Otto Schwerdt

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Peter H
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Otto Schwerdt

#1

Post by Peter H » 02 Dec 2007, 06:19

Skorenzy's personal bodyguard at Gran Sasso in 1943.

Has anyone got details on this man?

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Peter H
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#2

Post by Peter H » 02 Dec 2007, 06:34

He was the same Otto Schwerdt (alias Peter Schäfer) who ran anti-resistance operations in Denmark in 1944?


http://www.frikorps-danmark.dk/Danske/B ... banden.htm




Gran Sasso,1943,from: http://forum.panzer-archiv.de/viewtopic.php?t=5555

From left-Skorenzy (SS), Schulze (FJ), Mussolini, Schwerdt (SS), far right Karl Radl (SS).

Image



From: http://digilander.libero.it/lacorsainfi ... neduce.htm

Schwerdt boosts Mussolini aboard the Storch

Image


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Bob Forczyk
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Re: Otto Schwerdt

#3

Post by Bob Forczyk » 12 Oct 2008, 18:02

I found Schwerdt's records at NARA. He was sentenced to death in Copenhagen after the war but deported after a few years in jail. Don't know what happened to him afterwards.

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Bjørn from Norway
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Re: Otto Schwerdt

#4

Post by Bjørn from Norway » 12 Oct 2008, 18:21

Hello!
I have seen two birthdates for Otto (Alexander Friedrich) Schwerdt, 12th. June 1918 and 7th Sep. 1917. His deathdate seems to be 6th July 1975. He was extradicted from Denmark at the end of 1953.

B.

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Bob Forczyk
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Re: Otto Schwerdt

#5

Post by Bob Forczyk » 12 Oct 2008, 23:40

This is the information about Schwerdt that I extracted from his SS records:

· Born September 1914, Eisenberg.
· Joined Nazi Party in March 1933 and SS in January 1935.
· Awarded EK II on 27 May 1940, EK I on 9 September 1941.
· Promoted to SS-Untersturmführer on 1 March 1943 and assigned Sonder lehrgang z.b.v. Oranienbaum [Special Training Course] on 10 August 1943.

He was awarded the DKiG on 3 Oct 1943.

If you have any more info about his activities in Denmark that would be great.
Thanks
Bob

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fanatyk6
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Re: Otto Schwerdt

#6

Post by fanatyk6 » 10 Apr 2010, 23:16

Hi,
Are there any details on Otto Schwedt aromoured unit that fought on bridgehead Schwedt? I wonder if they used some US Army vehicles from action in Ardennes.

Best regards

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Bob Forczyk
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Re: Otto Schwerdt

#7

Post by Bob Forczyk » 12 Apr 2010, 23:08

Very Doubtful, Pz Bde 150 lost most of its few US vehicles in the Ardennes and unlikely any were still running three months later. I have no info that Otto Schwerdt was front-line fighting in March 1945. He was dispatched by Skorzeny to Denmark in 1944 and appears to have focused on anti-resistance activities.

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Re: Otto Schwerdt

#8

Post by fanatyk6 » 13 Apr 2010, 00:20

Him
I am 100 % positive that O. Schwerdt took part in fights around bridgheads Schwedt and Zehden an der Oder in February and March 1945. He is mentioned numerous times by Skorzeny in his memories. His second name appears also in name of one of the units on bridghead Schwedt:

SS-Sturm-Komp.Schwerdt CO 3 NCO 40 GI 165

Check out here:

http://forum.panzer-archiv.de/viewtopic ... 93&start=0

So, question still stands:what kind of vessels did they have ?

Best regards,

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Bob Forczyk
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Re: Otto Schwerdt

#9

Post by Bob Forczyk » 20 Apr 2010, 14:08

I don't know how you can be 100% positive, although its possible Otto Schwerdt was there.

Skorzeny's memoirs are extremely unreliable about names and dates, some of which is intentional. Schwerdt was charged with war crimes (killing civilians) in Denmark after the war and Skorzeny may have been trying to give him an alibi by writing that he was with him at the front. Schwerdt and several other operatives from the Gran Sasso raid were sent to Denmark in mid-1944 to conduct anti-resistance activities (arson, executions). I found Schwerdt's SS officer file at NARA - it was short - but made no mention of him doing any front-line fighting after 1942. The best information I have was that he was in Copenhagen until late in the war, possibly to the end. If he had been fighting on the Oder front, leading an SS kampfgruppe, the odds of him surviving to fall into British/Danish hands - as occurred - would not have been high.

The OB that you attached is very nice, but Gruppe Schwerdt does not necessarily mean that it was led by Otto Schwerdt, could have been someone else by that name. Incidentally, why is important to you to place this obscure SS officer at the Schwedt bridgehead in Feb-March 1945?

