18/04/2016
Fred Mayer died at the weekend (on Friday, April 15th, Erew Schabbat) . Mayer was not a Berliner, in fact it is possible he has never been to Berlin, but he was one of those rare and few people, to whom so many people owe so much. Mayer was born in Freiburg in 1921. When he was 17, his family managed to immigrate to the US. In 1941 Mayer enlisted in the US Army, but was soon recruited by the OSS (the early version of the CIA). In 1945 he was part of the three men team sent to the Innsbruck area in Austria to spy on the Germans. He first disguised himself as a N**i Officer (using uniform given him by an Austrian nurse at a military hospital who resisted the N**is), gathering information from the other officers at the hospital, including exact plans of Hitler's Offices in Berlin (so we do have a Berlin angle!). He later disguised himself as a French electrician and gained access to military installations. After being caught, he was horribly tortured by the Gestapo, but even after they saw he was circumcised, they refused to believe that a Jew could return to Europe and operate as a spy. One of the local doctors, personal GP for the N**i governor, understood that the end of the war is near and stopped the torture - he passed Mayer's message to American troupes, in order to prevent to destruction of the city during occupation. And so, the city of Innsbruck practically surrendered to a Jew. After the war, Mayer lived in West Virginia.
Pictures: Fred disguised as a N**i officer, Fred a few years before a passed and the three main operatives in "Operation Greenup": Mayer, Dutch-born Hans Wijnberg who served as the radio-operator, and Austrian Franz Weber, a former Wehrmacht officer who switched sides. Tell Tarantino to make another movie, real life is as exciting...
