This is Otto Skorzeny, often regarded as Hitler’s deadliest general. An Obersturmbannführer (lieutenant colonel) in the SS during World War II, Skorzeny gained fame in 1943 for his daring rescue of Benito Mussolini from the Abruzzi mountains where he had been imprisoned. The scar you see on his cheek, however, was not received during this audacious mission, nor was it inflicted upon his person when he led an SS unit to the Budapest royal palace and arrested the Hungarian leader Miklos Horthy, or during Operation Greif when he directed the infiltration of hundreds of German soldiers behind Allied lines. The scar was earned when he was a student in the University of Vienna, where he engaged in academic fencing called mensur. Like many of his Nazi compatriots, Skorzeny wore the scar proudly as a badge of honor and sign of one’s character and social status.
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