Matull gave fake information on Mayer, claiming he was an important general of the American Army. 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. The team found a German POW named Franz Weber. They were joined byFranz Weber, an ex-Wehrmacht officer turned freedom fighter comparable to the Basterds' Hugo Stiglitz. They therefore had to walk in deep snowto Oberperfuss, Webers home village. She thinks this experience was a "lesson" for Tarantino: "Sometimes you are the one that puts and I'm sure I'm guilty of that too you put people in boxes. Matull then said that a person as high ranking as Mayer should be interrogated by a person of equal importance, namely the Gauleiter of Tyrol and Vorarlberg, Franz Hofer. Franz Weber - Address & Phone Number | Whitepages This fact caught the attention of Franz Hofer, a member of the Reichsgau, a Nazi administrative subdivision based on occupied territories. Mayer was then betrayed and captured. "Say 'What' Again!" He dominated the sport of speed skiing from 1980 to 1985, winning over eighty percent of the races he entered. Unlike the strange and often idiotic Tarantinos movie, however, the truth was far more bizarre. . Sadly, "Inglourious Basterds" was to be Menke's last film with Tarantino (the last film she edited was"Peacock" in 2010, directed by Michael Lander) because she died while hiking in the heat on September 27, 2010 (via The Los Angeles Times). After arriving in New York, Mayer changed his name to Frederick. He died on August 10, 1962 in West Berlin, West Germany. They recommended him for the Office of Strategic Services, which later became the CIA. The Real Men Behind Tarantino's Famous War Flick - warhistoryonline ADVERTISING. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves. OK During World War II, he led one of the greatest missions of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). franz weber ww2 Privacy statement, cookies, disclaimer and copyright, On a journey of discovery to historical sites? Waffen-SS Armband. This enabled him to pick upinformation from other German officers, which Wijnberg relayed back to the OSS. Mayer, who is Jewish, and his family fled Germany at the onset of the war, barely escaping the holocaust. The Gestapo burst in and arrested Mayer and took him to their HQs. The Swiss environmentalist Franz Weber has died at the age of 91. Fondation Franz Weber - UNESCO World Heritage Centre High winds buffeted the plane making them lose 6000 feet of altitude in just 18 seconds. Trembling, he stammered, Do anything you want to me, but dont hurt my family.. The WW2 Spy Who Accepted the Surrender of an Entire German Army He was replaced with director Eli Roth. 2. Both men joined the US Army, and were then approached to join the OSS, the US intelligence service,because of their language skills. Since 2013, Fondation Franz Weber is working closely with the World Heritage Centre to support the conservation and safeguard of natural World Heritage sites.This partnership intends to strengthen the Rapid Response Facility (RRF), a programme jointly managed by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and Fauna & Flora International aimed at protecting natural World Heritage sites in emergency . OSS ran many fantastic operations and had an eclectic group of operatives. - Narrative histories highlighting organization, combat experiences, and casualties of each division - Lists of constituent units and division commanders - Sources for further reading on each division This is the first of 3 definitive volumes that cover the German ground forces that swept across Europe with such ruthless efficiency in 1939 and 1940 and battled the Allies around the globe until . But they all wanted some payback for the German government that forced so much suffering on them. Looking for reliable information or news facts about WW2? But rather than doing that, why not just read the actual history of the war? The 'Good War' Myth of World War Two. A sense of calm came over Mayer, and he looked directly into the eyes of the Gestapo agent. Webers sister was a nurse who helped Mayer disguise himself as a German officer in uniform and bandaged up from a head wound. On 7 December 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, forcing America to enter the war. Frederick Mayer, right, with Franz Weber, left, and Hans Wijnberg, in an undated photograph, took part in the Greenup operation, parachuting into Austria in 1945 to spy on Nazi troop activity. However, Tarantino based his film on an actual operation codenamed, Greenup. Mayer gave what perhaps was the best answer of all, This is more our war than yours.. ORCID provides an identifier for individuals to use with their name as they engage in research, scholarship, and innovation activities. 12 min. OSS Operation Greenup, The Most Daring, Successful Mission of WWII - SOFREP I don't want you to be bad at the script reading, but I want you to hold a lot back. Operation Greenup: a story better than Inglourious Basterds - and true However, he was never caught and lived a relatively peaceful life until his death in 1964. Frederick Mayer (28 October 1921, Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden, Germany - 15 April 2016, Charles Town, Jefferson County, West Virginia) was a German-born Jew who became an American spy as an OSS agent for the United States during World War II.He negotiated the surrender of the German Army in Innsbruck, Austria, in 1945 after he was captured in "Operation Greenup". Mayer, Wijnberg, and Weber were parachuted with their supplies into Austria on 26 February 1945 in total darkness which was why they ended up on the crest of the Sulztaler glacier some 9,000 feet up a