Over 16.5 million men and women served in the armed forces during World War II, of whom 291,557 died in battle, 113,842 died from other causes, and 670,846 were wounded. . He put his unusual skills and experience to work, selling surplus Army towels and other gear to Bedouins. Franz Carl Weber. Sign Up. After arriving in New York, Mayer changed his name to Frederick. Ian Harvey is one of the authors writing for WAR HISTORY ONLINE. Mollis,Glarus,,Switzerland . Tarantino worked on the script for years, made tough decisions in casting the film, and took time to get the final cut just right. While Mayer was being tortured in a Nazi prison, another American agent was being interrogated by the Gestapo. It was "The Fifth Element" director Luc Besson who encouraged Tarantino to finish "Inglourious Basterds" as a movie rather than a miniseries. Each of them spoke at least two European languages, with Mayer speaking German, French, and Spanish. They found that Germans were using movable bridges on the Brenner railway that they hid in tunnels by day and used only at night. And in one of the craziest turn of events, the German Army in Austria surrendered to a Jewish sergeant without firing a shot. Ittrained them for operations behind enemy lines. 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. Franz Weber. It was the scariest part of the entire mission.. Despite being intensely tortured, Mayer never mentioned this to his partners. Ulmer asked several pointed questions about their background, and the men revealed that they were Jewish. Mayer obtained a German uniform and impersonated a wounded officer. Quentin Tarantino's 2009 war film was partly based on a real story. Matull insisted that only someone as important as Franz Hofer (the local administrator) could get away with interrogating Mayer. 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. STIWOT, 1999-2023. Beck's name is among the more than 72,000 Americans from World War II listed as unaccounted for by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. 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. Franz Weber currently works honorary as a teacher at the Clinic for Nephrology , University Hospital Essen. Mayer saved the lives of perhaps thousands of troops on both sides by arranging the surrender of the German troops in Austria. Or are you interested in war medals and their recipients? 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. When expanded it provides a list of search options that will switch the search inputs to match the current selection. 945 Magazine Street, New Orleans, LA 70130 Without making specific promises, he offered salvation. Franz Weber was born on March 24, 1888 in Haspe, Germany. He was finally arrested when a black marketeer was caught by Nazi authorities and fingered Mayer as a, OSS Finally Recognized More Than 70 Years Later By Congress, PO Box 1077 MURFREESBORO, Tennessee 37133 United States, P.O. And although he was circumcised, the Gestapo thought nothing of it since many non-Jews also practiced circumcision. : an American History (Eric Foner) Business Law: Text and Cases (Kenneth W. Clarkson; Roger LeRoy Miller; Frank B. The scene was filmed on a controlled "fire stage" set, but the flames ended up burning far hotter than anyone anticipated. You had to go on and on and on about your backstory. According to The Playlist, the theatrical cut of "Inglourious Basterds" runs one minute longer than the Cannes version. 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. They Dared Return: The True Story of Jewish Spies Behind the Lines by Patrick K. ODonnell. In an amazing turnabout, Mayer received an opportunity for revenge. In 1998, he won the National SG Masters Championships, and his Masters record includes winning all but two of the more than (371) 7.4 52min 2012 13+. The interrogation was watched by a third man, who eventually took Mayer to the house of Franz Hofer, the local Gauleiter [Nazi Party boss]. It's aged well, winning IndieWire's critics' poll for the best Tarantino movie a decade after its release. Go to the front lines of World War II in this war documentary, chronicling a group of Jewish agents for the American OSS who infiltrated Nazi territories, many of them German Jews returning to avenge Hitler's sinister acts. son. High winds buffeted the plane making them lose 6000 feet of altitude in just 18 seconds. A pilot called Billings volunteered to drop them on a glacier. 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. 1 was here. Life as a spy was not short of action. However, Tarantino based his film on an actual operation codenamed, Greenup. He and his familyescaped to the USA in 1938. Working alongside Mr Mayer were Hans Wynberg, a Dutch-born Jew whose family had been deported to Auschwitz, and Franz Weber, an Austrian officer whose patriotism had led him to defect from the . His family owned a hardware store that was boycotted because they were Jewish once Hitler became chancellor in 1933. There are a few different reasons people have speculated on. 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. As the company approached along the relatively featureless terrain, it came under violent MG . Cowering in the corner, the agent was terrified to see his former captive. Fred Mayer and his five Jewish cohorts, who had become best friends during the training, had had enough. Later, West learned that Mayer was a sergeant. 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.. See Photos. 