“I am drawn to an extraordinary way of life,” Otto Skorzeny wrote in his diary during his studies, hinting at the fate that awaited him, though at the time he could not have imagined how extraordinary his life would become in the years to follow.
Few high-ranking Nazi officers managed to escape punishment after the war. However, not only did Skorzeny avoid prison, but after the fall of the Hitler regime, he successfully leveraged his military expertise in the service of Spain, Egypt, Argentina, and even Israel. Here is his story.
Youth and Pre-War Life of Skorzeny
Otto was born on June 12, 1908, in Vienna, into a family that, according to available sources, subjected him to a strict, austere, almost Spartan upbringing. From an early age, he showed an aptitude for foreign languages, and besides his native German, he quickly became fluent in French and competent in English. His family was neither particularly wealthy nor poor; by today’s standards, they could be described as middle class.
His father was a strict and tough old-school democrat, but Otto had a different view of the world. As Roman Cílek notes in his book I, Otto Skorzeny, “He felt a deep belonging to the ‘great, proud, and strong German tribe,’ and was captivated by the ideas of National Socialism.”
While studying at the Vienna University of Technology, he became a well-known fencer, a member of the German national fencing fraternity Burschenschaft. He fought in fifteen duels, and the tenth left him with a dramatic dueling scar, known as a Schmiss (German for “slash” or “strike”) across his face, making him unforgettable to anyone who met him.
In May 1932, Skorzeny joined the Austrian Nazi organization, and soon after, in February 1934, became a member of the Austrian branch of the Nazi Sturmabteilung (SA).
At that time, he worked as a civil engineer and married a woman named Gretl. Then, in 1938, Austria was annexed by Adolf Hitler. Skorzeny recalled this moment in his diary: “I watched Hitler’s triumphant arrival in Vienna from high above—from the top of the scaffolding around the museum on the Ringstrasse, which we were repairing. My workers were even more enthusiastic than I was—and I understood them. We were welcoming not just one of them but one of us.”
War, Injuries, and the Birth of a Guerrilla Warfare Genius
After the invasion of Poland, Otto Skorzeny tried to join the Luftwaffe but was told he was too tall (he stood at 193 cm) and, at 31 years old in 1939, too old. So he joined the Waffen-SS and trained with the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, a regiment of Hitler’s personal bodyguard. Later, he participated in the invasion of the Soviet Union with the SS division Das Reich and fought in several battles on the Eastern Front. However, Skorzeny was no ordinary soldier; he was a creative personality who soon drew attention for his unconventional thinking.
A wound sustained in one of those battles sent him back to Germany for treatment in 1942. There, he secured a position in the Berlin staff, largely due to his enthusiasm for developing unconventional warfare strategies, particularly focused on commando operations and the idea of creating units specialized in guerrilla warfare deep behind enemy lines, fighting in enemy uniforms, and conducting sabotage operations.
Out of many such operations, we’ll highlight just three.
Skorzeny and Operation Oak
Skorzeny’s most famous mission took place on September 12, 1943. Operation Oak (Unternehmen Eiche) was a mission designed and executed by Skorzeny to rescue the Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini, who was being held captive at the Hotel Campo Imperatore in the Gran Sasso massif of Italy.
For context: in 1943, after 20 years of Mussolini’s rule, even the Italians had had enough. The Allied invasion of Sicily was underway, and a landing in Italy was imminent. Mussolini’s regime was collapsing. On July 24, the Fascist Grand Council, led by Count Grandi, voted 19 to 7 to pass a vote of no confidence in Mussolini. Even his son-in-law, Count Galeazzo Ciano, voted against him. Mussolini was deposed on July 25, and on the orders of King Victor Emmanuel III, he was arrested and imprisoned in the mountain hotel of Campo Imperatore.
Hitler was shocked by Mussolini’s arrest and demanded that everything be done to find his friend.
On the evening of July 26, 1943, Hitler convened six officers from all branches of the German armed forces at his Wolf’s Lair headquarters in Rastenburg for a secret mission. One of them was Otto Skorzeny, and through him, the planning of Operation Oak began.
The risky operation commenced and concluded on September 12, 1943, when German paratroopers from the 2nd Fallschirmjäger-Division and several members of the SS Sicherheitsdienst landed in military gliders on the Gran Sasso massif. Despite one glider crash-landing, the German paratroopers subdued two hundred Italian carabinieri and freed Mussolini within ten minutes. Skorzeny accompanied Mussolini and undertook a highly dangerous but successful escape by plane.
Two days later, Mussolini met with Hitler, and on September 23, a puppet state, dependent entirely on Nazi Germany, was declared—the Italian Social Republic, also known as the Republic of Salo.
The success of the mission brought Otto Skorzeny fame across Europe as a hero of the Axis powers and a dangerous commando to the Allies.
Operation Greif
Skorzeny led Operation Greif, in which German soldiers infiltrated Allied lines disguised in enemy uniforms. These covert operations were part of the Battle of the Bulge, aimed at capturing bridges over the Meuse River before they could be destroyed.
Later, in 1947, Skorzeny would be tried before a military tribunal in Dachau for violating the Hague Convention of 1907 due to these deceptive tactics, but he was eventually acquitted.
Post-War Life
Skorzeny was held in an internment camp in Darmstadt, awaiting denazification proceedings. On July 27, 1948, he escaped with the help of three former SS officers dressed as U.S. military police. Skorzeny claimed that American authorities had helped him escape and provided the uniforms.
He hid in Bavaria, Salzburg, and Paris before settling in Spain. In 1953, he worked as a military advisor to Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. In the 1960s, he was heavily involved in the Spanish neo-Nazi group CEDADE, and in 1970, he founded Paladin Group, an international far-right paramilitary organization. Skorzeny’s influence extended throughout Europe and South America, and he reportedly even served as an advisor and bodyguard to Juan and Eva Perón.
Though wanted by the Israeli Mossad due to his Nazi past, he was eventually recruited by them instead. His motives for cooperating with Israel remain unclear, but it was likely a mix of his natural appetite for adventure and fear of assassination by Mossad. His task was to provide information on German scientists working on Egypt’s missile project aimed at Israel.
In the end, Skorzeny fulfilled his desire for an extraordinary life beyond measure. He died not by an enemy’s bullet but from a very ordinary cause: lung cancer, on July 5, 1975, in Madrid, at the age of 67.
Sources:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Skorzeny
- https://eisenhowerfoundation.net/primary-source/item/interview-otto-skorzeny
- https://web.archive.org/web/20130625233117/http://homepages.ius.edu/RVEST/SkorzenyDr2.htm
- CÍLEK, Roman. I, Otto Skorzeny–!: Hero or Gangster? Magnetka. Prague: Pražská vydavatelská společnost, s.r.o, 2010. ISBN 978-80-7425-072-9.
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