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Otto Skorzeny
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Otto Skorzeny
Bundesarchiv Bild 101III-Alber-183-25, Otto Skorzeny.jpg
Skorzeny as commander of the SS unit "Friedenthal"
Born 12 June 1908
Vienna, Austria-Hungary
Died 5 July 1975 (aged 67)
Madrid, Francoist Spain
Allegiance Nazi Germany
Years of service 1931–1945
Rank Obersturmbannführer
Commands held SS Panzer Brigade 150
Battles/wars
World War II
Eastern Front
Operation Oak
Operation Panzerfaust
Battle of the Bulge (Operation Greif)
Awards Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross
Otto Skorzeny (12 June 1908 – 5 July 1975) was an Austrian SS-
Obersturmbannführer (lieutenant colonel) in the German Waffen-SS during
World War II. During the war, he was involved in a string of operations,
including the rescue mission that freed the deposed Italian dictator Benito
Mussolini from captivity. Skorzeny led Operation Greif, in which German
soldiers infiltrated enemy lines using their opponents' languages, uniforms,
and customs. For this he was charged at the Dachau Military Tribunal with
breaching the 1907 Hague Convention, but was acquitted. At the end of the
war, Skorzeny was involved with the Werwolf guerrilla movement.
Skorzeny escaped from an internment camp in 1948, hiding out on a Bavarian
farm for 18 months, then spent time in Paris and Salzburg before eventually
settling in Spain. In 1953 he became a military advisor to Egyptian
President Mohammed Naguib and recruited a staff of former SS and Wehrmacht
officers to train the Egyptian Army, staying on to advise President Gamal
Abdel Nasser. In 1962, Skorzeny was recruited by the Mossad and conducted
operations for the agency. He spent time in Argentina, where he acted as an
advisor to President Juan Perón and as a bodyguard for Eva Perón.[1]
Skorzeny died of lung cancer on 5 July 1975 in Madrid. He was 67.
Contents [hide]
1 Pre-war years
2 Eastern Front
3 Operations by Skorzeny
3.1 Liberation of Mussolini
3.2 Operation Long Jump
3.3 Raid on Drvar
3.4 Hungary and Operation Panzerfaust
3.5 Operation Greif and the German defeat
4 Post World War II
4.1 Dachau Trials
4.2 Escape from prison
4.3 Military advisor
4.4 Recruitment by the Mossad
4.5 Neo-Nazi activities
5 Death
6 Awards
7 In fiction
8 References
9 Articles
10 Bibliography
11 External links
Pre-war years[edit]
Otto Skorzeny was born in Vienna into a middle class Austrian family which
had a long history of military service. His surname is of Polish origin and
Skorzeny's distant relatives came from a village called Skorzęcin in
Greater Poland region.[2]
In addition to his native German, he spoke excellent French and was
proficient in English. In his teens, Skorzeny once complained to his father
about the austere lifestyle the family was enduring; his father replied, "
There is no harm in doing without things. It might even be good for you not
to get used to a soft life."[3]
He was a noted fencer as member of a German-national Burschenschaft as a
university student in Vienna. He engaged in fifteen personal combats. The
tenth resulted in a wound that left a dramatic dueling scar—known in
academic fencing as a Schmiss (German for "smite" or "hit")—on his cheek.[4]
In 1931 Skorzeny joined the Austrian Nazi Party and soon became a member of
the Nazi SA. A charismatic figure, Skorzeny played a minor role in the
Anschluss on 12 March 1938, when he saved the Austrian President Wilhelm
Miklas from being shot by Austrian Nazis.[5]
Eastern Front[edit]
After the 1939 invasion of Poland, Skorzeny, then working as a civil
engineer, volunteered for service in the German Air Force (the Luftwaffe),
but was turned down because he was considered too tall at 1.92 metres (6 ft
4 in) and too old (31 years in 1939) for aircrew training.[6] He then joined
Hitler's bodyguard regiment, the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH) as
an officer-cadet.[citation needed]
Skorzeny took part in the invasion of the Soviet Union with the SS Division
Das Reich and subsequently fought in several battles on the Eastern Front.
