blackisthelight

Kildare's Favourite Commando?

In the aftermath of World War Two, Ireland attracted a fair share of new residents with dubious backgrounds. One of the most famous was a large scar-faced SS lieutenant-colonel known as “Hitler’s favourite commando”.

Otto Skorzeny was born in Vienna in 1908 and joined the Nazi Party in 1932 following his graduation from university as a mechanical engineer. Skorzeny was a large gregarious man with a lifelong taste for adventure, a reputation that tended to overshadow his dedication to Nazi ideology. Such is the nature of the man that the truth of his life is wrapped up in mythologizing and exaggeration.

Skorzeny joined the Nazi party in 1932 and the SS in 1934. Volunteering for military service at the start of the war, by 1940 he was enlisted in a unit of the Waffen-SS and saw service serving in a mechanical support role in France and Holland. He was transferred to the eastern front and the blitzkrieg attack on Yugoslavia, before taking part in the invasion of the Soviet Union. He was injured near Moscow as his unit took heavy casualties and taken from frontline duties. In 1943 he was picked to lead a new formation of SS commandos and famously led the successful attempt to spring Mussolini from captivity. A group of SS soldiers used gliders to access the remote alpine hotel in Gran Sasso and flew Mussolini to safety after which he founded the Salò Republic. The raid was a huge publicity coup which Skorzeny was sure to take full advantage of for his own profile. Skorzeny gained the trust of Hitler and quickly found himself in the upper echelons of the Third Reich. He went on to be involved in rearguard operations on the Eastern Front, attempting to capture Marshall Tito in Croatia, securing German control of Hungary with the capture of Admiral Horthy and his son in Budapest, and fighting in Belgium during the Ardennes Offensive.

During the war Skorzeny had a handful of Irish connections. The initial unit he headed was SS-Sonderlehgang ‘Oranienberg’, which consisted of about 100 international SS volunteers with a variety of language skills. The unit had been set up in 1942 to prepare for an invasion of Ireland as part of Operation Osprey, where the plan was to co-operate with IRA units to occupy the 26 counties. Two Irish volunteers, James Brady and Frank Stringer, are known to have joined Skorzeny’s unit at a later date. Towards the end of the war Skorzeny helped Martin Bormann smuggle huge amounts of cash and valuables stolen from the victims of concentration camps to Argentina, where it would be used to fund post-war activities. Bormann probably died in 1945 and Skorzeny inherited the knowledge of the whereabouts of the funds. Skorzeny was arrested in the closing days of the war and put on trial but escaped conviction on war crimes charges. During his time in custody, he began to organise the ex-SS men into a more organised form to plan for the coming years. While awaiting extradition to Soviet controlled Czechoslovakia, Skorzeny escaped from custody in Darmstadt with the help of associates wearing Military Police uniforms provided by the US Army and went on the lam. He collaborated with the investigators and allegations have been made of his involvement with the Gehlen Organization, set up by US intelligence services in post-war Germany.

After a few years underground, he resurfaced in Franco’s Spain where he got involved in various political and business dealings. Madrid became one of the headquarters of the remnants of the Nazi regime where an international network was formed with the support of the Spanish government. An unrepentant Nazi, Skorzeny worked on a plan to reconstitute a German army in Spain and connected German companies like Messerschmidt, Krupp and Thyssen to large deals in Spain and South America. He also headed a legal group called Kamaraden Hilfe to provide assistance to convicted German war criminals. Around this time Skorzeny was also involved with Oswald Mosley, both in political dealings like the European Social Movement where they both spoke in Toledo in 1951, and business dealings where the new tourism industry in the Canary Islands provided opportunities for well-connected schemers. Skorzeny was scheduled to appear at the March 1962 Conference of Venice organised by Mosley which attempted to form a pan-European National Party of Europe. Mosley and Skorzeny both owned houses in Ireland between the years 1959 and 1963. G2 were aware of such meetings and reported on Skorzeny, Mosley, Leon Degrelle and Hans-Ulrich Rudel plotting to rescue or kill Adolf Eichmann before he could testify at his trial in Jerusalem