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fanatyk6
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Re: Otto Schwerdt

#10

Post by fanatyk6 » 21 Apr 2010, 00:01

Hi,
Well, maybe you're right and 100 % confidence might to be little too optimistic.
I've just found Schwerdt mentioned in Karl Fucker's book: Ein Leben im Spiegel der Jagd.
Anyway, Kampfgruppe Skorzeny or Schwedt managed to pull back from the so called bridghead Schwedt and it was not a disaster like a month later with bridghead Zehden. So I think he had quite big chance to survive.
Well, maybe he was in Denemark till end of January and theny was transfered to Schwedt?

Why? Simply because I'm interested in fights in Schwedt area.

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Re: Otto Schwerdt

#11

Post by Lancelac » 12 Mar 2011, 00:22

Bob Forczyk wrote: If you have any more info about his activities in Denmark that would be great.
Thanks
Bob
Short background: By early 1943, the Danish resistance groups started to get organized. Sabotage of German transport- and communication lines, military installations as well as Danish industrial facilities that supported the German war machine + killing of German informers were carried out in increasing numbers. Hitler demanded that this development be countered with terror: sabotages of Danish cultural institutions etc ("Schalburg-tage") and killings of civilians ("clearing-murders").

On 27 December 1943, Himmler personally ordered Otto Schwerdt (aka Peter Schäfer) to setup and organize the so-called "Sonderkommando Dänemark" that would implement Hitler's terror plans. In Denmark, the group became known as the "Peter group" (after the first name of Schwerdt's alias).

During the rest of the war, the group carried out numerous terror actions against cultural institutions and national landmarks (like Tivoli, the Odin's tower in Odense and Nordisk Film), cinemas and theatres, newspapers and publishers, key industrial/trading facilities like Tuborg, ØK, Bang & Olufsen) as well as passager trains and trams. In total, 157 actions of this kind.

In addition, the group made a total of 94 killings and another 25 killing attempts. The group's first action was the infamous killing of the Danish poet and priest, Kaj Munk on 4 January 1944.

During all the actions, the group used British ammunition to make it look like the sabotages and killings were made by Danish resistance groups.

Otto Schwerdt returned to Germany on 10 November 1944. From then on, another SS-officer, Horst Issel was in charge of the group.

After the liberation, Schwerdt was one of the most wanted men in Denmark and the chief of the Danish police, Otto Himmelstrup, attached great importance to track Schwerdt's whereabouts after leaving Denmark in late 1944. During these investigations, the police learned that Schwerdt was sent to the Grafenwöhr training camp in Bavaria where he became a leading officer of the Sonderkommando Drachenhügel that would operate behind enemy lines at the battle of the Bulge/Operation Schnee Eifel.

The Danish police also learned that Schwerdt's Danish girlfriend, Inga Lorentzen had fled to Germany after the war and the police used this lead to track him down. On 9 April 1946, the Danish police and American MP's eventually found him at Reulingerstrasse 107 in Stuttgart. Schwerdt attempted to escape but was arrested after a brief gun fight. In his pockets, the police found a cyanid capsule.

Schwerdt was returned to Denmark for trial and on the trip back to Copenhagen, he was very talkative. According the newspaper reports of the time, he was allegedly very proud of one particular Rachenhügel action where his group was disguised in American uniforms charged with the objective of disrupting the Allied movements. The group's true identity was eventually revealed (either because some of the soliders' spoke poor English/American or because of a renegade). Schwerdt told the Danish police officers that he was one of the only soldiers that managed to escape.

During the trials, Otto Schwerdt made clear that he was in charge of the Sonderkommando Dänemark (and thus the Peter group), that both the German political (Werner Best) and military leader (Otto Bovensiepen) in Denmark were consulted before each actions, and that every person attached to the group (Germans and Danes) understood and accepted that the group's mission was terror and killings of innocent civilians. But Schwerdt also made clear that he was a soldier and that he was only carrying out the orders of Heinrich Himmler. He further stated that he quickly realized that the missions of the Peter Group were counter-productive. The terror did not subdue the Danish resistance groups and the population's silent support to the resistance. On the contrary, in the words of Schwerdt, each action of the Peter Group produced another 100 Danish saboteurs.

On 27 January 1949, the lower Danish court sentenced Otto Schwerdt to death. On 19 January 1950, the upper court reduced the sentence to 24 years in prison. On 1 December 1953, Schwerdt was released and extradited to Germany as one of the last German prisoners.

Otto Schwerdt died on 6 July 1975. I believe he lived in Cologne.

I am keen to know what he did after the war and would also like to know more about the Sonderkommando Drachenhügel. Obviously, this sonderkommando must have been part of Skorzeny's Operation Greif (cf. the wiki for this) but I have never heard about the name Sonderkommando Drachenhügel. Did this unit in fact exist? My sources are from Danish newspapers from the time, Schwerdt was captured in Stuttgart.

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