In October 1941, he 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 office and other high priority
facilities, before they could be destroyed. He was also ordered to capture
the sluices of the Moscow-Volga Canal because Hitler wanted to turn Moscow
into a huge artificial lake by opening them.[7] The missions were canceled
as the German forces failed to capture the Soviet capital.[8]
In December 1942, Skorzeny was hit in the back of the head by shrapnel; he
was evacuated to the rear for treatment. He was awarded the Iron Cross.
While recuperating from his injuries he was given a staff role in Berlin,
where he developed his ideas on unconventional commando warfare.[6] Skorzeny
's proposals were to develop units specialized in such warfare, including
partisan-like fighting deep behind enemy lines, fighting in enemy uniform,
sabotage attacks, etc. In April 1943 Skorzeny's name was put forward by
Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the new head of the RSHA, and Skorzeny met with Walter
Schellenberg, head of Amt VI, Ausland-SD, (the SS foreign intelligence
service department of the RSHA). Schellenberg charged Skorzeny with command
of the schools organized to train operatives in sabotage, espionage, and
paramilitary techniques. Skorzeny was appointed commander of the recently
created Waffen Sonderverband z.b.V. Friedenthal stationed near Berlin (the
unit was later renamed SS Jagdverband 502, and in November 1944 again to SS
Combat Unit "Center", expanding ultimately to five battalions).[9]
The unit's first mission was in mid-1943, Operation François. Skorzeny
sent 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 François
was deemed a failure.[10]
“ Skorzeny arranged a meeting with the leaders of the former
administration in Byelorussia [Weißruthenien], all of whom had beat a
hasty retreat to Berlin in June and July 1944. These men, Radislaw Ostrowsky
, V.I. Rodko and Mikola Abramchyk, agreed to cooperate in finding recruits
and staff for several sabotage schools that could train infiltrators. Such
line-crossers, it was felt, could serve as rallying points for partisans who
had already fled to the woods. Two SD facilities were established, one at
Dahlwitz, near Berlin, and a second at Walbuze, in East Prussia. Radio
communications, encoding, demolitions and assassination techniques were
taught at these schools. FAK 203 also established a Byelorussian camp at
Insterburg, which was run by Major Gerullis. This facility was later
evacuated to Boitzenburg, in Pomerania, and was eventually transferred to
Jagdverband Ost.
In the late summer and autumn of 1944, FAK 203 sent several teams into
Soviet-liberated area of Byelorussia, and these detachments were followed by
a thirty-man paratroop unit codenamed the 'Black Cats' and led by Michael
Vitushka. A number of groups with radio transmitters were also air-dropped
into the area east of Vilna, where they operated so effectively that the
Germans made plans for large-scale parachute drops in the region, although
such operations were impossible to execute because of the shortage of
aircraft. Other detachments filtered through the dense Bielavieza Forest,
near Byalistok, and such squads had considerable success in rousing the '
forest fugitives' to greater levels of insurgency.[11]
”
Operations by Skorzeny[edit]
Operation François – Co-ordination of guerilla operations in Iran.
Operation Oak (Unternehmen Eiche, September 1943) – rescue of Italian
dictator Benito Mussolini.
Operation Long Jump – A planned operation to assassinate the "Big Three" (
Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt) during the 1943 Tehran Conference. The
plot was uncovered before its inception.
Operation Knight's Leap (Unternehmen Rösselsprung, May 1944) – An
attempt to capture Josip Broz Tito alive.
Operation Armoured Fist (Unternehmen Panzerfaust a.k.a. Unternehmen
Eisenfaust, October 1944) – kidnapping of Miklós Horthy Jr. to force his
father, Hungarian Regent, Admiral Miklós Horthy, to resign as head of state
in favor of Ferenc Szálasi, the pro-Nazi leader of the Arrow Cross Party.
Operation Griffin (Unternehmen Greif, December 1944) – A false flag
operation to spread disinformation during the Battle of the Bulge.
Werwolf SS – A planned Nazi underground resistance movement in Allied-
occupied Europe.
