Hans Wynberg, a Dutch-born Jew whose family was sent to Auschwitz, and Franz Weber, an Austrian officer who had defected from the German army, worked with Mayer. Mayer convinced Hofer the war was over. He was arrested by the American army three days after his surrender and was kept a prisoner until 1948, when he was set free. He was born in Germany and forced to flee as the Holocaust was beginning. Most of SIs missions had been failures with the operatives either killed or shipped off to concentration camps. Tags:quentin tarantino world war ii world history. (371) 7.4 52min 2012 13+. One, an engineer, had worked on the German Fuhrers bunker in Berlin. Franz Weber. Franz Carl Weber. 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. 8001 Zrich. It was April 1945, and Germany was finished. Operation Greenups purpose was intelligence gathering. A secondary mission was to monitor all of the rail traffic from Innsbruck traveling thru the Brenner Pass into Italy. 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. 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. Wijnberg and Weber had to flee, whilst Mayer was tortured by the Gestapo. Between "Jackie Brown" in 1997 and "KillBill Vol. In zweiter Ehe war er mit Genovefa Brenner verheiratet; aus dieser . 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. He, therefore, transformed himself into a French electrician. Their mission was to infiltrate the area around Innsbruck, Austria and monitor the reports of the Nazis stockpiling arms and ammunition there, the Alpine Redoubt. He dominated the sport of speed skiing from 1980 to 1985, winning over eighty percent of the races he entered. Thanks to their intelligence, the Allies were able to bomb over 25 supply trains trying to get into Italy. This was worn by civilians in the employment of the Waffen SS. The war pitted the Central Powersmainly Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkeyagainst the Alliesmainly France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, Japan, and, from 1917, the United . Franz Weber (actor) (1888-1962), German actor Franz Weber (footballer) (1888-? Operation Greenup: Frederick Mayer and Hans Wynberg were Jewish refugees of Nazi Germany and Holland respectively. "Quentin said to close our scripts and asked us who we were. She paid for her own plane ticket to Germany for the audition, which thankfully worked out for the best. Birth of Franz Weber. All Rights Reserved. The team would infiltrate using a blacked out B-24 bomber. Inhibition of osteoclast differentiation and bone resorption by N-methylpyrrolidone. When youre a World War II hero, you can do whatever the hell you want. Do you want to create your own battlefield tour to sights of wars from the past? In an era of fake heroes who vie for their own reality television shows, Fred Mayer shies away from publicity. While Mayer was being tortured in a Nazi prison, another American agent was being interrogated by the Gestapo. OSS ran many fantastic operations and had an eclectic group of operatives. According to The Playlist, the theatrical cut of "Inglourious Basterds" runs one minute longer than the Cannes version. John Billings, his command pilot on the mission, described Mayer as fearless about returning to Nazi Germany. Looking for reliable information or news facts about WW2? 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. Under torture, he told them about Mayer, so they broke down the latters door on 20 April 1945. I dont stay up late anymore.. Bingeing spy movies, let us say from Orson Welless The Third Man(1949) through Quentin Tarantinos Inglourious Basterds(2009), would be a lifetime occupation. The next day, Mayer tried to enlist, but the military said no. He was German, after all, and, therefore, an enemy alien. In 1945, members of the American "Deer Team," part of the OSS, worked with Vietnamese guerrilla fighters to throw Japanese troops out of Indochina. All results for Franz Weber. Find your friends on Facebook. One of their pieces of intelligence enabled the Allied air forces to bomb a large number of trains in a nearby marshalling yard. The true story reads better than the fictional one, although I admit a fondness for Tarantino films however. Data gleaned from these reports helped US intelligence officers explode the myth that the Germans were concentrating men and weapons in the south for the Alpine redoubt. Despite being captured by the Gestapo and nearly tortured to death, Mayer was able to make contact with a number of local officials, including Franz Hofer, the Nazi Gauleiter(district leader) of Tyrol. I couldn't stop writing. For the next three days, he was mercilessly beaten, tortured, and hung upside down. With robust designs and vintage classic style, discover the heritage of military timepieces today! Inform us! Fondation Franz Weber - ein Begriff fr effizienten Schutz der Tierwelt und ihrer Lebensrume Fondation Franz Weber -. The OG group shared a unique bond. After reaching a small town outside Innsbruck, the Greenup team set up camp. Hofer got Mayer to help him