Jack Gaioni (Columnist)
AT first glance the funeral in Madrid seemed like nothing out of the ordinary.
It was a warm June day in 1975 and the few dozen mourners initially lowered their heads to pay their respects as the flower-draped casket rolled gently by.
But then came the shock when, clearly on cue, the majority of attendees suddenly stretched out their right arms in a full Nazi salute.
When they began singing a series of Adolf Hitler songs, the event became intriguing in the extreme… And even more so when it later emerged that some of those in attendance were members of Israel’s intelligence agency, Mossad.
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This was the funeral of Madrid resident Otto Skorzeny, a former Nazi who had happily lived in the Spanish capital for decades.
As strange as it may sound to readers who have just watched the 80th anniversary of the D Day landings to liberate Europe from the Nazis, a group of former SS leaders at a funeral in Spain wasn’t all that rare.
What was; is the attendance of members of a group dedicated to Israel’s security. Strange bedfellows? Counterintuitive? Illogical?
You need to consider the life of Otto (1908-1975) who was born in Vienna into a family with a long and distinguished military legacy.
He certainly cut a fine figure. He was tall (nearly 2 meters), athletic (an Olympic fencing champion) with movie star good looks.
Many believed Otto bore a striking similarity to the dashing Hollywood star Errol Flynn. And he had an appropriate dramatic facial scar (c/o fencing) that only added to his swashbuckling persona.
We need to go back to 1932 though when he joined the Austrian Nazi Party and swiftly moved up the ranks.
After completing numerous commando raids, Otto became one of Hitler’s favorite soldiers. So good, in fact, that he became the Fuhrer’s bodyguard and chief of all commando operations.
His missions were audacious, bold and worthy of an Ian Flemming/James Bond script. They included Operation Oak when in 1943 Italian partisans kidnapped Hitler’s closest ally, Benito Mussolini and imprisoned him high in the Apennine Mountains.
Otto and company, using gliders made of canvas, were able to crash land near the prison, free Mussolini and safely escort him back to Berlin.
The Fuhrer was delighted! The mission even impressed Winston Churchill, who called Otto ‘the most dangerous man in Europe’.
Then there was Operation Greif: Otto was assigned the task of training English-speaking German troops, dressed as American soldiers, driving captured Allied jeeps and tanks to roam behind enemy lines.
Their orders were simple: to cause great disruption by upsetting Allied communications, giving false orders and misdirecting traffic. The Fuhrer and Otto believed the mission could change the course of the critical Battle of the Bulge and for a brief period, they were correct
Operation Long Jump: Later that same year, Otto personally devised a commando plan to assassinate the Big Three (Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt) at the Tehran Conference in Iran.
Stalin however, somehow uncovered the plot and Otto was able to convince Hitler the plan was unworkable. The mission was aborted.
Operation Francois: Otto led German commandos to disrupt British and American supplies bound for the Soviet Union from Iran. It involved him parachuting into the wilds of Iran to befriend some cooperating natives in methods of sabotage.
At the war’s conclusion and during the subsequent Nuremberg trials (Nov.1945), Otto was imprisoned as a war criminal.
And in true derring do he escaped and for two years hid out as a fugitive in France, Bavaria, and later rural Ireland.
But by 1950 he was living openly in Madrid where a sympathetic Francoist Spain welcomed Nazi refugees as asylum seekers.
By all appearances, his new life appeared normal. Married and settled and no longer living as a fugitive, he quietly set up a small import/export business.
It was not long before it became apparent that his business was a front to help numerous Nazis escape to South America.
This was especially to Argentina where Otto not only ‘advised’ Juan Peron but became a bodyguard (and some say a lover!) to Eva Peron.
He also became the founder and advisor for the Paladin Group, an organisation based near Alicante which specialised in arming and training international guerilla groups.
During his two decades stay in Spain, he also made many trips to Egypt. There he began a program to train Arab volunteers in commando tactics for possible strikes against British troops stationed on the Suez Canal.
One of those trainees was none other than the Palestinian hero and leader, Yasser Arafat.
As a personal advisor to Egyptian President Gamel Nasser, Otto helped recruit German scientists in a missile program to be used against Israel.
Unsurprisingly, Otto’s actions in Egypt did not go unnoticed by Israel’s Mossad.
One evening in 1962 two Mossad agents posing as a couple befriended him in a Madrid bar.
He was initially sure they were there to kill him and later explained his enormous surprise when it turned out they wanted to hire him.
For unknown reasons Otto agreed. Sent to Jerusalem to meet with Mossad hierarchy, Otto, with his Egyptian connections, began to compile a list of German scientists and the names of front companies from Europe that were complicit in Egypt’s military projects.
He was soon ‘hands on’ involved in the kidnapping and assassination of Heinz Krug, an infamous German scientist and chief hardware supplier for the Egyptian missile program.
Otto never explained, at least publicly, how he could transition from being a Nazi commando and bodyguard to Hitler to being an agent for Israel’s secret service.
The irony is rich. Was he seeking atonement for his Nazi past? Did he fear for his life if he did otherwise? Or was he just a swashbuckling adventurer seeking his next adrenaline fix?
He supposedly took the answer to his Madrid grave so we may never know.