Liberation of Mussolini[edit]
Main article: Gran Sasso raid
Skorzeny (centre, binoculars hanging from neck) with the liberated Mussolini
– 12 September 1943
In July 1943, he was personally selected by Hitler from among six German Air
Force (Luftwaffe) and German Army (Heer) special agents to lead the
operation to rescue Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, who had been
overthrown and imprisoned by the Italian government.[12]
Almost two months of cat-and-mouse followed as the Italians moved Mussolini
from place to place to frustrate any rescuers. There was a failed attempt to
rescue 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 all but one of
his crew bailed out safely. Mussolini was first held in a villa on La
Maddalena, near Sardinia. Skorzeny was able to smuggle an Italian-speaking
commando onto the island, and a few days later he confirmed Mussolini was in
the villa. 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 Skorzeny and the crew were rescued by an Italian
destroyer.
Mussolini was moved soon after. Information on Mussolini's new location and
its topographical features were finally secured by Herbert Kappler. Kappler
reported 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.
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 Skorzeny.[contradictory]
On 12 September, Gran Sasso raid (a.k.a. Operation Oak and Unternehmen Eiche
), was carried out perfectly according to plan. Mussolini was rescued
without firing a single shot. Flying out in a Storch airplane, Skorzeny
escorted Mussolini to Rome and later to Berlin. The exploit earned Skorzeny
fame, promotion to Sturmbannführer and the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
. Mussolini created a new Fascist regime in northern Italy, the Italian
Social Republic (Repubblica Sociale Italiana). Books and papers written
about him prior to the 2013 release of records pursuant to the Nazi War
Crimes Declassification Act incorrectly refer to him as "Field Commander" of
the operation.[13]
Operation Long Jump[edit]
Main article: Operation Long Jump
Skorzeny (2nd from left), 3 October 1943
"Operation Long Jump" was the alleged codename given to a plot to
assassinate the "Big Three" (Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill, and Franklin
Roosevelt) at the 1943 Tehran Conference.[14] Hitler supposedly gave the
command of the operation to Ernst Kaltenbrunner, chief of the RSHA, who, in
turn, ceded the mission to Skorzeny. Knowledge of the whole scheme was
presented to the Western Allies by Stalin's NKVD at the Tehran conference.
The Soviets said they had learned about its existence from counter espionage
activities against German intelligence. Their agents had found out the
Nazis knew the time and place of this meeting because they had cracked a US
naval code. According to the NKVD the assassination plot was foiled after
they identified the German spies in Iran forcing Skorzeny to call off the
mission due to inadequate intelligence.[15]
Following Tehran, the story was treated with incredulity by the British and
Americans who dismissed it as Soviet propaganda.[15] Skorzeny supported this
view by stating in his post-war memoirs that no such operation ever existed
.[16] He said the story about the plans being leaked to Soviet spy Nikolai
Kuznetsov by an SS Sturmbannführer named Hans Ulrich von Ortel was a
complete Soviet invention; Hans Ulrich von Ortel never existed.[17][18]
Skorzeny claimed his name was used only to add credibility to the story
because the NKVD knew his renowned record as an SS commando would make the
existence of such an operation more plausible.[16]:193
Raid on Drvar[edit]
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Main article: Raid on Drvar
In early 1944, Sonderverband z.b.V. Friedenthal was re-designated SS-Jä
ger-Bataillon 502 with Skorzeny staying on as commander. They were assigned
to Operation Rösselsprung, known subsequently as the Raid on Drvar. R&#
246;sselsprung was a commando operation meant to capture the Yugoslav
commander-in-chief, Marshal Josip Broz Tito, who was also recently
recognized by the Allies as the Yugoslav prime minister. Marshal Tito led
the Yugoslav Partisans resistance army from his headquarters near the
Bosnian town of Drvar, in the center of a large area held by the Partisans.
