Art Kramer

ART KRAMER'S WWII STORIES

LUNCH WITH SS STURMGRUPENNFUHRER OTTO SKORZENY

I was in Madrid in 1970 on business shooting TV commercials for the Eastman Kodak Company. This was a sunny lazy Sunday at the Ritz hotel. I was nursing the last of my excellent room service coffee when the phone rang. "Ola Artur. Have lunch with us today. OK? Great. Meet you at the Madrid Tennis club at 2 this afternoon. I have some friends I want you to meet. See you later".

I arrived at the Club to see my friends seated and enjoying drinks. As I walked toward them and my friend Robert rose and said, "Artur. How nice, and here comes Otto" I turned and behind me was an absolutely huge imposing giant of a man. Maybe 6'4" 300 pounds. Face scarred and with a beat up look like a fighter who has had a few too many fights, He thrust out his hand and said "Otto" I took his hand and he said " Otto Skorzeny". I said, "Arthur Kramer" but I thought "Nazi son of a bitch" and was sorry I had shaken his hand.

We all sat down. I expected Skorzeny to be course crude and overbearing. In fact he was extremely polite and soft-spoken. His manner was so courteous and gentlemanly that I found it very difficult to hate him on a face to face personal level. The conversation covered the weather, the great food at this club, what a fine fellow Robert was how did I like Spain? No talk of war at all. Somehow, here in neutral Spain 25 years after the war it seemed as though war talk between ex-enemies was neither polite nor called for.

I found out later that Robert had told Otto about my military experiences in detail. I guess neither one of us cared to dig up the past on this warm sunny Sunday afternoon. I found out later that Skorzeny got those scars dueling during his school days in Austria. After the war he was acquitted of all war crimes and all charges were dropped. During the lunch he spoke to me in English, to Robert in French and to Robert's wife Rosie in German. He was impressive, not just on the physical level. But he was man of rather high intelligence. And he was the man who rescued Mussolini as one of his many exploits and was generally acknowledged by all sides as the most successful commando of WW II.

We had finished lunch. We all exchanged good byes, but Skorzeny and I didn't shake hands. We just nodded cordially at one another. And then we parted.

Otto died in 1975 in Madrid. After I heard of his death I regretted not having offered him my hand when we parted on that memorable afternoon.

The moral of the story is, if you want to hate a man, don't have lunch with him.

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