, the police came to Skorzeny's daughter. Authorities feared that neo-Nazi protests would begin at the funeral. But the woman did not know who would be present at the farewell to her father, so she could not foresee the outcome of the funeral event in advance.
The urn containing Otto's ashes was transported to Austria. The Skorzeny family cemetery is located there. Contrary to the fears of the saboteur's family and the police, the funeral took place calmly.