Hitler knew 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 Tito would
not only hinder this, it would give a badly needed boost to the morale of
Axis forces engaged in occupied Yugoslavia. Skorzeny was involved in
planning Rösselsprung and was intended to command it. However, he
argued against implementation after he visited Zagreb and discovered that
the operation had been compromised through the carelessness of German agents
in the Nazi-affiliated Independent State of Croatia in 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 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
Tito 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. Tito was gone long before paratroopers reached the cave; a trail
at the back of the cave led to the railway tracks where 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 twelve-mile (nineteen-
kilometer) forced march and attacked the Waffen-SS paratroopers, inflicting
heavy casualties.
Hungary and Operation Panzerfaust[edit]
Main article: Operation Panzerfaust
Skorzeny (left) and Adrian von Fölkersam (right) in Budapest, 16
October 1944
In October 1944, Hitler sent 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.
Skorzeny, in a daring "snatch" codenamed Operation Panzerfaust (known as
Operation Eisenfaust in Germany), kidnapped Horthy's son Miklós Horthy Jr.
and forced his father to resign as head of state. A pro-Nazi 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,
Szálasi and his Arrow Cross Party-based forces continued the fight in
Austria and Slovakia. The success of the operation earned Skorzeny promotion
to Obersturmbannführer.[19]
Operation Greif and the German defeat[edit]
Further information: Operation Greif and Defence of Schwedt Bridgehead
Skorzeny in Pomerania visiting the 500th SS Parachute Battalion, February
1945.
As part of the German Ardennes offensive in late 1944 (Battle of the Bulge),
Skorzeny's English-speaking troops were charged with infiltrating American
lines disguised in American uniforms in order to produce confusion to
support the German attack. For the campaign, Skorzeny was the commander of a
composite unit, the 150th SS Panzer Brigade. As planned by Skorzeny,
Operation Greif involved about two dozen German soldiers, most of them in
captured American Jeeps and disguised in American uniforms, who would
penetrate American lines in the early hours of the Battle of the Bulge to
cause disorder and confusion.[20] Skorzeny was well aware that under the
Hague Convention of 1907, any of his men captured while wearing U.S.
uniforms would be executed as spies and this possibility caused much
discussion with Generaloberst Jodl and Field Marshal von Rundstedt.[21]
A handful of his men were captured and spread a rumour that 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 Skorzeny,
with "Wanted" posters distributed throughout Allied-controlled territories
featuring a detailed description and a photograph.[22] In all, twenty-three
of Skorzeny's men were captured behind American lines and eighteen were
executed as spies for contravening the rules of war by wearing enemy
uniforms.[23][24]
Skorzeny spent January and February 1945 commanding regular troops as an
acting major general, taking part in the defence of the German provinces of
East Prussia and Pomerania, and at the Defence of Schwedt Bridgehead.[
citation needed] On 17 March, he received orders to sabotage the last
remaining intact bridge across the Rhine at Remagen following its capture by
the Allies, but the bridge collapsed that same day, and the naval
demolitions squad prepared instead unsuccessfully attacked a nearby Allied
pontoon bridge between Kripp and Linz.[25] Hitler awarded him one of Germany
's highest military honours, the Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross.[26]
Post World War II[edit]
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Dachau Trials[edit]
Waiting in a cell as a witness at the Nuremberg trials – 24 November 1945
Skorzeny was interned for two years before being tried as a war criminal at
the Dachau Trials in 1947 for allegedly violating the laws of war during the
Battle of the Bulge. He and nine officers of the Panzerbrigade 150 were
tried before a U.S. Military Tribunal in Dachau on 18 August 1947. They
faced charges of improper use of U.S. military insignia, theft of U.S.
uniforms, and theft of Red Cross parcels from U.S. POWs. The trial lasted
over three weeks. The charge of stealing Red Cross parcels was dropped for
lack of evidence. Skorzeny admitted to ordering his men to wear U.S.
