He was Mussolini’s liberator, spy and “organizer” of coups d’état, but also a man willing to change his coat depending on any occasion. Otto Skorzeny, an SS officer, easily recognizable by the scar on his cheek and his imposing build, became known eighty years ago when he participated in Operation Quercia, the blitz that allowed the Germans to take over Benito Mussolini, who was a prisoner at the time of the carabinieri in Campo Imperatore. The operation, organized by Luftwaffe General Kurt Student, saw the presence of Skorzeny who, despite not having had a leading role in the affair, managed to take credit for it: he made way to pose next to Mussolini and, in one of the photo of the time, you can see his enthusiastic figure next to that of a resigned and energyless leader. Skorzeny, who certainly did not lack the spirit of initiative, decided to accompany Mussolini by boarding the stork plane that hosted him – risking causing a plane crash given the excessive weight of the crew. From that day on, that sinister-looking man became the Duce’s liberator.
Who was Otto Skorzeny?
Otto Skorzeny was born in Vienna on 12 June 1908, into a family of distant Polish origins. During his adolescence, the future SS officer stood out for his skills: he learned French and English, and often came into conflict with his father over the austere lifestyle led by the family. He was also an excellent fencing fighter: during one of his duels he suffered a deep wound to his face that would scar him for life.
His career with Nazism took off in 1932, when he joined the Austrian National Socialist Party and, later, the SA. After the Anschluss and the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, Skorzeny applied to join the Luftwaffe, the German air force, but was rejected due to his height, which was considered excessive (he was 1.94 meters tall). . He then joined the Waffen-SS, the fighting SS, serving first in the SS-Panzer-Division “Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler” and then in the SS-Panzer-Division “Das Reich”. In 1941 he participated in the Battle of Moscow and in 1942 he was decorated with the Iron Cross Second Class.
In 1943 his honors course experienced a turning point: its name was proposed by Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the powerful head of the Rsha, the Central Office for Reich Security, the enormous repressive and espionage apparatus of Nazi Germany. Skorzeny then met with General Walter Schellenberg, commander of Section VI: Schellenberg gave Skorzeny command of the schools organized to train agents in sabotage, espionage, and paramilitary techniques. Skorzeny was appointed commander of the Waffen SS Sonderverband zbV Friedenthal near Berlin.
Among Skorzeny’s first missions was Operation François, an attempt to use the dissident Qashqai people in Iran to sabotage British and American supplies to the Soviet Union. Then a series of shots, more or less lucky, until the Duce was freed.
Operation Panzerfaust
After Mussolini’s liberation, another Skorzeny plan became infamous for its unfortunate consequences. The Kingdom of Hungary had been at war on the side of the Axis since 1940, but from the end of 1943, with military defeats in the Soviet Union, the country was looking for a way out of the conflict. Wanting to prevent the loss of Hungarian territory, the Germans implemented Operation Margarethe, the military occupation of the country. Deportations began, involving over 400 thousand people. The regent of Hungary, Admiral Miklós Horthy, tried to continue negotiations with the Allies and to stop the deportations. But his attempts were discovered by the Nazis: in October 1944 Skorzeny directed Operation Panzerfaust, aimed at removing Horthy and promoting the rise to power of Ferenc Szálasi, leader of the Arrow Cross Party. It was a death sentence for the Jews remaining in a Budapest besieged by the Soviets. Thousands were killed during pogroms organized by Arrow Cross militiamen.
Shoes on the bank of the Danube, in memory of the Jews murdered by the Arrow Cross
Skorzeny after the war: from defeat to recycling
The last operation orchestrated by Otto Skorzeny during World War II was disastrous. In late 1944, during the Ardennes offensive, he attempted to infiltrate German soldiers who spoke fluent English behind Allied lines, with the aim of causing disorder and confusion. Almost all the spies were captured and sixteen were shot. General Eisenhower placed a bounty on Skorzeny’s head. After the war he was interned for two years before being tried as a war criminal at the Dachau Trials in 1947 for alleged violations of the laws of war during the Battle of the Bulge. But he managed to escape in 1948 from the camp where he was interned.
The end of the war did not mark the end of Skorzeny’s career, however. He became an advisor to Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. According to some authors, he traveled between Spain and Argentina, where he acted as advisor to President Juan Perón and as bodyguard to Eva Perón. And perhaps he also worked for the Mossad, the Israeli secret service: the Israeli security and intelligence magazine Matara published an article in 1989 in which he claimed that Skorzeny had been recruited by the Mossad in 1963 to obtain information on German scientists who were working on a project Egyptian to develop rockets for use against Israel. In this capacity he probably participated in the assassination of Heinz Krug who worked for the Egyptian government.