page_title: Operation Damocles
section_title: Attacks on German scientists
hierarchical_section_title: Operation Damocles / Attacks on German scientists
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Collectie / Archief&#160;: Fotocollectie Anefo Reportage / Serie&#160;: [ onbekend ] Beschrijving&#160;: Otto Skorzeny Datum&#160;: 8 februari 1963 Persoonsnaam&#160;: Otto Skorzeny Fotograaf&#160;: [onbekend] Auteursrechthebbende&#160;: Nationaal Archief Materiaalsoort&#160;: Negatief (zwart/wit) Nummer archiefinventaris&#160;: bekijk toegang 2.24.01.04 Bestanddeelnummer&#160;: 914-8031
context_page_description: Operation Damocles was a covert campaign of the Israeli Mossad in August 1962 targeting German scientists and technicians, formerly employed in Nazi Germany's rocket program, who were developing rockets for Egypt at a military site known as Factory 333. According to Otto Joklik, an Austrian scientist involved with the project, the rockets being developed were programmed to use radioactive waste.
  The chief tactics were letter bombs and abduction. In March 1963, Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion demanded the resignation of then chief of Mossad, Isser Harel, over the operation, which effectively ended it. The operation and diplomatic pressure drove the scientists out of Egypt by the end of 1963.
context_section_description: The main tactics employed by Israel against the scientists were letter bombs and abductions. Their families were threatened with violence to persuade the scientists to return to Europe. Mossad provided a small operational unit, headed by future Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, but since it lacked an operational division at that time it mainly used units from the Shin Bet to carry out the attacks.
  A parcel sent to rocket scientist Wolfgang Pilz exploded in his office when opened on 27 November 1962, injuring his secretary.
  A parcel sent to the Heliopolis rocket factory killed five Egyptian workers.
  A pistol was fired at a West German professor in the town of Lörrach who was researching electronics for Egypt. The bullet missed and the gunman escaped by car.
  Heinz Krug, 49, the chief of a Munich company supplying military hardware to Egypt disappeared in September 1962 and is believed to have been murdered. Krug was director of an Egyptian dummy company operating out of Munich that was involved in building missiles in Egypt. According to Dan Raviv and Yossi Melman, Krug was killed near Munich by former Nazi commando Otto Skorzeny. According to Ronen Bergman, Krug was kidnapped in Munich by a Mossad squad headed by Mossad chief Isser Harel himself and was killed in Israel after having been subjected to harsh interrogation.
  Hans Kleinwachter, a rocket scientist who worked on the V-2 project was targeted in February 1963, but the assassination attempt failed due to a weapon malfunction.
caption: Former Nazi Otto Skorzeny (shown in 1963) was supposedly hired for Operation Damocles
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