mountain. Cookies help us deliver our Services. They approached speeds of 60 mph or more as the craft careened down the mountain. Franz Weber may refer to: . Their mission was given the name of Operation Greenup, and though their deeds arent that well known, they manage to destabilize the Nazi regime. Genealogy for Franz Weber (1616 - 1698) family tree on Geni, with over 230 million profiles of ancestors and living relatives. A Nazi SS general responsible for deporting tens of thousands of Jews to death camps worked for West German intelligence after World War . See Photos. Mr. Mayer died at his home in Charles Town, West Virginia, on April 15 this year. "KillBill" offered a fun break from the not-quite-ready project and a chance to reunite with "PulpFiction" scene-stealer Uma Thurman. Any intel they can glean here will give the Allies hints about how the German Army intends to fight in the wars endgame, whether it will try to circle the wagons in some sort of Allied redoubt for a last-ditch fight. All Rights Reserved. In an article about the film in The Guardian, Tarantino is quoted as refusing to explain the "u" in "Inglourious" but does explain the "e" in "Basterds": "That's just the way you say it: basterds.". DiCaprio would certainly have had fun playing the film's villain, if his performance as Calvin Candie in Tarantino's follow-up film, "Django Unchained," is anything to go by. The award was presented to him by the Austrian ski resorts for his contributions to the sport of skiing. Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. ADVERTISING. September 1734 in Zell im Wiesental; 16. They Dared Return: The True Story of Jewish Spies Behind the Lines by Patrick K. ODonnell. 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. 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. Do you have more information about this person? WW2 Info - World History is the interaction between people of different Franz Weber - Ancestry.com The trio had supplies packages dropped with them, but unfortunately were unable to locate the packet containing their skis. One, an engineer, had worked on the German Fuhrers bunker in Berlin. His parents and younger brotherwere all murdered in the Holocaust. He asked if they were willing to kill. 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. The Life Summary of Georg. He would later on return to Germany to start over. 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.. His work was to get as much information as possible from the Germans, from plans for troop displacement, to attacks, and where they stored supplies, so him and his partners could sabotage them. They didn't end up killing Hitler, but they were able to negotiate the surrender of the German Army in Austria. Thanks to his Intel, the Allies knew the schedules of troop and munition trains and bombarded them accordingly. 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. Franz was the only son of this couple to survive into adulthood. Like many other Germans by the end of the war, Hofer was looking for a safeguard with the Allies to secure his own freedom. 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 his book about the OSS Tom Moon described the torture. Modifying the papers so that Mayers picture appeared on it, he moved into her hospital to recover.. 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. STIWOT, 1999-2023. Jews Exact Revenge on Nazis in Real Inglorious Bastards (VIDEO) Barrett is the world leader in long-range, large-caliber, precision rifle design and manufacturing. Franz Weber (1826-1887) - Find a Grave Memorial It was difficult to find a suitable drop point, as the obvious places were all occupied by the enemy. 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. Mayer was then ordered to investigate a nearby underground factory that was building Me 262 jet fighters. They were joined by Franz Weber, an ex-Wehrmacht officer turned freedom fighter comparable to the Basterds' Hugo Stiglitz. We use our own and third-party cookies to personalize and improve the use and experience of our users on our website. : an American History (Eric Foner) Business Law: Text and Cases (Kenneth W. Clarkson; Roger LeRoy Miller; Frank B. Top Image:L-R Franz Weber, Hans Wijnberg, and Fred Mayer courtesy of theUS National Archives. The story of Operational Greenup deserves greater attention than it has received. Service on a half-dozen fronts, including the bloody struggle against Marshal Tito's partisans in occupied Yugoslavia, has opened Weber's eyes. UZH - Center of Dental Medicine - Prof. Dr. rer nat. Franz E. Weber In April, Mayers superiors needed info on an underground factory that made jet engines. The top and bottom have been folded over and stitched together. 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. The Germans had captured another American agent named Hermann Matull. Tom Moon, author of This Grim and Savage Game: OSS and the Beginning of U.S. Covert Operations in World War II, wrote, The Germany Army in that area had in effect surrendered to an OSS Jewish Sergeant.. During WWII, some Jews really did volunteer to go into Nazi-occupied Europe to engage in espionage and sabotage. It was also a waystation for Jews being sent to Auschwitz..The guard that day in 1983 told me that . There is a nice WC on the ground floor with baby changing facilities. In 1996, Franz was But at the radio station, Mayer persuaded the Nazi to declare Innsbruck an open city, and place himself under his arrest, effectively surrendering the city and his forces to Mayer. The interrogation was watched by a third man, who eventually took Mayer to the house of Franz Hofer, the local Gauleiter [Nazi Party boss]. Diane Kruger