Like many post war Nazis, Skorzeny was involved with the Nasser government in Egypt where a large contingent of Germans were employed in the state security apparatus. Skorzeny was employed as military advisor to General Naguib following the coup of 1952 and then later offered, but turned down, a job as personal military advisor to Nasser. Both Naguib and Nasser were staunchly anti-British and had adopted pro-German attitudes during the war. The Egyptian-Nazi connections were partly as a result of the involvement of the former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin Al-Husseini, who had spent much of the war in Berlin. Seeking assistance for Arab nationalist movements from the Nazi regime, Al-Husseini forged links with Hitler and other top Nazis based on a shared anti-Jewish perspective, and helped recruit Muslim Bosnians into the SS. Al Husseini led the All-Palestine government in Gaza which provided Skorzeny with one of his fake passports. Skorzeny helped recruit a long list of die-hard Nazis for the Egyptian government, including Adolph Eichmann, Oskar Direlwanger (the butcher of Warsaw) Leopold Gleim, (head of Hitler’s bodyguard and head of Polish Gestapo) who became highly place officials under Nasser. Skorzeny also recruited medical personnel such as doctors Hans Eisele and Heinrich Willerman, chief doctors at Buchenwald and Dachau respectively, and a host of scientists and engineers. Skorzeny set up training camps for commandos in Egypt and also helped establish weapons manufacturing facilities with German industrialists. After the Suez crisis, as Nasser moved into the Soviet orbit, Skorzeny continued to operate in Egypt, making a fortune from trade deals. The scientists and engineers worked on an ambitious rocket program for the Egyptian army, and were targeted for assassination by Mossad. In turn, the Jewish community in Egypt was targeted by the Nazi-led security forces with hostages being taken and tortured and schools and synagogues forced to close. The 3,000 year old community was almost entirely displaced by the late 1960s. Skorzeny continued to work in Egypt until 1965 when West German – Egyptian relations soured.

Skorzeny had connections across the globe, including to Juan Peron in Argentina, at a time when large numbers of ex-Nazis were seeking refuge in South America. Skorzeny trained Argentinian police in Gestapo torture techniques and may have become Eva Peron’s lover while attempting to regain control of the Bormann fortune. Skorzeny’s contacts formed an escape route for many high profile Nazis to Argentina, such as Eichmann and Mengele among many others and this network of safe houses and new identities was extended to Brazil, Paraguay, Chile and elsewhere.

Skorzeny and his wife, Countess Ilse von Finkenstein, developed a relationship with Ireland in the late 1950’s, coming to view it as a potential opportunity for real estate deals and money laundering, as well as a quiet non-aligned country for retirement. As he was banned from entering Britain, Skorzeny viewed Ireland as a suitable beachhead for business and political operations. A recession in Spain had dried up much of their business income. The Skorzeny’s had befriended an Irish couple, Gladys and Philip Mooney in Madrid, who owned the Portmarnock Country Club in Dubin, and Gladys helped arrange tourist visas in 1957. Skorzeny’s reputation preceded him, and the press had a field day with the arrival of the larger-than-life war ‘hero’ into the Dublin social scene, a reputation helped by the publication of his war-time memoirs. A lavish reception in Portmarnock Golf Club was arranged where several TDs including Charles Haughey were on hand to provide a warm welcome alongside other leading lights of Irish business and politics.

In June 1959 the couple bought Martinstown House in the Curragh, Co. Kildare, a large Victorian-era country estate in a run-down condition and the couple applied for residency. The application proved awkward for the Irish government which was unsure whether to extend such a courtesy to someone considered persona non grata in Britain and the US, or to determine an independent assessment of the risk involved. Noel Browne, Minister for Health, said in the Dail “It is generally understood that this man plays some part (in neo-Nazi activities) and, if so, he should not be allowed to use Ireland for that purpose.”

Skorzeny enjoyed writing about his wartime escapades and sometimes took speaking engagements. On 31 August 1960, speaking at the Dalkey Literary and Historical Debating Society at the Cliff Castle Hotel, Skorzeny commented on the question of inferior races:

“There should not be talk of inferior or superior races. It is clear, however, that some races are without proof of culture.”

Skorzeny’s plans also included arranging houses for dozens of fellow ex-SS officers in Ireland, including Prince Ernst Heinrich Von Sachsen, Alexander von Dörnberg and Albert Schmidt among others. Schmidt acted as his agent in Dublin and managed a café on South Anne Street called the Amsterdam Coffee Bar. Dörnberg, a former staff member of Himmler and von Ribbentrop, acted as a courier and made regular trips from his home in Glengariff to Germany.

The trial of Adolf Eichmann in 1961 reignited interest in Nazi war criminals and Skorzeny’s name was often mentioned. In 1963, Skorzeny was indicted on war crimes charges, amid allegations that he had participated in murdering prisoners at Sachsenhausen concentration camp during weapons testing. Haughey, now minister for Justice was pressured to bar Skorzeny from the country, but the charges were soon dropped, and a decision was avoided. In 1961 G2 sent reports to the government claiming Skorzeny was planning on using Ireland as an arms dump for exporting weapons to African rebels from Cork harbour.

