Otto Skorzeny | |
---|---|
Birth name | Otto Johann Anton Skorzeny |
Born | Vienna, Austria-Hungary | 12 June 1908
Died | 5 July 1975 Madrid, Spain | (aged 67)
Allegiance | Nazi Germany (1932–1945) Francoist Spain (1950–1975) Argentina United Arab Republic (military advisor to Nasser) Israel |
Service/ | Schutzstaffel Mossad |
Rank | Obersturmbannführer, intelligence agent |
Commands | |
Battles/wars | |
Awards | Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves |
Other work | Civil engineer[1] |
Otto Johann Anton Skorzeny (12 June 1908 – 5 July 1975) was an Austrian-born German SS-Obersturmbannführer (lieutenant colonel) in the Waffen-SS during World War II. During the war, he was involved in a number of operations, including the removal from power of Hungarian Regent Miklós Horthy and the Gran Sasso raid which rescued Benito Mussolini from captivity. Skorzeny led Operation Greif in which German soldiers infiltrated Allied lines wearing their enemies' uniforms. As a result, he was charged in 1947 at the Dachau Military Tribunal with breaching the 1907 Hague Convention, but was acquitted.
Skorzeny escaped from an internment camp in 1948, hiding out on a Bavarian farm as well as in Salzburg and Paris before eventually settling in Spain. In 1953, he served as a military advisor to Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. He was allegedly an advisor to Argentinian president Juan Perón.[2][3] Skorzeny died of lung cancer on 5 July 1975 in Madrid at the age of 67.
haaretz2016
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).