was not the only "Inglourious Basterds" cast member to face potentially dangerous scenarios during the film shoot. Birth, Baptism & Christening. Mayer was allowed to send a message to the OSS. The revelations about Weinstein and Thurman's car accident placed an extra dark light on one anecdote about filming the scene in "Inglourious Basterds" where Hans Landa chokes Bridget Von Hammersmark to death. His current life is fairly peacefulhe still chops wood nearly every day and volunteers with Meals on Wheels. While Mayer was being tortured in a Nazi prison, another American agent was being interrogated by the Gestapo. For the next three days, he was mercilessly beaten, tortured, and hung upside down. They teamed up with Franz Weber a Germany army officer that became a "deserter-volunteer" OSS agent. In 1997, he won the Legends Downhill Championship in Vail, Colorado and placed first overall in the Masters Division of the MCI World Downhill Championships. Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting. While promoting her 2022 action movie "The 355," Diane Kruger appeared on the podcast "Reign with Josh Smith" and answered questions about how she got the role of German actress and spy Bridget Von Hammersmark in "Inglourious Basterds." Sein Leben war durch eine umfangreiche Reisettigkeit geprgt. The 'Good War' Myth of World War Two - Institute for Historical Review The third soldier was the Austrian Franz Weber, a Nazi officer who had deserted the army. Mr. Mayer was recommended for a medal of honor in 1945 by a superior officer. The rectangular shaped obverse reads: "Waffen-SS" in black ink on a yellow backing. The German officer in charge was one Franz Hofer. Inside one of World War II's most daring spy missions: The men who made OSS operations possible. Speaking German, he admitted to being an American but said he was working alone. The next day, Mayer tried to enlist, but the military said no. He was German, after all, and, therefore, an enemy alien. Posing as a recovering German officer, Mayer befriended an Engineer Officer who worked on the Fuhrer Bunker in Berlin. Later, Mayer changed his disguise and donned the clothing of a French electrician. 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. and a disaffected Austrian officer named Franz Weber. World War I | History, Summary, Causes, Combatants - Britannica 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. During these discussions, it was agreed that the Germans under Hofer should surrender to Mayer, as the representative of the US military. He had Mayer brought to him. Speaking in an interview(via Screenrant) with fellow filmmaker Robert Rodriguez for an episode of "Director's Chair" on El Rey Network, Tarantino said, "People thought I was going through writer's block, you know, I was going through the opposite. Nazis! 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. Their most daring operation, however, involved finding the Alpine Redoubt in Austria a fortress where the German government could supposedly retreat to in the event of defeat. So I was trying to keep taming it, and I couldn't My idea at the time, because it was just so big and so unwieldy, was to do it as a miniseries, and that really was what I was planning on doing." Bahnhofplatz 9. Major Bland West, an intelligence officer, saw a young man with a swollen face jumping out of the car. It was nominated for eight Academy Awards including Best Picture, and won Best Supporting Actor for Christoph Waltz, who played the villain Hans Landa. Mollis, Glarus, Canton of Glarus, Switzerland. See Photos. It's aged well, winning IndieWire's critics' poll for the best Tarantino movie a decade after its release. See Photos. 129.303 mph/208.092 kph which he set in 1983 in Silverton, Colorado. Franz Weber, Actor: Figaros Hochzeit. Bis current project is . So how did the title of Tarantino's WWII revenge flick go from "Inglorious Bastards" to "Inglourious Basterds"? Barrett products are used by civilians, sport shooters, law enforcement agencies, the United States military, and more than 75 State Department-approved countries around the world. Mayer became an Army Ranger and went on to join the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) the precursor of todays CIA. World War II: Summary, Combatants & Facts - HISTORY Show Location on Map. The Quiet American Hero: Inspiration for 'The Real - Breitbart Franz Weber currently works honorary as a teacher at the Clinic for Nephrology , University Hospital Essen. Franz Weller was captured in May 1945 by . With a military background, he thought his former service would protect his family from persecution. Historian K. ODonnell published a volume called They Dared Return: The True Story of Jewish Spies Behind the Lines in Nazi Germany. His books that capture Mayers story are They Dared Return and The Brenner Assignment. And what a cast of characters: emigr Jews like Mayer and Wijnberg, bent on destroying the regime that had persecuted them and their families and, in Wijnbergs case, had even killed his parents; Lieutenant Weber, a German soldier currently on the run from a death sentence for desertion, then being handed out in the thousands by Nazi officials; not to mention Anna Niederkircher, the mother of Webers fiance. 