Further issues arose when a US newspaper accused Skorzeny of masterminding the Die Spinne group and of harbouring fugitives in the Curragh. Die Spinne was a secretive group that helped German war criminals avoid capture and prosecution and formed part of the ‘Odessa network’ that arranged new lives for Nazis in South America. Several years later in 1972, Klaus Barbie, who had extensive dealings with Skorzeny in this period, named Skorzeny as leader and financer of Die Spinne. A 1971 The Telegraph report claimed that leading IRA members had approached Skorzeny in Spain for help with procuring weapons.

Ireland played another part in the Skorzeny saga, when in 1964 a good-looking Mossad agent was sent to Dublin to charm Ilse Skorzeny with a proposal for a Caribbean real estate deal. Ilse took the bait and the two became close, perhaps lovers. At a meeting in Madrid, the Mossad agent revealed himself and requested a meeting with Otto. An ultimatum was given to help disassemble a German led research facility in the Egyptian desert that was building rockets or be placed on a Mossad hit list. Skorzeny agreed to cooperate, convinced Nasser and the ex-Nazis to wind up the project and managed to evade Mossad execution or extradition for the rest of his years. As Skorzeny got older, visits to Ireland became rarer and the last known visit was in 1969 and Martinstown House was sold in 1971.

A 1973 Washington Post article claimed Skorzeny had been involved in arms trafficking to sub-Saharan Africa for many years. Further evidence of his dealings with Klaus Barbie showed he had been involved in large scale arms sales to South America.

One of the projects in his later years was setting up a paramilitary training group called Paladin (or Paladino) which primarily targeted Basque separatist groups and the growing ranks of dissidents opposed to the Franco regime. Paladin recruited from OAS veterans and members of the Kampfbund Deutscher Soldaten (KDS), a neo-Nazi group based in Frankfurt. The Paladin group co-ordinated with Aginter Press, a ‘news agency’ established by French ex-commando and OAS putschist Yves Guerin-Serac and Italian journalist Guido Giannettini, strongly linked with Operation Gladio. Aginter had been established in 1966, its purpose, according to Guerin-Serac was “forming the kernel of a truly Western League of Struggle against Marxism…prepared to intervene anywhere in the world”. Guerin-Serac had left Algeria following independence and fled to fascist Portugal where he continued his work. Along with Stefano Delle Chiaie and Robert LeRoy, Guerin-Serac was named by Italian investigators as one of the organisers of the Piazza Fontana bombing in Milan in 1969 which killed 16 people and formed part of the ‘strategy of tension’ in Italy during the 60s and 70s.

Skorzeny, along with Guerin-Serac and Giannettini also worked with a small but long-established fascist group called Order and Tradition to form its new paramilitary wing known as Organisation Armée Contre le Communisme International (OACI). OACI, which contained many OAS members, was co-ordinated through Aginter Press. The OT-OACI operated in Portugal, Spain and Italy from around 1967, hosting two international gatherings in Lisbon that year. Aginter had a contract with the Portuguese state from 1966-1969 to provide clandestine paramilitary services in Africa. The Swiss historian Daniele Ganser has linked Aginter Press to multiple assassinations in the last years of the Estado Novo carried out by PIDE, the Portuguese security agency, including Mozambican leader of FRELIMO independence movement Eduardo Mondlane and Portuguese opposition leader General Humberto Delgado. Following the downfall of the fascist state in the Carnation revolution of 1974, the remnants of Aginter moved to Spain and continued agitating with counter revolutionary forces inside Portugal, and broadened their activities to other parts of the globe.

Skorzeny was also involved in the extraordinary career of fascist terrorist Stefano Delle Chiaie. Delle Chiaie was the leader of an Italian paramilitary fascist group called Avanguardia Nazionale, and also head of an informal network named the Black Orchestra which was linked to a slew of atrocities in Italy during the Years of Lead. A series of bombings in 1969 and 1970, including the Piazza Fontana bombing were carried out by AN linked militants with the aim of destabilizing the Italian state and ushering in a dictatorship to restore order, the so-called ‘strategy of tension’. Delle Chiaie was a known informer, and the Italian intelligence services immediately suspected his involvement in the Piazza Fontana bombing, despite the police crackdown on anarchist groups. This information was not passed on to the investigators, presumably to protect Delle Chiaie and his associates. In December 1970, Delle Chiaie supported his sponsor Junio Verio Borghese (aka the Black Prince) in an abortive coup attempt by occupying the Ministry of the Interior along with 30 other armed AN members. The coup was called off at the last minute and Delle Chiaie and Borghese both fled to Spain. Delle Chiaie was taken in by Skorzeny and employed as a mercenary.

