Considered the “the most dangerous man in Europe” during World War II, the scar-faced Scorzeny was once hailed as “Hitler’s favorite commando.” He also has been credited with leading the underground network known as ODESSA after the war, helping Nazi high officials escape to other countries and secure false identity papers.

On Nov. 21-22, Skorzeny’s many exploits will again come alive as an extraordinary collection of his personal possessions will come to auction at Mohawk Arms at Bouckville, N.Y.

The collection includes Skorzeny’s personal Waffen-SS tunic, peaked cap, officer’s belt and buckle, engraved and dated German Cross in gold with documentation, preliminary Knights Cross documentation, promotion documents and letters. Many of the items, consigned by a lifelong War World II collector, initially came to the market from Skorzeny’s daughter during the 1980s, according to Ray Zyla, owner of Mohawk Arms.

The lot will include more than 40 individual items.

“This is a great historical collection,” Zyla says. “You don’t see a collection like this very often; most collectors keep something like this for their lifetime. We’re not breaking it up – that would just destroy the history.”

Bidding will start at $65,000. Given the impeccable provenance of the lot, the historical importance of many of the individual pieces, and the considerable interest – and controversy – of Skorzeny, Zyla and other collectors are reluctant to estimate the hammer price.

“This is one of those collections that carry the eternal thread of history,” says World War II collector and historian Darrell K. English. “This is the stuff that holds time and will hold value over anything else … to hold these pieces and realize what they represent.

“He was a hero to his people … he was a villain to us. But, we always tend to personalize these things, and you can’t personalize these things in the harsh reality of war. As a soldier, he was one of the best. A soldier is a soldier is a soldier, and his job was to make the other side pay for it. In the harsh reality of war, it was self-preservation.”

And, if nothing else, Skorzeny was the great survivor.

Known as “Scarface” among War World II American soldiers, he proved his mettle within the dueling society at the University of Vienna. It was here, in 1928, he earned the coveted Schmisse, the “scars of honor” among the long-standing, tradition-bound dueling fraternity. He later credited his success in war to his dueling society experiences.

“My knowledge of pain, learned with the saber, taught me not to be afraid,” he told author Charles Whiting for the book, Skorzeny (Ballentine Books, 1972). “And just as in dueling when you must concentrate on your enemy’s cheek, so too, in war. You cannot waste time on feinting and sidestepping. You must decide on your target and go in.”

Skorzeny’s exploits in the battlefield became legendary. In June 1941 he was struck in the back of the head by an artillery shell during the German’s hard-fought, high-casualty assault on Russia. Taken to a first aid station, he refused all treatment except for a few aspirin, a bandage and a glass of schnapps, before returning to battle a few hours later.

However, fate – and Adolph Hitler – had more in store for Skorzeny than simple battlefield duty. On July 26, 1943, Skorzeny was ordered to appear before the Fuhrer.

Hitler had a special mission for this blossoming commando. A day earlier, the Fuhrer’s friend, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini had been forced to resign and was arrested by his own people. Skorzeny’s mission: to rescue Il Duce.

A few months later – in September – Skorzeny was in Italy, scouting the Gran Sasso, the highest peak of the Appenine mountain range at nearly 7,000ft. He had learned that Mussolini was being held prisoner in a remote hotel atop Gran Sasso.

Despite warnings from Luftwaffe experts that landing aircraft on the Gran Sasso was “technically impossible,” Skorzeny assaulted the peak with 12 gliders, himself in the lead.

Storming the hotel, moving up the stairs three steps at a time, Skorzeny entered the radio room and smashed the equipment with the butt of his pistol. After rescuing Mussolini without a shot being fired, he became a national hero. Hitler, out of gratitude, awarded Skorzeny the prestigious Knight’s Cross and promoted him to major.

Some of these items, including a bronze desk eagle, which was a commemoration award for rescuing Il Duce, will be part of the Mohawk Auction lot.

From that spectacular rescue, Skorzeny was assigned to special operations, specifically to infiltrate behind the American lines at the Battle of the Bulge. With a group of English-speaking commandos dressed in American fatigues and equipment, Skorzeny and his men wreaked havoc behind the Allies lines.

Initially, the operation met with success. On Dec. 17, 1944, General George Patton described the situation to Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

“Krauts … speaking perfect English … raising hell, cutting wires, turning road signs around, spooking whole divisions and shoving a bulge into our defenses,” according to an account by author Glenn B. Infield in Skorzeny: Hitler’s Commando (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1981).

Reportedly, Skorzeny had also engineered a plot to assassinate Eisenhower, forcing the Allies Supreme Commander to spend that year’s Christmas holidays under maximum security in Versailles.

After the bloody Battle of the Bulge, Skorzeny was quick to see that the cause was lost for Hitler and the German army. He began planning for the future.

Since August 1944, Skorzeny had been employed by high-ranking Nazis and wealthy German industrialists in hiding large quantities of money, looted property and art. Some of this loot was buried in the mountains of Bavaria; other plunder was shipped overseas.

It was in late 1944 through early 1945, that Skorzeny played a key role in establishing an underground railroad, “rat lines” that enabled thousands of top Nazi officials to flee Germany after the fall of the Third Reich.

On May 16, 1945, Skorzeny walked out of the Austrian woods near Salzburg and surrendered to the American army. For the following two years, he was held in several internment camps to face charges of war crimes. It was in these camps that he continued to build the “rat lines,” which became known as the ODESSA underground network, and he planned a brilliant escape.

On the morning of July 27, 1948, a car bearing American military license plates arrived at the Darmstadt internment camp. An American captain exited the vehicle saying: “We are here to take prisoner Otto Skorzeny to Nuremburg for his scheduled hearing tomorrow.”

The American “captain’ was a Nazi SS veteran – possibly one that Skorzeny had worked with behind the American lines at the Battle of the Bulge. Hitler’s “favorite commando” entered the car and vanished from the camp forever.

From there, Skorzeny found refuge in Franco’s fascist Spain, still managing the infamous ODESSA network. By 1949, he was known to be in Argentina, another fascist stronghold of Juan Peron. It was there, that he began to make claims on his stake of the ill-gotten Nazi war booty – estimated, at the end of 1945, at more than $800 million in bank deposits, 2,500 kilograms of gold, 90 kilograms of platinum and 4,600 carats of diamonds and other precious stones.

It was also there that he and the dictator’s wife, Eva Peron, reportedly became lovers.

By the time Eva Peron had died of cancer in 1952 and the Peron government collapsed in 1955, Skorzeny was able to help Juan Peron escape Argentina and live in exile in Spain.

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Eric C. Rodenberg