uniforms; but his defence argued that, as long as 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, F. F. E. Yeo-Thomas, a former
British SOE agent, testified that he and his operatives wore German uniforms
behind enemy lines; the Tribunal acquitted the ten defendants. The Tribunal
drew a distinction between using enemy uniforms during combat and for other
purposes including deception and were unable to prove that Skorzeny had
given any orders to actually fight in U.S. uniforms.[24][27]
Escape from prison[edit]
Skorzeny was detained in an internment camp at Darmstadt awaiting the
decision of a denazification court.[28] On 27 July 1948 he 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 Skorzeny to Nuremberg for a legal hearing. Skorzeny afterwards
maintained that the US authorities had aided his escape, and had supplied
the uniforms.[29]
Skorzeny hid out at a farm in Bavaria which had been rented by Countess Ilse
Lüthje, the niece of Hjalmar Schacht (Hitler's former finance minister),
for around 18 months, during which time he was in contact with Reinhard
Gehlen, and together with Hartmann Lauterbacher (former deputy head of the
Hitler Youth) recruited for the Gehlen Organization.[30] 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 move to
Salzburg, where he met up with German veterans and also filed for divorce
so that he could marry Ilse Lüthje.[31]
Shortly afterwards, with the help of a Nansen passport issued by the Spanish
government, he moved to Madrid, where he set up a small engineering
business.[citation needed] On April 1950 the publication of Skorzeny's
memoirs by the French newspaper Le Figaro caused 1500 communists to riot
outside the journal's headquarters.[32]
Military advisor[edit]
In 1952 Egypt was taken over by General Mohammed Naguib. 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. Skorzeny recruited
a staff made up of former SS and Wehrmacht officers to train the Egyptian
army. Among these officers were former Wehrmacht generals Wilhelm
Fahrmbacher and Oskar Munzel; the head of the Gestapo Department for Jewish
Affairs in Poland Leopold Gleim; and Joachim Daemling, former chief of the
Gestapo in Düsseldorf. In addition to training the army, 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 Skorzeny planned their raids into Israel via
the Gaza Strip in 1953-1954. One of these Palestinians was Yasser Arafat.[
33]
He stayed on to serve as an adviser to Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser
.[34] After, he traveled between Spain and Argentina, where he acted as an
advisor to President Juan Perón[35][1] and as a bodyguard for Eva Perón,[
34][1] while fostering an ambition for the "Fourth Reich" to be centered in
Latin America.[36][37][38]
Recruitment by the Mossad[edit]
The Israeli security and intelligence magazine Matara published an article
in 1989 claiming that Skorzeny had been recruited by Mossad in 1963, to
obtain information on German scientists who were working on an Egyptian
project to develop rockets to be used against Israel.[39] Reporting on the
Matara story, the major Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronot said that they had
confirmed the story from their own senior Mossad source.[39] Former Mossad
head Isser Harel confirmed that former Nazis were recruited to provide
intelligence on Arab countries.[40]
Ian Black and Benny Morris wrote in 1991 that Skorzeny may not have known
who he was working for,[41] but in 2010 Tom Segev published in his biography
of Simon Wiesenthal that Skorzeny had offered to help only if Wiesenthal
removed him from his list of wanted war criminals.[42] Wiesenthal refused,
but Skorzeny finally agreed to help anyway.[42] Segev gave as his main
source the senior Mossad agent Rafi Meidan, to whom Segev attributes the
primary role in the recruitment of Skorzeny.[42]
Further details of the story were published by Yossi Melman and Dan Raviv in
2016.[35] According to their information, a Mossad team had started to
develop a plan to kill Skorzeny, but chief Isser Harel decided to attempt to
recruit him instead, as a man on the inside would greatly enhance their
ability to target Nazis who were providing military assistance to Egypt.[35]
He was successfully recruited and conducted operations for Mossad from 1962
, where he worked with Avraham Ahituv and Rafi Eitan. Melman and Raviv noted
that Eitan had confirmed Skorzeny's recruitment without commenting further,
but other unnamed sources provided the details.[35] Skorzeny was recruited
after Mossad visited his home in Spain, where he expected he would be