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. There were some contributions from historians, mainly to set things in context, and some re-enactments in the absence of archival footage, but the story was told largely in Mayer and Wijnbergs own words. WWII spy games - Kettering University Fortunately for Webers fiance and her family, Mayer had found other lodgings before being captured. FinancePhoenix.ch on LinkedIn: Neues Angebot im ehemaligen Franz-Carl We invite you to share some of Franz Webers career. The scene was filmed on a controlled "fire stage" set, but the flames ended up burning far hotter than anyone anticipated. Hofer was looking for a way to surrender to the Americans and not the Russians and saw this as his chance. He was an actor, known for The Marriage of Figaro (1949), Pillars of Society (1935) and So ein Flegel (1934). As the company approached along the relatively featureless terrain, it came under violent MG . Tarantino takes all of his characters very seriously, even the most minor ones, and expects the actors he casts to prepare for their roles with similar seriousness. And 15 Other Iconic Lines From Tarantino's Films, The Real-Life Django Who Rebelled Against Slavery And No One Talks About Enough, 10 Lessons We Learned From The Bad-Ass Women In Tarantino's Universe, Olympe de Gouges, the Precursor of Feminism that Was Persecuted During the French Revolution. So convincing was his performance that the agent turned away from the team and started checking the papers of the other passengers. But he wasnt so honored. 8.5 km. They found that Germans were using movable bridges on the Brenner railway that they hid in tunnels by day and used only at night. Read Next: OSS Finally Recognized More Than 70 Years Later By Congress. 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. 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. 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. Life as a spy was not short of action. It was the perfect opportunity to kill Nazis, which was the reason many Jewish boys joined. In scene straight from Inglourious Basterds, Mayer sat at the bar with a bandage on his head, swilled beer, and listened to the stories of other recovering German officers. They didn't end up killing Hitler, but they were able to negotiate the . It is constructed out of a dyed yellow cotton base with black ink print. The OGs were the Special Forces of WWII, theyd support resistance groups and train for guerrilla warfare. His father didnt want to leave Germany. Cross) Chemistry: The Central Science (Theodore E. Brown; H. Eugene H LeMay; Bruce E. Bursten; Catherine Murphy; Patrick Woodward) Inform us! U.S. Military. WORLD WAR II; Nov 27, 2015 Shahan Russell, Guest Author. With the cash, the group purchased train tickets to an OSS spy base in Algiers. They were the parents of at least 5 sons and 1 daughter. Franz Anton von Weber (* 26. Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy, The OSS in Vietnam, 1945: A War of Missed Opportunities by Dixee Bartholomew-Feis, Secret Agents, Secret Armies: The D-Day Misfit Spies, Black Volunteer Infantry Platoons in World War II, Kasserine Pass: German Offensive, American Victory, Gallantry against Great Odds: LTC George Marshall and Operation RESERVIST, Prelude to Liberation: Genesis of American Amphibious Assault in the ETO, Black Thursday October 14, 1943: The Second Schweinfurt Bombing Raid, An Exercise in Depravity: The Establishment of the Warsaw Ghetto, Unsung Witnesses of the Battle of Stalingrad, Stalingrad: Experimentation, Adaptation, Implementation. Each of them spoke at least two European languages, with Mayer speaking German, French, and Spanish. Feeling he had achieved his speed skiing goals, Franz permanently retired from the sport following the 1992 Olympics. Hometown Heroes: Franz Weber is Paying it Forward 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. However, this historical episode is not the only one. 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. Franz Weber was born on March 24, 1888 in Haspe, Germany. A pilot called Billings volunteered to drop them on a glacier. A native Austrian, Weber fought on the Eastern Front but was convinced that Austria needed to be free of Hitler and the Nazis. In March 1945 these three men nearly died being inserting into Nazi controlled Austria as they ended up parachuting onto a . Franz Weller (5 December 1901 - 14 August 1994) was a highly decorated Oberst in the Wehrmacht during World War II. Fondation Franz Weber - ein Begriff fr effizienten Schutz der Tierwelt und ihrer Lebensrume Fondation Franz Weber -. He was 94 years old. You really would have to quit your job and become a monk to get through them all. Allies suspected the Germans were plotting to make their final stand in the war there. He found and recruited deserter-volunteer, Franz Weber. 3 (Fall 2010), pp. The war pitted the Central Powersmainly Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkeyagainst the Alliesmainly France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, Japan, and, from 1917, the United . Learn More. He married Katharina Haechlinger about 1550. Donny Donowitz. Despite the agents bullish strength, the SS men brutally manhandled him, shoving him to the floor. ), 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 They had to walk down the glacier, sometimes waist deep in snow. They jumped in on February 26, 1945. Wijnberg was sent by his parents, along with his twin brother, from the Netherlands in 1939to live with his fathers business partner in the USA in 1939. That guy was an extra. An Olympian, six-time consecutive World Speed Skiing Champion and former world record-holder, Franz Weber still holds the North American record, at 129.303 mph/208.092 kph which he set in 1983 in Silverton, Colorado. Do you want to create your own battlefield tour to sights of wars from the past? In this operation, OSS used former German nationals who were forced to flee for their lives just because they were Jewish. 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.
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