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Zrich Airport. He, therefore, transformed himself into a French electrician. Allies suspected the Germans were plotting to make their final stand in the war there. You must become a subscriber or login to view or post comments on this article. THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING VETERAN JOURNALISM - JOIN SOFREP+ Privacy statement, cookies, disclaimer and copyright, On a journey of discovery to historical sites? Hofer, convinced that the war was a lost cause, was looking for a way to surrender to the Americans rather than to the Soviets. Inform us! Operation Greenup: Frederick Mayer and Hans Wynberg were Jewish refugees of Nazi Germany and Holland respectively. In an interview, Mr. Mayer stated that he had a good combination of hatred and love: a hatred of the Nazis and a love for America. His father fought valiantly in World War I, and Mayer had seen his family forced from their homeland by an evil regime that later murdered 6 million European Jews in the Holocaust. They found that Germans were using movable bridges on the Brenner railway that they hid in tunnels by day and used only at night. Nazis! and a disaffected Austrian officer named Franz Weber. Tune in for a conversation about the men of X Troop, who were the realInglorious Basterds: a secret commando unit of young Jewish refugees who were trained in counterintelligence and advanced combat to deliver decisive blows against the Nazis. The other objective was to identify rail traffic travelling from Innsbruck to Italy through the Brenner Pass. Franz Josef Huber, responsible for deporting tens of thousands of Jews, escaped punishment with U.S. backing and went on to work for West German intelligence, newly disclosed records reveal. His mother, however, demanded that the family flee to the U.S. Young Fitz (Mayers nickname) was captivated by cowboy stories of the American West, and so looked forward to the journey. By then it was April of 1945 and the Germans knew they were done. Welcome to Franz Weber Inc., and thank you for visiting our website. All rights reserved 2022 Collective Culture. An irreverent alternate history following two intersecting plots of Jews taking violent revenge against the Nazis (one by an orphaned French theater owner named Shosanna, the other by an American GI squad known as the Basterds), Tarantino's sixth film became the director's biggest hit up to that point in the summer of 2009. At the start of 1945, Mayer was a highly trained agent for the Secret Intelligence division of the OSS and became the leader of the Operation Greenup. (The original radio transcripts are preserved at The National Archives in College Park, Maryland.). Quentin Tarantinos 2009 warfilmwas partly based on a real story. The OG group shared a unique bond. Inhibition of osteoclast differentiation and bone resorption by N-methylpyrrolidone. Find your friends on Facebook. It is constructed out of a dyed yellow cotton base with black ink print. He acted as the breadwinner while working as a mechanic at companies such as General Motors and Ford. However, this historical episode is not the only one. He died on August 10, 1962 in West Berlin, West Germany. But Tarantino smartly decided that the multilingual role was best suited for a native German speaker and ultimately cast Christoph Waltz in the part that would eventually win him an Oscar. See Photos. A native Austrian, Weber fought on the Eastern Front but was convinced that Austria needed to be free of Hitler and the Nazis. Fortunately, Hofer realized that Germany would lose and wanted to save his skin, so he ordered Mayer brought to him. They didnt embark on any sort of killing spree, but they did succeed in their mission. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves. THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING VETERAN JOURNALISM - JOIN SOFREP+ , Last week we posted a story on the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) and how after 73 years they were finally recognized as a group and were honored with a Congressional Gold Medal. Both men joined the US Army, and were then approached to join the OSS, the US intelligence service,because of their language skills. After unexpectedly arriving at the OSS post, the men sat and languished for months, waiting for a mission. Proud of his heritage, Franz assisted in the creation of the NBC Today Show Where in the world is Matt Lauer? featuring his birth town, Innsbruck Austria, while also including his home in Reno/Tahoe. Avoiding roaming German fighters, flak, and forceful Alpine winds and backdrafts, Billings threaded through 9,000-foot high canyon-like mountains and found the drop zone. Birth, Baptism & Christening. Their mission was to infiltrate the area around Innsbruck, Austria and monitor the reports of the Nazis stockpiling arms and ammunition there, the Alpine Redoubt. It was hard to find a pilot to volunteer to fly in the difficult winter conditions over the glacier, but eventually, Billings stepped up, saying,If they are crazy enough to jump there, I will be crazy enough to take them there.. Their little band soon adds a third member: Franz Weber, a Wehrmachtlieutenant who has belatedly come to his senses about the murderous nature of Adolf Hitlers war. There was also Franz Weber a Catholic Austrian Wehrmacht officer and POW, who felt loyal to Austria, not to Nazi Germany. His captors whipped him, doused him with water and suspended him from a rifle, but he only admitted he was an Americanofficer when the man who had betrayed him was brought in and identified him. 2. As reported in The New York Times, Tarantino had intended his follow-up to "Jackie Brown" to be a World War II epic then titled "Inglorious Bastards" (with proper spelling). U.S. Military. 