Otto Skorzeny
Austrian Waffen-SS officer (1908–1975)
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Key Takeaways
- Otto Johann Anton Skorzeny (12 June 1908 – 5 July 1975) was an Austrian-born German SS- Standartenführer in the Waffen-SS during World War II.
- Skorzeny led Operation Greif in which German soldiers infiltrated Allied lines wearing their enemies' uniforms.
- 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.
- He was allegedly an advisor to Argentinian president Juan Perón.
- Early life Otto Skorzeny was born in Vienna into a middle-class Austrian family which had a long history of military service.
Otto Johann Anton Skorzeny (12 June 1908 – 5 July 1975) was an Austrian-born German SS-Standartenführer 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 that 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 the Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. He was allegedly an advisor to Argentinian president Juan Perón. He died of lung cancer on 5 July 1975 in Madrid at the age of 67.
Early life
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 ancestors came from Skorzęcin in the Greater Poland region, eventually immigrating to East Prussia.
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."
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