Delle Chiaie and his fellow Italians boosted the ranks of Paladin and are believed to have carried out hundreds of attacks against Basque separatists in Spain and France in the early 70’s, including about 50 murders. By 1974, AN had reorganised into a new group called Ordine Nero and restarted a bombing campaign in Italy. Atrocities in Brescia (8 killed at an anti-fascist demo), the Rome to Munich train (12 killed) and Rome airport (32 killed in a rocket attack on a plane) were all linked to Delle Chiaie while he was working for Skorzeny. In 1976, a Spanish police machine gun was used by Delle Chiaie’s associate, Luigi Concutelli, to murder Vittorio Ocorsio, lead magistrate in the Piazza Fontana investigation.

The Paladin group split up and left Spain in 1977 following the death of Franco and the discovery of an arms factory in Madrid with Latin America becoming a new home for some of the leaders. Delle Chiaie, Guerin-Serac and their associates would become involved in the bloody repression of left-wing movements in Latin America in the 70s and 80s, where they built upon the contacts maintained by Skorzeny and the remnants of the Nazi exodus to Argentina and elsewhere. Delle Chiaie and Klaus Barbie (Nazi SS war criminal aka The Butcher of Lyon) were involved in the ‘cocaine coup’ of Bolivian general Meza Tejada in 1980, and Delle Chiaie may have acted as a connection between Bolivian drug traffickers and the Italian mafia. Delle Chiaie said of the groups activities:

”In 1980 Bolivian comrades asked us to give direct support to the revolution which would bring the military to power. It was in this way that ‘Vanguardia Nazionale’ took part, as it had in Costa Rica, Spain, Angola, Portugal, Chile, El Salvador and Argentina.”

In 1973, Skorzeny wrote to an acquaintance

”It is a pity that I have no time at the moment to write a new book, but I have in mind to write one day a book about all the political and military persons I have met. You would be astonished to know all the names of kings, presidents of states, dictators, and field marshals I have known.”

Otto Skorzeny died of cancer in 1975 in Madrid, his heroic swashbuckling image mostly intact despite decades of destruction in the service of international fascism.

Sources:

Carneiro, Mariana (2022) A Organização Armada Secreta francesa e a sua ligação a Portugal 13 July 2022 www.esquerda.net Availabe at: https://www.esquerda.net/dossier/organizacao-armada-secreta-francesa-e-sua-ligacao-portugal/81698#sdendnote11sym

Christie, Stuart (1984) Stefano Delle Chiaie: Portrait of a Black Terrorist Black Papers No. 1 Anarchy Magazine, London

Crutchley, Peter (2014) How did Hitler's scar-faced henchman become an Irish farmer? www.bbc.com Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-30571335

Dwyer, Finn (2017) Ireland’s Nazi Commando: Otto Skorzeny Irish History Podcast

Evening Press, 6 June 1957

Foley, Charles (1956). Commando Extraordinary. London: Pan Books.

Goñi, Uki (2009). The Real Odessa – How Perón Brought the Nazi War Criminals to Argentina. London: New York.

Guerra, João Paulo (1990) Gládio actou em Portugal O Jornal 16 November 1990 Available at: https://especiedemocracia.blogspot.com/search?q=gladio

Infield, Glenn B. (1981) Secrets of the SS Military Heritage Press: New York

Infield, Glenn B. (1981) Skorzeny: Hitler’s Commando Heritage Press: New York

Irish Times, 13 March 1963

Linklater, Magnus, Hilton, Isabel and Ascherson, Neal (1984) The Fourth Reich – Klaus Barbie and the Neo-Fascist Connection London: Hodder and Staughton

Macklin, Graham (2020) Failed Führers London: Routledge

Origoni, Guillaume (2022) Vie et mort d’Yves Guillou, personnage-clé des réseaux internationaux d’extrême droite Le Monde 30 November 2022

San Francisco Examiner, 7 January 1965

Smith, Stuart (2018). Otto Skorzeny – The Devil’s Disciple. Oxford: Osprey Publishing.

Tetens, T.H. (1961) The New Germany and the Old Nazis Random House: New York

Tiscar, María José (2021) A extrema-direita como solução extrema do imperialismo: A Aginter Presse em Portugal www.setentaequatro.pt Available at: https://web.archive.org/web/20230321041850/https://www.setentaequatro.pt/ensaio/extrema-direita-como-solucao-extrema-do-imperialismo-aginter-presse-em-portugal