84-88 2" caused serious injuries to Uma Thurman (Thurman has forgiven Tarantino). Not surprising to those who know him, Fred Mayer may not attend the Congressional reception and the screening of the movie chronicling his feats. They had to walk down the glacier, sometimes waist deep in snow. After reaching a small town outside Innsbruck, the Greenup team set up camp. They approached speeds of 60 mph or more as the craft careened down the mountain. During WWII, some Jews really did volunteer to go into Nazi-occupied Europe to engage in espionage and sabotage. Besides, its too late, he says of the event. Looking for reliable information or news facts about WW2? Patrick K. ODonnell is a bestselling author and combat historian who has conducted over 5,000 oral history interviews with heroes like Frederick Mayer. By wars end, OSS had 13,000 personnel in their ranks, nearly a third were women and included were some Hollywood types like John Ford, Sterling Hayden, Marlene Dietrich, Julia Child and others. He found and recruited deserter-volunteer, Franz Weber. See Photos. He was shown a picture of Mayer and was asked if he knew him. Fridolin Weber. Millard E. Moon, Journal of Strategic Security, Vol. However, Inglorious Basterds highlights the work of one group specifically: "Operation Greenup, a real American battalion in charge of a similar mission. Mayer radioed the exact location and dimensions back to headquarters. ADVERTISING. People named Franz Weber. He joined the OGs (Operational Groups), specifically Operational Group Germany. Their mission: to compile reports on German rail traffic over the Brenner Pass between Italy and Austria. Though it turned out to be a myth created by fanatical Nazis, the Allies couldnt have known that at the time. Hofer could see the end coming and had little desire to be tried as a war criminal. Later, West learned that Mayer was a sergeant. Between "Jackie Brown" in 1997 and "KillBill Vol. After three months, Mayer changed his cover to that of a French electrician who was fleeing the Soviets. See Photos. The tables turned, the Gestapo man shaking, told Mayer to do with him as he would, but to please leave his family alone. Consider an Allied espionage operation code-named GREENUP, which in some ways is even more improbable than a Hollywood pot-boiler. He has written eight books, including his most recent (insrt embedded link to Amazon) Dog Company: The Boys of Pointe du Hoc: Rangers Who Accomplished D-Days Toughest Mission and Led the Way Across Europe. fifty races he entered. On November 26, 2007, Franz was the recipient of the prestigious Schneekristall award (providing him with lifelong free skiing privileges in Austria). Robert Citino, PhD, is the Samuel Zemurray Stone Senior Historian in the Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy. They Dared Return: The True Story of Jewish Spies Behind the Lines by Patrick K. ODonnell. The OSS went to the only available source of that nearly impossible combination: an Allied prisoner of war camp. The threewere to be dropped byparachutednear Innsbruckin February 1945. 3 (Fall 2010), pp. They tortured him brutally, but he didnt break. . But unlike other refugees, Mayer decided to return to German-occupied Europe to strike back at the very individuals who imprisoned some of his family members in concentration camps. The third soldier was the Austrian Franz Weber, a Nazi officer who had deserted the army. In the nomination was written, In constant danger of his life, he exhibited almost unbelievable courage, resourcefulness and enterprise. Mayer received the Legion of Merit and the purple heart, among a number of other awards. The wrong tug on their chutes or a miscalculation of the pilot by mere seconds could have sent the men to their deaths. Weber F, Machens CK, Borst A: Disentangling the functional consequences of the connectivity between optic-flow processing neurons. And although he was circumcised, the Gestapo thought nothing of it since many non-Jews also practiced circumcision. Mayers incredible story provided the basis for my book They Dared Return: The True Story of Jewish Spies Behind the Lines in Nazi Germany. At one point, the writer-director feared it would be too long for a movie and that the epic story would be better suited for a TV miniseries. Part of the reason Tarantino decided to make "Kill Bill" first was due to the fact the story for his epic was growing so large in scale that he was having trouble cutting it down. Birth of Franz Weber. Thinking he wanted revenge, the Americans later brought Mayer to a cell. On February 25, 1945, Mayer flew from his base in Italy and arrived in the Austrian mountains by parachuting with his team in the dead of night onto the ridge of a glacier. 