assassinated. After undergoing instruction and training in the Mossad's
facilities in Israel, his work for the Mossad included assassinating German
rocket scientist Heinz Krug who was working with Egypt, and mailing a letter
bomb which killed five Egyptians at the Egyptian military rocket site
Factory 333. He also supplied the names and addresses of German scientists
working for Egypt and the names of European front companies supplying
military hardware to Egypt.[35]
Skorzeny never explained his precise reasons for helping Israel. It is
speculated that Skorzeny's motives for working for the Mossad may have been
a desire for adventure and intrigue, as well as to ensure he would not face
assassination attempts from Mossad.[35][43]
Neo-Nazi activities[edit]
It is believed by some[weasel words] that by using the cover names Robert
Steinbacher and Otto Steinbauer, and supported by either Nazi funds or (
according to some sources) by Austrian intelligence, Skorzeny set up a
secret organization named Die Spinne (English: "The Spider") which helped as
many as 600 former SS men escape from Germany to Spain, Argentina, Paraguay
, Chile, Bolivia, and other countries.[44][45] As the years went by,
Skorzeny, Gehlen, and their network of collaborators gained enormous
influence in Europe and Latin America.[citation needed] Skorzeny was a
founder and an advisor to the leadership of the Spanish neo-Nazi group
CEDADE, which had been established in 1966.[46]
Like thousands of other former Nazis, Skorzeny was declared entnazifiziert (
denazified) in absentia in 1952 by a West German government arbitration
board, which now meant he could travel from Spain into other Western
countries, on a special Nansen passport for stateless persons with which he
visited Ireland in 1957 and 1958. In late 1958 he qualified for an Austrian
passport and in 1959 he purchased Martinstown House, a 165-acre (67 ha) farm
in County Kildare. Although Skorzeny could not be refused entry without due
cause, he was refused a residency visa by the Irish government and had to
limit his stays to six weeks at a time, during which he was monitored by G2.
He rarely visited after 1963 and sold Martinstown House in 1971.[47]
Skorzeny also owned property on Majorca.[48]
In the 1960s Skorzeny set up the Paladin Group, which he envisioned as "an
international directorship of strategic assault personnel [that would]
straddle the watershed between paramilitary operations carried out by troops
in uniform and the political warfare which is conducted by civilian agents"
. Based near Alicante, Spain, the Paladin Group specialized in arming and
training guerrillas, and its clients included the South African Bureau of
State Security. It also carried out work for the Greek military junta of
1967–1974 and some of its operatives were recruited by the Spanish Interior
Ministry to wage a clandestine war against the terrorist group ETA.[49]
Death[edit]
In 1970, a cancerous tumour was discovered on Skorzeny's spine. Two tumours
were later removed while he was staying at a hospital in Hamburg, but the
surgery left him paralyzed from the waist down. Vowing to walk again,
Skorzeny spent long hours with a physical therapist; and, within six months,
he was back on his feet. Skorzeny died of lung cancer on 5 July 1975 in
Madrid. He was 67 years old.[50] At no point in his life did Skorzeny ever
denounce Nazism.[1]
He was given a Roman Catholic funeral Mass in Madrid on 7 August 1975. His
coffin was draped in the Nazi colours.[1][disputed – discuss] His body was
cremated afterwards, and his ashes were later taken to Vienna to be interred
in the Skorzeny family plot at Döblinger Friedhof. His funeral "was
attended by dozens of German military veterans and wives, who did not
hesitate to give the one-armed Nazi salute", according to former Mossad
agents who attended the funeral.[35][51]
Awards[edit]
Iron Cross (1939) 2nd Class (26 August 1941) & 1st Class (12 September 1943)
[52]
Knights Cross of the Iron Cross, 13 September 1943; Oakleaves, 9 April 1945
(826th)[53]
In fiction[edit]
Like many other prominent World War II figures, Skorzeny has been portrayed
in several works of fiction, such as the Worldwar tetralogy by Harry
Turtledove,[54] 1945 by Newt Gingrich,[55] and other novels. In The Eagle
Has Landed by Jack Higgins, the rescue of Mussolini inspires a plan to
kidnap Winston Churchill.[56]
Skorzeny has appeared as a character in TV-dramas such as Mussolini: The
Untold Story and Mussolini and I.[57] |
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