Free Agent

How did a celebrated SS officer and unrepentant Nazi hero become a hit man for the Israeli Mossad? That is the mystery of Otto Skorzeny, a former lieutenant colonel in Nazi Germany’s Waffen-SS, leader of a unit of SS commandos, rescuer of Italy’s fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, and Hitler’s own favorite among the special operations officers. It’s also a lesson in the Mossad’s often shocking and unconventional methods for protecting Israel, especially in the early, vulnerable days of the fledgling state.

Based on interviews with former Mossad officers and with Israelis who have access to the Mossad’s archived secrets from decades ago, award-winning Israeli journalist Yossi Melman and Washington-based news correspondent Dan Raviv — coauthors of five books about Israel’s espionage activities and security agencies — uncovered information verifying that Skorzeny was not only recruited as a Mossad operative, but actually pulled the trigger on an enemy scientist as part of an Israeli espionage plot to thwart the development of Egyptian missiles targeting Israel in the early 1960s.

The Mossad mission, known as Operation Damocles, was aimed at targeting the German scientists — former employees of Nazi Germany’s weapons program — who were hired in the summer of 1962 to develop an arsenal of missiles for Egypt to use against Israel. Skorzeny, who worked with the scientists and the companies that were supplying them, was originally on the Mossad’s hit list too — until spymaster Isser Harel thought it would be better to enlist him than to kill him.

It’s not unusual for a spy ring of international reach to sometimes work with partners they’d ideologically prefer to stay away from. But while dancing with the devil was understandable from the Mossad’s vantage point, why would an avowed Nazi like Skorzeny deign to work with the Mossad?