945 Magazine Street, New Orleans, LA 70130 (371) 7.4 52min 2012 13+. A Nazi SS general responsible for deporting tens of thousands of Jews to death camps worked for West German intelligence after World War . There they were helped by his family. In March 1945 these three men nearly died being inserting into Nazi controlled Austria as they ended up parachuting onto a . The documentary ended with Fred Mayer talking to Hans Wijnberg via Skype. Meyer is on record of saying he just "wanted to kill Nazis," an attitude paralleling that of the Basterds. She paid for her own plane ticket to Germany for the audition, which thankfully worked out for the best. The head of SI was a LT. Alfred Ulmer. Their task was to penetrate one of the most secured areas of the Third Reich, an area of Austria near Innsbruck, where Nazis reportedly had been fortifying and massing vast quantities of troops and supplies. He made the deadline, but the film ultimately got re-edited with minor adjustments between the premiere and the wide release. "KillBill" offered a fun break from the not-quite-ready project and a chance to reunite with "PulpFiction" scene-stealer Uma Thurman. Barrett is the world leader in long-range, large-caliber, precision rifle design and manufacturing. 1501 1501. Busting the Myth Behind Moctezumas Headdress; Did It Really Belong Him? But they all wanted some payback for the German government that forced so much suffering on them. In this operation, OSS used former German nationals who were forced to flee for their lives just because they were Jewish. ORCID provides an identifier for individuals to use with their name as they engage in research, scholarship, and innovation activities. Former Director of CIA William Casey called Operation Greenup the most successful operation of World War II. Thanks to their intelligence, the Allies were able to bomb over 25 supply trains trying to get into Italy. Channel 5 in the UK broadcast a documentary called The Nazi Killers on Friday 22 November. 1526-24 January 1624 (Age 98) Beglingen, Glarus, Switzerland. High winds buffeted the plane making them lose 6000 feet of altitude in just 18 seconds. Read Next: OSS Finally Recognized More Than 70 Years Later By Congress. TracesOfWar.com tells you more! It's aged well, winning IndieWire's critics' poll for the best Tarantino movie a decade after its release. Donny Donowitz. Mollis, Glarus, Canton of Glarus, Switzerland. Operation Greif was a special false flag operation commanded by Waffen SS commando, SS Obersturmbannfhrer, Otto Skorzeny during the Battle of the Bulge, Skorzeny died age 67, on 05-07-1975, The . All three landed safely with most of their equipment, but the canister containing their skis was lost. The two men are Brooklyn to the core, and they even overlay a map of their New York borough onto that of Tyrol, to have a whole set of code names for various Tyrolean locales that would utterly baffle the Nazis. His carelessness in preparing for a car stunt in "Kill Bill Vol. His two interrogators discounted the possibility that he might be Jewish, because their anti-Semitism meant that they refused to believe that a Jew could be brave enough to withstand their tortures. Life as a spy was not short of action. Christoph Waltz's performance as the erudite, sociopathic "Jew Hunter" Hans Landa was the most widely praised part of "Inglourious Basterds." "Quentin said to close our scripts and asked us who we were. Around the beginning of October 1944, the 8./Jger Regiment 28 received the order to recapture the Hill 1587 (which had recently been taken by the Soviets) in order to reopen the Rodna Pass Road, an important German supply route. A movie that climaxes with a group of Jewish soldiers shooting Hitler in the face isn't particularly concerned with historical accuracy, but "Inglourious Basterds" still draws some inspiration from real history. 129.303 mph/208.092 kph which he set in 1983 in Silverton, Colorado. They were joined byFranz Weber, an ex-Wehrmacht officer turned freedom fighter comparable to the Basterds' Hugo Stiglitz. By using our Services, you agree to our use of cookies. See Photos. He dominated the sport of speed skiing from 1980 to 1985, winning over eighty percent of the races he entered. Reaching the glaciers foot, they holed up for three days at the Amberger hut (their original target) as they went over their plans. A couple of excellent books on the subject are : This Grim And Savage Game: The Oss And U.s. Covert Operations In World War II by Tom Moon and. ADVERTISING. Their mission was given the name of "Operation Greenup," and though their deeds aren't that well known, they manage to destabilize the Nazi regime. During the movie's production, however, there were also serious risks and conflicts that could have (and probably should have) been avoided. It featured a few re-enactments, but most of the story was told by the two Jewish refugees, Hans Wijnbergand Fred Mayer, with the widow