Skorzeny’s greatest escape was being acquitted of the charges in his war crimes trial at Dachau in 1947. Still not released from custody, Skorzeny stowed in the trunk of a car and escaped captivity for good at the end of July 1948. Ending up in Madrid, Spain outside the reach of those who would have imprisoned him again Skorzeny, a trained engineer, opened an office overlooking the city’s Gran Via. Successful from the first, Skorzeny grew wealthy through international trade with old comrades back in the beaten Reich.

The letter (DIN A 4 size, 8-1/4 x 11-5/8 inches) we offer here was written and signed by Otto Skorzeny on his professional stationary on 22 March 1968, to an old comrade from his combat days in Russia - “in sight of the towers of Moscow” as Skorzeny put it. The letter is in response to one from Mathias Mielbacher in the small town of Braunau am Inn, birth place of Nazi Führer Adolf Hitler. Mielbacher in his letter to Skorzeny had offered technical machines and tools which Skorzeny could sell abroad.

Skorzeny told Mielbacher that their friend Valerio Borghese had retreated from public life after the death of his wife, that he worked little but that that was not a problem, as Borghese had received quite a large inheritance.

Skorzeny also wrote Mielbacher that he really appreciated the photos of Istra, a sad place for their Division. And sad memories for Otto Skorzeny personally “as there, in sight of the towers of Moscow, we lost so much and our dear neighbor division could not survive”.