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Jason Dawsey, PhD, is a Research Historian at the Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy. In his book about the OSS Tom Moon described the torture. Then he posed as a French electrician to infiltrate a Messerschmitt factory. Operation Greenups purpose was intelligence gathering. He also determined the times for troop and ammunition trains heading thru the Brenner Pass and called in airstrikes. . I'd have a 100-page script and no end in sight. Thanks to the work of these three man, many Allied troops accomplished several effective bombings, destroying Nazi supplies and, naturally, messing with their plans. Rahn offered to send a message to OSS HQs in Bern, Switzerland headed up by Allen Dulles who later became the head of the CIA. Feigning the role of a captured German POW, Fred entered a camp and networked within its gates. Dulles cabled OSS HQs in Italy, Fred Mayer reports he is in Gestapo hands but cabled Dont worry about me, Im really not bad off a remarkable message considering that it was coming from a Jew. 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. And although he was circumcised, the Gestapo thought nothing of it since many non-Jews also practiced circumcision. Waffen-SS Armband. 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. Few films could get away with an ending where a character turns to the camera and says, "This might just be my masterpiece," but "Inglourious Basterds" might trulybe QuentinTarantino's masterpiece. They didn't end up killing Hitler, but they were able to negotiate the surrender of the German Army in Austria. Mr. Mayer died at his home in Charles Town, West Virginia, on April 15 this year. 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. You think they're gonna be one way and then they're not at all.". He asked if they were willing to kill. Mr. Mayer was recommended for a medal of honor in 1945 by a superior officer. The OGs were the Special Forces of WWII, theyd support resistance groups and train for guerrilla warfare. Quentin Tarantinos Inglorious Basterds tells the story of a special battalion posted in France in charge of sabotaging German military activities and, most importantly, killing Nazis. The Swiss environmentalist Franz Weber has died at the age of 91. 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. Read Next: OSS Finally Recognized More Than 70 Years Later By Congress. He was replaced with director Eli Roth. Top Image:L-R Franz Weber, Hans Wijnberg, and Fred Mayer courtesy of theUS National Archives. With a man on each side of the rifle, they lifted his naked, rolled-up body and suspended the human ball between two tables, like a piece of meat on a skewer. All rights reserved. Friedrich Fred Mayers father was a decorated war veteran for his distinguished service to the German Empire in WWI. One of their pieces of intelligence enabled the Allied air forces to bomb a large number of trains in a nearby marshalling yard. Franz Weber (actor) (1888-1962), German actor Franz Weber (footballer) (1888-? The story of Operational Greenup deserves greater attention than it has received. There was also Franz Weber a Catholic Austrian Wehrmacht officer and POW, who felt loyal to Austria, not to Nazi Germany. On the outskirts of a sleepy West Virginia town lives 92-year-old Frederick Mayer. Download the TracesOfWar app directly on, Australia (1901-present, Federal Monarchy), Belgium (1830-present, Constitutional Monarchy), Canada (1931-present, Constitutional Monarchy), Soviet Union (1922-1991, People's Republic), Privacy statement, cookies, disclaimer and copyright, - Die Ordenstrger der Deutschen Wehrmacht. Christoph Waltz's performance as the erudite, sociopathic "Jew Hunter" Hans Landa was the most widely praised part of "Inglourious Basterds." Then the Nazis came to power. You must become a subscriber or login to view or post comments on this article. Mayer obtained a German uniform and impersonated a wounded officer. 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. They made their way to Webers family and then Mayer actually stayed in the Officers barracks in Innsbruck for several weeks, gleaming as much intelligence as he could and then relaying it to Wynberg (the radio operator) who would then relay it to OSS HQs. Inside one of World War II's most daring spy missions: The men who made OSS operations possible. However, using his own guile, wit, and a fortunate set of circumstances, Mayer turned the tables on his captors. Under torture, he told them about Mayer, so they broke down the latters door on 20 April 1945. *Lighting a path to truth* Former Navy JAG Worldwide U.S. Military Defense. Over 40.000 pages on the officers, the boats, technology and the Allied efforts to counter the U-boat threat. They tortured him brutally, but he didnt break. It was the perfect opportunity to kill Nazis, which was the reason many Jewish boys joined. For the next three days, he was mercilessly beaten, tortured, and hung upside down. The team would infiltrate using a blacked out B-24, After three months, Mayer changed his cover to that of a French electrician who was fleeing the Soviets. All results for Franz Weber. They approached speeds of 60 mph or more as the craft careened down the mountain. In 1945, after capture and torture by the Gestapo, he was responsible for accepting the surrender of a large German force. They said if we were in there another 15 seconds, the stage we were on would have collapsed and we all would have been killed." At the film's premiere at the Cannes FilmFestival, he compared the spelling of the title to an "artistic flourish" by an artist like Jean-Michel Basquiat, saying (via Today), "If he describes why he did it, he might as well not have done it at all." Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. United States. 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. Top. Do you have more information about this person? During World War II, the OSS twice nominated Fred Mayer for the Medal of Honor. But that's another story for another time. IndieWire reported that Tarantino wanted the movie edited on a much tighter schedule that his previous productions, both as a reaction to spending too much time "overfiddling" with "Death Proof" and so the film would be ready to screen at Cannes. Life as a spy was not short of action. For his bravery, Mayer received the Legion of Merit and a Purple Heart. 3, No. ), Austrian football player Franz Weber (soldier) (1921-2014), German soldier Franz Weber (activist) (1927-2019), Swiss environmentalist and animal welfare activist Franz Weber (skier) (born 1956), Austrian skier Uncoiling a rawhide whip, the tall one put his full weight behind each swing, mercilessly thrashing the agents body like a side of beef. It turns out she was not Quentin Tarantino's first choice for the part in fact, he initially wasn't interested in casting her at all, due to disliking a movie she had starred in (Kruger did not state which movie this was). Weber F, Machens CK, Borst A: Disentangling the functional consequences of the connectivity between optic-flow processing neurons. ?, The GIs were not so merciful with the Gestapo, however, especially as some them were Jews. Heinrich Weber (1799-1848) married Susanna Fritz (1807-aft 1861) a. Franz Weber (this Franz Weber) b. Anna Maria Miller c. Elizabeth Herrman Provided by Trecil. Being Jewish, the senior Mayers status couldnt protect them, so the family emigrated to the US in 1938. The top and bottom have been folded over and stitched together. They therefore had to walk in deep snowto Oberperfuss, Webers home village. In one of the most incredible scenes from World War II, Frederick Mayer approached the American lines and informed the advancing 103rd division that the Germans had surrendered Innsbruck to him, saving potentially thousands of German and American lives in the process. And that was after they had tortured him. It brought profound and permanent social, governmental and cultural changes in the United States, and has had a great impact on how Americans regard themselves and . It could be a way around the MPAA's sensitivity about profanity in movie titles. 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. His undercover work led to valuable intelligence and a network of informants that helped identify the location and dimensions of Hitlers Fhrerbunker in Berlin, the condition of Nazi war plants and movement of enemy freight and troops through the Brenner Pass. They traveled by ship to North Africa. Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. Mayer was assigned to the German Operational Group before heading out. Inhibition of osteoclast differentiation and bone resorption by N-methylpyrrolidone. Considering how the Gestapo worked, they believed him. As if offended, Weber haughtily replied, Weve already been checked!. The German officer in charge was one Franz Hofer. 2. Download the TracesOfWar app directly on, Australia (1901-present, Federal Monarchy), Belgium (1830-present, Constitutional Monarchy), Canada (1931-present, Constitutional Monarchy), Soviet Union (1922-1991, People's Republic), FELLGIEBEL, W.P., Elite of theThird Reich, Helion & Company Limited, Solihull, 2003, HU, JRGEN & SONDERMANN, HEINZ-WERNER, Ritterkreuztrger im Mannschaftsstand 1941-1945, VDM Heinz Nickel, Zweibrcken, 2009, Privacy statement, cookies, disclaimer and copyright. In an amazing turnabout, Mayer received an opportunity for revenge. Works at Arbeitete bei der Stadt Luzern. Imagine a Jew helpingNazissurrender peacefully to the Allies. 945 Magazine Street, New Orleans, LA 70130 With the cash, the group purchased train tickets to an OSS spy base in Algiers. "We all sat around and everybody had their scripts and lines," Roth said. He responded, Who do you think we are, Nazis?. So, though the story is completely fictional, the Basterds are pretty much based on some real-life groups that gave their lives to defeat the Nazis, like Nakam, the Jewish group devoted to killing or, as it's literally translated from Hebrew, "to avenge their people." 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. Headquartered in Reno, Nevada, Franz Weber, Inc. is a sports management and consulting company founded in 1984 by Franz Weber and his wife Janett. Ian Harvey is one of the authors writing for WAR HISTORY ONLINE. Hofer could see the end coming and had little desire to be tried as a war criminal. In May 2011, the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) completed construction of its new facility in St. Louis, Mo. The third soldier was the Austrian Franz Weber, a Nazi officer who had deserted the army. Mayer originally volunteered for the U.S. Army, but they rejected him as an enemy alien. However, the OSS, the forerunner to the CIA, saw Mayers potential and recruited him to join its ranks. They would use Weber and for this mission, it would be Mayer, Wynberg and Weber. Do you want to create your own battlefield tour to sights of wars from the past? On November 26, 2007, Franz was the recipient of the prestigious Schneekristall award (providing him with lifelong free skiing privileges in Austria). 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. : an American History (Eric Foner) Business Law: Text and Cases (Kenneth W. Clarkson; Roger LeRoy Miller; Frank B. Webers sister was a nurse who helped Mayer disguise himself as a German officer in uniform and bandaged up from a head wound. 