and son of Franz Weber, the Wehrmacht officer, also contributing. Though they managed to retrieve most of their supplies, their skis were another matter entirely, forcing them to climb down in waist-deep snow. Cross) Chemistry: The Central Science (Theodore E. Brown; H. Eugene H LeMay; Bruce E. Bursten; Catherine Murphy; Patrick Woodward) Franz Weber was born on March 24, 1888 in Haspe, Germany. are western hognose snakes legal in the uk risk assessment for cleaning pigeon droppings How bizarre? For the next three days, he was mercilessly beaten, tortured, and hung upside down. Feigning the role of a captured German POW, Fred entered a camp and networked within its gates. He was a German Jew whose family emigrated from their home on the Western edge of the Black Forest in 1938 to make a new life in the United States. As the troops approached the city, they saw a car with a large white bed sheet attached to a pole racing toward them. A sense of calm came over Mayer, and he looked directly into the eyes of the Gestapo agent. Jason Dawsey, PhD. In zweiter Ehe war er mit Genovefa Brenner verheiratet; aus dieser . In 2014, when President Obama had awarded several Medals of Honor to individuals who werent awarded them at the time due to racism or other reasons, was given the name of Mayer by WV Senator Jay Rockefeller. They were sent to enemy lines to sabotage Nazi activities. When US troops approached Innsbruck he met them and informed them that the city was willing to surrender. Inform us! Eventually, they transferred to Italy and once again continued to sit out the war. Mayer gave what perhaps was the best answer of all, This is more our war than yours.. Then he posed as a French electrician to infiltrate a Messerschmitt factory. Franz Weber, Actor: Figaros Hochzeit. Greenup also discovered Hitlers location, as well as that of Mussolini. His father didnt want to leave Germany. Hoffer, who had already anticipated the fall of Nazi Germany, met Mayer to discuss the possibility of a German rendition, and naturally, his own protection. This was worn by civilians in the employment of the Waffen SS. He is a two-time overall winner of the Tournament of Champions and four-time Rolex Legends Series Champion. Franz did Research in the Field of Nephrology and Hypertension. one of four skiers who broke a world record by skiing sixteen Colorado ski resorts in one day. Deutsches Kreuz in Gold . He entered their German Operational Group (OG), precursors to the U.S. Army Green Berets, an elite team of commandos that would operate behind the lines in German-occupied Europe. Webers sister, a fervent anti-Nazi, managed to steal a German uniform that Weber himself wore on several occasions to attend informal events with some of the Nazi officers appointed in the region. By this time Hofer, like many Nazis, realised that the war was lost and was interested only in surrendering to the Western Allies rather than the Soviets. Operation FORTITUDE involved a group of double agents feeding disinformation to the Germans but the group was an odd collection of criminals, playboys, party girls, and a woman obsessed with her dog. The team would infiltrate using a blacked out B-24 bomber. Matull gave fake information on Mayer, claiming he was an important general of the American Army. Their little band soon adds a third member: Franz Weber, a Wehrmacht lieutenant who has belatedly come to his senses about the murderous nature of Adolf Hitler's war. Sign Up. In fact, Mayer was taken to Hofers home, met Hofers wife, and ate with them. Rising to power in an unstable Germany, Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist (Nazi Party) rearmed the nation and signed treaties . Kruger went on to earn aSAG Awards nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role for the performance. As the company approached along the relatively featureless terrain, it came under violent MG . Uncoiling a rawhide whip, the tall one put his full weight behind each swing, mercilessly thrashing the agents body like a side of beef. As many as half a million civilians remained in Stalingrad when the Germans approached in the late summer of 1942. It was a mission focused on intelligence gathering in the area of Innsbruck. In an era of fake heroes who vie for their own reality television shows, Fred Mayer shies away from publicity. And that was after they had tortured him. His parents and younger brotherwere all murdered in the Holocaust. What hotels are near Franz Carl Weber Geneva? The mission involved two Jewish members of the Office of Strategic Services,Frederick Mayer andHans Wijnberg, who parachuted into Austria in February 1945 to figure out Germany's battle plans. A former German commando and officer, Weber had fought on the Eastern Front but now was convinced that it was his duty to defeat the Third Reich for the sake of his country, Austria. For three days and nights, Mayer was savagely beaten, but he kept up his cover speaking only in French. The Methodology of the Social Sciences (Max Weber) Give Me Liberty! Diane Kruger was not the only "Inglourious Basterds" cast member to face potentially dangerous scenarios during the film shoot.