arrange the surrender. Here is the short version: two Jewish refugees to the United States, living in Brooklyn (Frederick Mayer, 23, and Hans Wijnberg, 22) enlist in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the postwar CIA, and parachute deep behind German lines into the Austrian province of Tyrol in February 1945. Franz was the only son of this couple to survive into adulthood. He would later on return to Germany to start over. The third soldier was the Austrian Franz Weber, a Nazi officer who had deserted the army. It brought profound and permanent social, governmental and cultural changes in the United States, and has had a great impact on how Americans regard themselves and . or. Franz Weber. So, though the story is completely fictional, the Basterds are pretty much based on some real-life groups that gave their lives to defeat the Nazis, like Nakam, the Jewish group devoted to killing or, as it's literally translated from Hebrew, "to avenge their people." Thinking he wanted revenge, the Americans later brought Mayer to a cell. He was an actor, known for The Marriage of Figaro (1949), Pillars of Society (1935) and So ein Flegel (1934). 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. 8.5 km. Hes already seen the movie. Website zuerich@fcw.ch +41 44 225 78 78 Google Maps Public transport. Avoiding roaming German fighters, flak, and forceful Alpine winds and backdrafts, Billings threaded through 9,000-foot high canyon-like mountains and found the drop zone. Do you want to create your own battlefield tour to sights of wars from the past? The U-boat War in World War Two (Kriegsmarine, 1939-1945) and World War One (Kaiserliche Marine, 1914-1918) and the Allied efforts to counter the threat. 1 was here. Once in place, Mayer posed as a German . Cross) Chemistry: The Central Science (Theodore E. Brown; H. Eugene H LeMay; Bruce E. Bursten; Catherine Murphy; Patrick Woodward) It was a mission focused on intelligence gathering in the area of Innsbruck. His books that capture Mayers story are They Dared Return and The Brenner Assignment. Shahan Russell is one of the authors writing for WAR HISTORY ONLINE. Tarantino knew there was something special about Waltz's acting early on, and went to great lengths to keep many aspects of the actor's performance a surprise to his co-stars. This enabled him to pick upinformation from other German officers, which Wijnberg relayed back to the OSS. 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. Meyer is on record of saying he just "wanted to kill Nazis," an attitude paralleling that of the Basterds. His undercover work led to valuable intelligence and a network of informants that helped identify the location and dimensions of Hitlers Fhrerbunker in Berlin, the condition of Nazi war plants and movement of enemy freight and troops through the Brenner Pass. World War II Military Records. Patrick K. ODonnell is a bestselling author and combat historian who has conducted over 5,000 oral history interviews with heroes like Frederick Mayer. Barrett is the world leader in long-range, large-caliber, precision rifle design and manufacturing. 84-88 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. Mayer recalls, It was the ride of my life. In the dark room, the Gestapo officers slapped and punched the spy in the face. Eastern Prussian Provinces, Germany [Poland], Selected Civil Vitals, 1874-1945. It was difficult to find a suitable drop point, as the obvious places were all occupied by the enemy. Mayer said to him, What do you think we areNazis?. He is a two-time overall winner of the Tournament of Champions and four-time Rolex Legends Series Champion. Franz Weber. In the summer of 1944 after extensive training, the OGs received the call to duty. Sent to Italy, he was teamed up with Hans Wijnberg another Jewish-American whose family was thrown intoAuschwitz. The members of Operation Greenup ended up helping the Allies get their victory and were later on decorated for their heroic services during the war. They would use Weber and for this mission, it would be Mayer, Wynberg and Weber. In 2005, he and five others were honored by Austrian Chancellor Dr. Wolfgang Schssel for their athletic achievements and economic contributions to Austria. He died on August 10, 1962 in West Berlin, West Germany. The three were to be dropped by parachuted near Innsbruck in February 1945. Thanks to his Intel, the Allies knew the schedules of troop and munition trains and bombarded them accordingly. But that's another story for another time. We invite you to share some of Franz Webers career. The Life Summary of Georg. Hollywood tried to capture an actual OSS operation in a highly fictionalized film called Inglorious Basterds by Quentin Tarantino. The documentary ended with Fred Mayer talking to Hans Wijnberg via Skype. The top and bottom have been folded over and stitched together. info@nationalww2museum.org In an amazing turnabout, Mayer received an opportunity for revenge. Privacy statement, cookies, disclaimer and copyright, On a journey of discovery to historical sites?