Otto Skorzeny
(12 June 1908 – 5 July 1975) was an Austrian SS-Obersturmbannführer[1]
(lieutenant colonel) in the German Waffen-SS
during World
War II. After fighting on the Eastern Front, he accompanied the rescue
mission that freed the deposed Italian dictator Benito
Mussolini from captivity. Books and papers written about him prior to the
2013 release of records pursuant to the Nazi War Crimes Declassification Act
incorrectly refer to him as "Field Commander" of the operation.
Skorzeny was the leader of Operation
Greif, in which German soldiers were to infiltrate through enemy lines,
using their opponents' languages, uniforms, and customs. At the end of the war,
Skorzeny was involved with the Werwolf guerrilla movement.
Although
he was charged with breaching the 1907 Hague Convention in relation
to Operation Greif, the Dachau Military Tribunal acquitted Skorzeny after the
war. Skorzeny fled from his holding prison in 1948, first to France, and then to Spain.
He later lived in Ireland.
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