Ze'ev and his son, Oded
Oded
Ze'ev, aka Wolfgang Lotz, proclaiming his innocence on Egyptian TV
Wolfgang arrested by Egyptian officials
Wolfgang convicted of espionage in Egypt
Ze'ev back in Tel Aviv after his release
Ze'ev basking in the spotlight on Israeli TVQUOTES
He was the kind of man who could look the Angel of Death in his eyes and never lower his gaze.
He knew how to make people talk and get information from them.
It was an exceptional case in which the family knew what the husband was doing.
He changed from being a watchman to a sharpshooter.
-----Headline: Letter Bombs Rock Cairo------
The lifestyle he led in Egypt was a lifestyle he enjoyed.
Espionage isn't a profession, it's an art form. And (he) was a true artist.
They (Wolfgang and his secret wife, Waltraud ) had lots of parties. It served the mission very well.
-----Headline: Six Germans in Cairo Disappear-----
If an Israeli spy is caught in Egypt it's the end of the road.
In Israel there were TV sets which could receive Arab broadcasts. We feared someone would see his face and recognize him as an Israeli. We scrambled the reception in Israel.
His acting ability was really put to the test.
All the self confidence I'd had came from the confidence which my Dad projected. "It's fine. I'm in control." Suddenly the bubble burst.
-----Headline: Eli Cohen Was Hung in Damascus----
I remember that...I couldn't talk about it with anyone. And it really hurt in my heart. So I just kept it inside and went on.
They (Mossad officials) didn't think a 15 year old boy needed psychological support.
-----Headline: Slim Chance for German Spies-----
Looking back it seems insane.
I felt so sorry for him.
I was told Dad is arriving tomorrow and he's not coming back home.
Reality after a mission is hard. There (Egypt) you're a king, here (Tel Aviv) you're just a pawn...he became bitter.
You can't leave people like that alone.
Everything he touched failed.
He asked me to help him financially...it was a last resort.
He had a sense of humour to the very end.
I asked him if he ever thought about the price others paid for the incredible life he led.
I forgive him for what he did to me. I don't forgive him for what he did to Mom.
Time review (with discrepancies)
Egyptian generals and Cabinet members in the early 1960s knew Wolfgang Lotz as a wealthy German horse breeder with an engaging habit of sending champagne and other lavish gifts to well-placed friends. They thought of him as an ex-Wehrmacht captain in Rommel's Afrika Korps who later made a fortune in Australia. Some whispered that he was actually a former lieutenant colonel in Hitler's dreaded SS who had joined Egyptian intelligence.
_______The New York Times review summary_______
Oded Gur Arie was born in Israel, and as he was growing up in the 1960's his father would frequently go away on business trips for weeks on end, with little warning of when he would be coming or going. Oded was puzzled by this, but it wasn't until Ze'ev Gur Arie moved to Paris with his wife and son that he told young Oded what he did for a living -- he was an agent with Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, and under their tutelage he was leading a double life as Wolfgang Lotz, a wealthy horse breeder with a past in Nazi Germany. As Lotz, Ze'ev made friends with a number of former Nazi scientists who were being courted by the Egyptian government with an eye towards creating advanced weapons systems to use against Israel. Lotz was also a man who traveled in sophisticated circles and enjoyed the life of a playboy, quite a change from Ze'ev's staid existence as a husband and father. As a boy, Oded Gur Arie was forced to keep his father's double life a secret for the safety of his family, but years later he shares the strange story of his father's career with filmmaker Nadav Schirman in the documentary The Champagne Spy, in which Oded and a handful of former Mossad agents talk about Ze'ev Gur Arie, his years as Wolfgang Lotz (including a marriage to a German woman), and his troubled life after leaving Mossad, in which he and his family came to understand the toll his career had truly taken on them all.
Cinemattraction review
In the early 1960s when Oded Gur-Arie was about 13, his dad brought him along for a coffee with his boss. Gur-Arie knew his dad, Ze’ev, worked for the Israeli government in some capacity, which is why the family lived in Paris and didn’t see him for months at a time. But during this lunch, Ze’ev and his boss brought Gur-Arie into the secret: His father was an undercover agent for Mossad, the Israeli secret service.
If you think it’s astonishing that a man would choose to burden his child with the knowledge of his double identity, the story is only getting started. The Champagne Spy is a documentary so jaw-dropping you really wouldn’t believe it if it was a fictional film (although of course there is now one in the works). But Ze’ev’s double life – he was better known as Wolfgang Lotz – and the price other people paid for his duplicity deserved a straight documentary telling.
The Gazette review
Nadav Schirman had always been fascinated by espionage flicks. The Israeli director spent his formative years in Montreal gobbling up James Bond capers. But little could he have realized then that the true-life exploits of a spy whose saga he stumbled on decades later would make those of 007 pale by comparison.
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A spy is really an actor except the stakes are a little higher. If I do a bad job, I get a bad review, but if HE does a bad job acting, he gets killed.
He started to lose some of his original self and the lines between the persona and the mask that he created and his original self became really really blurred.