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. Reaching the glaciers foot, they holed up for three days at the Amberger hut (their original target) as they went over their plans. Finally, an intrepid American Air Corps pilot, Lt. John Billings, and his crew stepped forward and volunteered. In a scene that could have been ripped from the movie Where Eagles Dare, the team, clad in white ski parkas, parachuted onto the side of a 9,000-foot glacier. WORLD WAR II; Nov 27, 2015 Shahan Russell, Guest Author. 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. "Literally, the only reason he auditioned me is because there was no one left to audition," said Kruger. The top and bottom have been folded over and stitched together. The Germans even broke his teeth with a powerful haymaker punch while stuffing a pistol in his mouth. During WWII, some Jews really did volunteer to go into Nazi-occupied Europe to engage in espionage and sabotage. These are the untold truths of the making of "Inglourious Basterds.". Mayer parachuted onto an Alpine glacier, infiltrated enemy lines, and posed as a German officer to ascertain crucial intelligence. Service on a half-dozen fronts, including the bloody struggle against Marshal Titos partisans in occupied Yugoslavia, has opened Webers eyes. Feeling he had achieved his speed skiing goals, Franz permanently retired from the sport following the 1992 Olympics. The pilot John Billings volunteered, and it nearly ended in disaster. He died in Switzerland. ORCID provides an identifier for individuals to use with their name as they engage in research, scholarship, and innovation activities. A native Austrian, Weber fought on the Eastern Front but was convinced that Austria needed to be free of Hitler and the Nazis. Webers sister was a nurse who helped Mayer disguise himself as a German officer in uniform and bandaged up from a head wound. He says Waltz was also instructed to not show up to rehearsals with any of his co-stars, with the one exception ofDenis Mnochet (who played the dairy farmer Perrier LaPadite and shares the film's suspenseful opening scene with Waltz). The head of SI was a LT. Alfred Ulmer. So convincing was his performance that the agent turned away from the team and started checking the papers of the other passengers. Weber F, Machens CK, Borst A: Disentangling the functional consequences of the connectivity between optic-flow processing neurons. Does anyone out there have Quentin Tarantinos cell? In 1944, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) of the United States Army trained three soldiers: Frederick Mayer, Hans Wynberg, and Franz Webe. Mayers superiors were impressed by his skill and native fluency in German and French, as well as English. And when youre done with all of those hundreds of books, you can turn to film. TracesOfWar.com tells you more! One of the most popular genres of WWII literature is espionage, the spy novel, the thriller. Books abound on the topic, dealing with undercover operatives, double agents, and breathless derring-do. Operation Greenup: Frederick Mayer and Hans Wynberg were Jewish refugees of Nazi Germany and Holland respectively. One recruit summed up the band of desperadoes: The whole bunch were the craziest people I ever met in my entire life.. After unexpectedly arriving at the OSS post, the men sat and languished for months, waiting for a mission. Then he posed as a French electrician to infiltrate a Messerschmitt factory. On 7 December 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, forcing America to enter the war. The trio had supplies packages dropped with them, but unfortunately were unable to locate the packet containing their skis. 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. Franz Josef Huber ran the Gestapo secret police in Vienna. He then worked for Mayer till the Gestapo caught him. (The original radio transcripts are preserved at The National Archives in College Park, Maryland.). Cuffing his hands in front of him and pulling his arms over his bent knees, they forced him into a constricting fetal position, then shoved the barrel of a long rifle into the tiny gap behind his knees and his cuffed hands. He retired as World Champion in 1985 but returned to the sport of speed skiing seven years later to compete in the 1992 Winter Olympics at Albertville, France where he clocked his fastest personal time of 138.112 mph/222.222 kph (average speed). World War II was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. Joesch M, Weber F, Eichner H, Borst A: Functional specialization of parallel motion detection circuits in the fly. But they all wanted some payback for the German government that forced so much suffering on them. In 1996, Franz was Mollis, Glarus, Canton of Glarus, Switzerland. [Quentin asked], 'How did you feel when he joined the Basterds?' The initial casting plans for "Inglourious Basterds" almost included two big name stars whose presence would have certainly resulted in a very different experience: Leonardo DiCaprio was in talks for the role of Hans Landa, and Adam Sandler was almost going to play "The Bear Jew," Sgt. His current life is fairly peacefulhe still chops wood nearly every day and volunteers with Meals on Wheels. The team needed somebody with local knowledge, and Franz Weber, an anti-Nazi local who had deserted from the German Army to the Allies, volunteered to join it. 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. Genealogy for Franz Weber (1616 - 1698) family tree on Geni, with over 230 million profiles of ancestors and living relatives. Log In. Hiseyes grew wide, Youre all as good as dead! he gasped, shaking his head in disbelief. When youre a World War II hero, you can do whatever the hell you want. view all Franz Weber's Timeline. 