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. You had to go on and on and on about your backstory. Nearly all the sections missions to this point had been abysmal failures, leading to the death or capture of the OSS agents, and several agents ended up in Germanys most infamous concentration camps. A rare piece! After completing their training in Allied territories, the three soldiers were dropped off in Tirol on February 26, 1945. "Literally, the only reason he auditioned me is because there was no one left to audition," said Kruger. So convincing was his performance that the agent turned away from the team and started checking the papers of the other passengers. STIWOT, 1999-2023. Support Veteran Journalism . However, their plans failed when Mayer was arrested by Nazi officers in an attempt to get crucial information. Franz Weber. ORCID provides an identifier for individuals to use with their name as they engage in research, scholarship, and innovation activities. But rather than doing that, why not just read the actual history of the war? 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. The trio got off at the town of Oberperfuss near Innsbruck and split up. As the war ended, the people of Vietnam looked to the United States to support their dreams of independence. Learn More. Data gleaned from these reports helped US intelligence officers explode the myth that the Germans were concentrating men and weapons in the south for the Alpine redoubt. Despite being captured by the Gestapo and nearly tortured to death, Mayer was able to make contact with a number of local officials, including Franz Hofer, the Nazi Gauleiter(district leader) of Tyrol. Mayer became an Army Ranger and went on to join the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) the precursor of todays CIA. Those who survived the initial onslaught and did not manage to flee, had to eke out a living on a battleground ravaged by incessant bombardment and street fighting. 1 was here. 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. Tarantino knew there was something special about Waltz's acting early on, and went to great lengths to keep many aspects of the actor's performance a surprise to his co-stars. He is a two-time overall winner of the Tournament of Champions and four-time Rolex Legends Series Champion. Mayer was put in for the Medal of Honor twice and it was downgraded to the Legion of Merit. When US troops approached Innsbruck he met them and informed them that the city was willing to surrender. In the dead of winter, 1945, German-born Fred Mayer, Dutch-born Hans Wijnberg and former Wehrmacht officer Franz Weber parachuted into the Austrian Alps. That mans a bigshot in the US Military. The U-boat War in World War Two (Kriegsmarine, 1939-1945) and World War One (Kaiserliche Marine, 1914-1918) and the Allied efforts to counter the threat. In February, 1945, an odd trio parachuted onto a vast Austrian glacier and kicked-off one of the most spectacular clandestine missions of World War II. Franz E. Weber N, N-Dimethylacetamide is an FDA approved solvent widely used in pharmaceutical industry to facilitate the solubility of lipophilic, high molecular weight drugs with poor water . They found that Germans were using movable bridges on the Brenner railway that they hid in tunnels by day and used only at night. 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. He married Anna Maria Kohl in 1525, in Netstal, Glarus, Switzerland. When the American 103rd Infantry Division of the Seventh Army closed in on Innsbruck on the morning of 3 May 1945, they were met by a car sporting a white bedsheet. Not wanting to mess with a Wehrmacht officer, the inspector moved on. His alias was establishedso he then moved into the officers barracks, where he sent information to Wijnberg, the teams radio operator. Weve already been checked, Weber asserted with great chutzpah. This small town in the Alps was a key spot during WWII thanks to its strategic location between the Italian and Austrian frontiers. In 1996, Franz was World War II Military Records. The Real Inglorious Bastards. All Rights Reserved. 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. However, Tarantino based his film on an actual operation codenamed, Greenup. 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. The third soldier was the Austrian Franz Weber, a Nazi officer who had deserted the army. They were joined byFranz Weber, an ex-Wehrmacht officer turned freedom fighter comparable to the Basterds' Hugo Stiglitz. In the summer of 1944 after extensive training, the OGs received the call to duty. one of four skiers who broke a world record by skiing sixteen Colorado ski resorts in one day. In fact, it deserves nothing less than a movie. Pernass, Manfred Franz Joachim, born on 03-08-1920 in Gollnow, the son of Willli Hermann Pernass and Charlotte Anna Elisabeth Ulrich, was a soldier in the German Army and set up in Operation Greif. Operation Greenup consisted of two young Jewish refugees and one Wehrmacht officer, who parachuted one winter night into the Austrian Alps and risked their lives to strike back at Nazi Germany. In April, Mayers superiors needed info on an underground factory that made jet engines. His parents and younger brotherwere all murdered in the Holocaust. Both programmetitles are somewhat misleading, since the members of Operation Greenup were tasked withgathering intelligence rather than directly killing Nazis, and the only connection with the filmInglorious Basterds is that they were American Jews operating behind enemy lines. Anna was a Tyrolean hotelier who gave the team shelter, support, and protection from the Nazis at the risk of her own life, and who once cried out, both in despair and defiance, If Hitler wins the war, then I dont believe in God anymore. A film on Greenup would have it all: a righteous cause, victims fighting back, nail-biting chase scenesit couldnt help but score big at the box office.