Not new, but worth sharing. "He was Hitler's favourite Nazi commando, famously rescuing Mussolini from an Italian hilltop fortress, and was known as "the most dangerous man in Europe". After World War Two, he landed in Argentina and became a bodyguard for Eva Perón, with whom he was rumoured to have had an affair. So when Otto Skorzeny arrived in Ireland in 1959, having bought a rural farmhouse in County Kildare, it caused much intrigue. At 6ft 4in and 18 stone, known as 'scarface' due to a distinctive scar on his left cheek, Skorzeny was an easily recognisable figure as he popped into the local post office. In Irish press reports at the time Skorzeny was portrayed as a glamorous cloak and dagger figure, as Dublin-based journalist Kim Bielenberg recalls. "Skorzeny was depicted as the Third Reich's Scarlet Pimpernel. The tone in newspaper articles was one of admiration rather than repulsion. "He seemed to be admired for his military prowess," he said. But concerns about why this pin-up boy of the Nazi party had come to the country led to questions in the Irish parliament. What was Skorzeny doing there? Did he intend to start Nazi activities in Ireland?" http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-30571335
Apparently he alternated by season between his house in Mallorca, and the farmhouse in Co. Kildare during the 1950s. He applied for temporary residency in Ireland in 1959, but it wasn't granted, and he settled permanently in Madrid at the end of his life (he died from cancer). He also requested permission on several occasions to enter the UK but was refused. It has always been thought that his Spanish-based import-export business was cover for helping Nazi war criminals to escape Europe...and certainly Ireland in the two decades following the war attracted quite a number of Nazis looking to settle....as the full impact of the Holocaust took a VERY long time to filter down into Irish society, and there was no outcry about their presence for many years. It's possible he may have had links with the Nazis in Ireland and that's what brought him there in the first place.
I had no idea that after the war he landed in Ireland. That is news for me This got me thinking...was he ever charged with any crimes against humanity after the war or was he never indicted?
He stood trial in Germany, but the case collapsed and he was acquitted. He escaped before anyone else managed to bring him to trial.
I think he was a good "commando" and had some good ideas re. special forces type units. However, there is NO doubt that he was an unrepentant nazi.
import-export business? he was a paramilitary consultant as well during that time, as related in col. anthony herbert's autobiography "soldier." his outfit seemed to specialize in demolition and sabotage. don't know how big the market was for those services in the 50s and 60s.
