OTTO SKORZENY (1908-1975) Typed letter and photograph with short dedication, signed, to doctor Fernand Fossier.

Letter dated, Madrid, 11.7.1974. 1 page in-4 on headed paper “Dipl. Ing. Otto Skorzeny”. In French. Photograph showing Mussolini being freed by Skorzeny, (later print). 21 x 29 cm. Letter from Otto Skorzeny, the year before his death, to Dr Fernand Fossier in Paris, from Madrid, the Spanish exile where the fanatical Nazi, who had escaped from a German internment camp, lived under Franco’s protection. Written in imperfect French, about a book by Alain Decaux, a publication of his own book in progress, and alleged film footage of the liberation of the imprisoned Mussolini at the Gran Sasso in 1943, in which Skorzeny had participated. He also gave him the address of Luftwaffe Colonel Hans Ulrich Rudel (1916-1982). Doctor Fernand Fossier (1922-1994), a documentalist, organised exhibitions in the 1970s on Japanese aviation aces and aeronautical engineers. Otto Skorzeny, a German officer and SS commando, is particularly known for the missions he carried out during the Second World War for Nazi Germany, often on direct orders from Adolf Hitler. After the war he collaborated with the Israeli Mossad in actions against Arab countries.