documentary History | Politics OTTO SKORZENY ... - Interspot Film
documentary History | Politics OTTO SKORZENY ... - Interspot Film
documentary History | Politics OTTO SKORZENY ... - Interspot Film
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<strong>documentary</strong><br />
<strong>History</strong> | <strong>Politics</strong><br />
<strong>OTTO</strong> <strong>SKORZENY</strong><br />
hitler’s scarface<br />
Otto Skorzeny was one of Hitler's most elusive “craftsmen of war”. Born in Vienna in 1908, he<br />
was appointed commander of the newly established SS special units in 1943 and tasked with a<br />
new kind of warfare: fast special operation strikes with air support that could hit even far behind<br />
enemy lines. That same year, Skorzeny became both famous and feared around the world due to<br />
the spectacular liberation of dictator Benito Mussolini from the Gran Sasso mountain in the Italian<br />
Abruzzo region. Broad dueling scars from his student days gave him his nom de guerre: Scarface.<br />
To the secret services of the Allied forces, he was “the most dangerous man in Europe.” Until the<br />
end of the war, Skorzeny was Hitler's “most favorite command soldier”. He received the orders for<br />
his most daring missions from no one but the Führer himself: after Mussolini's liberation, the capture<br />
of Hungarian dictator Miklós Horthy, for example, or the creation of an American-uniformed<br />
Waffen-SS unit to sabotage behind Allied lines during the Ardennes offensive. Even aiding in the<br />
development of special arms, Skorzeny fought doggedly to the end to avert the Third Reich's<br />
defeat. He was also critically involved in the organization of the “Werwolf” Nazi resistance combat<br />
force.<br />
Skorzeny's special operations had a decisive impact on the course of World War II. Even more effective<br />
than any of his missions, however, was the Skorzeny myth. German propaganda turned him<br />
into an archetypal “Aryan war hero”: far superior to his opponents, never shrinking from any task,<br />
Hitler's “one-man secret weapon”, a kind of Nazi “James Bond”. Many still expected him to score<br />
a crucial surprise coup during the final stage of the war, a last-minute twist that would turn everything<br />
around, such as assassinating the Supreme Commander of the Allied forces, General Dwight<br />
D. Eisenhower, amidst his general staff in Paris. The mission never took place and was never seriously<br />
planned. However, the rumors about it made the name Skorzeny a myth on both sides of the<br />
front. Across the world, Skorzeny above all others represents the idealization of the “upright<br />
German warrior” - respected equally by friend and foe - and is held in high esteem in radical rightwing<br />
and military circles to this day.<br />
Apart from his myth, Skorzeny himself survived the war, though his voluntary surrender to the<br />
Americans and his subsequent acquittal from all charges at a war crimes trial in Dachau, Germany,<br />
only fueled his myth all the more.<br />
To avoid the possibility of further trials in Germany, Skorzeny fled to Generalissimo Franco's Spain<br />
where he died in 1975. A group of former National Socialists and neo-Nazis brought Skorzeny's ashes<br />
to Vienna where, after a triumphal procession, they interred them at the Döbling graveyard. Even<br />
his last journey was turned into a political affair: a gathering of Nazis old and young at their hero's<br />
final place of rest, a pathetic funeral procession, suspiciously watched but ultimately tolerated by the<br />
Austrian state police. The man Otto Skorzeny is dead but his myth endures to this day. Men around<br />
the world still dream of his adventures, read his books, compete with their role model in state-ofthe-art<br />
3D computer games, and will even buy a Skorzeny puppet as an object of admiration.<br />
For further information please contact<br />
HEINRICH MAYER<br />
<strong>Interspot</strong> <strong>Film</strong>-Ges.m.b.H<br />
A-1230 Vienna<br />
Walter-Jurmann-Gasse 4<br />
phone: + 43 1 | 80 120-420<br />
fax: + 43 1 | 80 120-222<br />
e-mail: mayer@interspot.at<br />
www.interspot.at<br />
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