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. Diane Kruger was not the only "Inglourious Basterds" cast member to face potentially dangerous scenarios during the film shoot. In April, Mayers superiors needed info on an underground factory that made jet engines. Sent to Italy, he was teamed up with Hans Wijnberg another Jewish-American whose family was thrown intoAuschwitz. After completing their training in Allied territories, the three soldiers were dropped off in Tirol on February 26, 1945. Cookies help us deliver our Services. Early on May 3, 1945, the American 103rd Infantry Division of the Seventh Army was ordered to take Innsbruck. Nationality: German (1933-1945, Third Reich) Biography. 2023 The SOFREP Media Group. He continued to work with producer Harvey Weinstein even though, he admitted to The New York Times, "I knew enough to do more than I did" about Weinstein's serious sexual misconduct. 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. Now, a new History Channel film, The Real Inglorious Bastards, returns to the true story chronicled in the book and captures Mayers amazing exploits in historically accurate detail. There was also the issue of competition: other great directors were also doing World War II epics in the late '90s, notably Steven Spielberg with "Saving Private Ryan" and Terrence Malick with "The Thin Red Line." The two men needed a third teammate who spoke German and knew the areaand was willing to risk certain death if captured. 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. 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. As you can see, there are some similarities with Tarantino's film. Tarantino's movies, "Inglourious Basterds" included, generally have such excellent casting that it's often weird to read about who almost played their iconic characters instead. April 1812 in Mannheim) war ein deutscher Musiker, Kapellmeister und Theaterdirektor. Mayer then turned his back on the agent and the war, refusing to speak about it for decades. The true story reads better than the fictional one, although I admit a fondness for Tarantino films however. 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. Nonetheless, this story has made some people uncomfortable. But rather than doing that, why not just read the actual history of the war? Theyd be sent into Nazi-occupied Europe and they knew what awaited them there as most were Jewish. M7/99 Franz Weinrank, Wien M7/100 Franz Pils & Sobn, Wien M7/101 Fritz Weber, Wien M7/102 Franz Pils & Sohn, Steinbach am St. M7/103 Josef Hack, Steyr M7/104 Ludwig Zeitler, Wien M7/105 Rudolf Wurzer, St. Christophen M7/106 Georg Kerschbaumer, Steinbach an der Steyr M7/108 Karl Oschmann & Co., Brotterode i. Th. Show Location on Map. Patrick K. ODonnell is a bestselling author and combat historian who has conducted over 5,000 oral history interviews with heroes like Frederick Mayer. 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. The team would infiltrate using a blacked out B-24 bomber. They approached speeds of 60 mph or more as the craft careened down the mountain. During these discussions, it was agreed that the Germans under Hofer should surrender to Mayer, as the representative of the US military. It wasn;t until they brought in the informant that Mayer finally admitted he was an American agent, but insisted that he worked alone. Feigning the role of a captured German POW, Fred entered a camp and networked within its gates. 3 (Fall 2010), pp. The German Luftwaffe Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe (Swallow) was the first operational jet fighter and appeared in air combat towards the end of World War Two.The Me 262 has always been one of my favourite World War Two era aircraft.It wasn't the best jet to ever grace the skies but I have always liked its shark like, leading edge design! Waltz had only acted in German films before, and "Inglourious Basterds" was a huge breakout for his international career. The Gestapo agent that had mercilessly beaten him was taken to the very cell where he had tortured Mayer. In zweiter Ehe war er mit Genovefa Brenner verheiratet; aus dieser . Support Veteran Journalism . . It is constructed out of a dyed yellow cotton base with black ink print. One of the OSS men chosen for this mission was Frederick Mayer. The team found a German POW named Franz Weber. But he wasnt so honored. Inform us! Mayer became an Army Ranger and went on to join the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) the precursor of todays CIA. Air Force, The only area to infiltrate was a small lake frozen over in the winter between the mountains. Operation Greenup brought the Allies real material benefits, transmitting dozens of radio messages with detailed accounts of Brenner traffic to the OSS listening station in the city of Bari in the heel of Italy. An Olympian, six-time consecutive World Speed Skiing Champion - Franz Weber is also a former world record-holder and still holds the North American record, at 129.303 mph/208.092 kph which he set in 1983 in Silverton, Colorado. 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. He acted as the breadwinner while working as a mechanic at companies such as General Motors and Ford. It was difficult to find a suitable drop point, as the obvious places were all occupied by the enemy. Then the Nazis came to power. This button displays the currently selected search type. When he realised for certain that his prisoner was an American officer, he had Mayer cleaned up, dressed, and fed. 