SKORZENY, OTTO (1908–1975). An SS officer known for his dar-
ing commando operations during World War II, Otto Skorzeny was
born in Vienna on 12 June 1908, the son of a middle-class family
with a tradition of military service. An engineering student at the
University of Vienna, he was also an accomplished fencer, receiving
a prominent facial scar in one of numerous duels. Initially a member
of the student Freikorps and the Austrian Heimwehr, he joined the
Nazi Party in 1930 and played a minor role in the 1938 Anschluss.
With the outbreak of war, Skorzeny—barred from the Luftwaffe
because of his age—obtained a position in the bodyguard regiment
SS-Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler in Berlin. His subsequent military
service abroad—in France, the Netherlands, and the Soviet Union—
culminated in the award of the Iron Cross for bravery under fire.
In April 1943, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, his compatriot in the SS
hierarchy, named Skorzeny to head a special sabotage unit of the
Sicherheitsdienst, prompting him to study the techniques developed
by the British and the Americans. Several months later, when Benito
Mussolini was removed from power by the Italian Grand Council,
which desired an armistice with the Allies, Hitler selected Skorzeny
to rescue his Italian ally from captivity in Operation eiche (Oak
Tree). On 12 September, Skorzeny’s force of 90 soldiers silently
landed in gliders at a heavily defended and almost inaccessible ski
lodge at the Grand Sasso in the Apennines. The Italian soldiers
guarding Mussolini were taken by surprise, and a light Storch air-
craft, which narrowly averted a disaster on takeoff, transported him
directly to Vienna. The exploit earned Skorzeny not only a promotion
and a Knight’s Cross but also worldwide recognition owing to Joseph
Goebbels’s propaganda apparatus.
Following the failure of the 20 July 1944 conspiracy against Hitler,
Skorzeny mobilized a special SS unit in Berlin composed of officers
loyal to the Führer. In October, Hitler, learning Hungary wanted to
defect from the Axis alliance and make peace with the Allies, again
called on Skorzeny. Dubbed panzerfaust (Bazooka), the plan in-
volved seizing the Citadel in Budapest, the formidable fortress where
the head of state, Miklós Horthy, and his entourage resided. To avoid
an unprovoked attack on the city, Skorzeny first devised a kidnap-
ping scheme whereby Horthy’s son, Niklas, would be held hostage
in order to force Horthy to comply with Hitler’s wishes (this opera-
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