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. It was the perfect opportunity to kill Nazis, which was the reason many Jewish boys joined. With the cash, the group purchased train tickets to an OSS spy base in Algiers. 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 . As a result, the crew and the three OSS agentsWalter Hass, a refugee from Nazi Germany, Frederick Mayer, a German Jew whose father moved the family to the US before the war, and Franz Weber, who was born and raised in Austria, became a German officer but eventually came to disagree with Hitler's movementworked together closely for five . They teamed up with Franz Weber a Germany army officer that became a "deserter-volunteer" OSS agent. He asked if they were willing to kill. The Life of Fridolin. 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. Zrich Airport. They didn't end up killing Hitler, but they were able to negotiate the . For the next several months, Mayer and his best friend Hans Winberg went about planning Operation Greenup. 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. Contributor. The Journal of Neuroscience 33(3): 902-5, Jan 2013 Notes: Joesch M and Weber F are co-first authors. Franz Weller (5 December 1901 - 14 August 1994) was a highly decorated Oberst in the Wehrmacht during World War II. The rectangular shaped obverse reads: "Waffen-SS" in black ink on a yellow backing. However, their plans failed when Mayer was arrested by Nazi officers in an attempt to get crucial information. Hofer, convinced that the war was a lost cause, was looking for a way to surrender to the Americans rather than to the Soviets. He called in air strikes, destroying dozens of them. Major Bland West, an intelligence officer, saw a young man with a swollen face jumping out of the car. Then good fortune stepped in. U.S. Military. He would later on return to Germany to start over. Franz Weber. His torturers wanted to know the location of his radio operator, but Mayer insisted that he worked alone. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and its higher grade Oak Leaves was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership. 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. This function has been disabled for WW2 Gravestone. Matull gave fake information on Mayer, claiming he was an important general of the American Army. Eighty years ago, the Red Army managed to stop, contain, and ultimately defeat the largest German army on the Eastern Front. Birth of Franz Weber. To get better results, add more information such as Birth Info, Death Info and Locationeven a guess will help. The Allied victory against the Axis was a long journeyone that actually took much longer than the war itself. The leader of the mission was Fred "Freddy" Mayer, who settled in Brooklyn in 1938 after escaping Nazi Germany with his family, having to leave the love of his life Hannah behind, who was . He volunteered for the US Army but was denied service because he was considered an enemy alien. OSS immediately saw his potential and recruited him into their ranks. 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 long-time resident of Lake Tahoe, Weber and his wife, Janet, founded Franz Weber Inc., a Reno-based sports management and consulting company, in 1984.Today, the company represents world-class . The German officer in charge was one Franz Hofer. Starring Brad Pitt, Mlanie Laurent, and Christoph Waltz, in this uchronic story, a group of soldiers manages to kill the most important characters of the Nazi party, including its leader, Adolf Hitler. All rights reserved. Mayer was asked to dine with Hofer, his wife and the German Ambassador to Italy, Rudolph Rahn. Feigning the role of a captured German POW, Fred entered a camp and networked within its gates. 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. After tramping through chest-deep snow, the men literally sledded down the side of the glacier in a Santa Claus-like sleigh. Compared to dozens of other cities and towns, defended till the last shell and cartridge by German forces, then pulverized by US air power and artillery, Innsbruck survived the war nearly unscathed. 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. Webers sister, Louise, was a nurse who gave Mayer the uniform and documents of a recently-deceased German officer. 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 . I'd have a 100-page script and no end in sight. As much as he packs into these movies, however, their scripts often run even longer. You must become a subscriber or login to view or post comments on this article. In this operation, OSS used former German nationals who were forced to flee for their lives just because they were Jewish. Do you want to create your own battlefield tour to sights of wars from the past? See Photos. She was only 56 years old when she passed away. - 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 . 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. All Rights Reserved. 1526-24 January 1624 (Age 98) Beglingen, Glarus, Switzerland. Fridolin Weber. Considering how the Gestapo worked, they believed him. Hotels near Franz Carl Weber Geneva: (0.04 mi) Htel de la Cigogne (0.10 mi) CitizenM Geneva Centre (0.09 mi) Bel'Esperance (0.12 mi) Htel Les Armures (0.05 mi) Hotel Longemalle; View all hotels near Franz Carl Weber Geneva on Tripadvisor.