The Odessa File
Encyclopedia
The Odessa File is a thriller by Frederick Forsyth
, first published in 1972, about the adventures of a young German
reporter attempting to discover the location of a former SS concentration-camp commander.
The name ODESSA
is an acronym for the German phrase "Organisation der Ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen", which translates as “Organization of Former Members of the SS”. The novel alleges that ODESSA is an international Nazi organization established before the defeat of Nazi Germany
for the purpose of protecting former members of the SS after the war instead of a war veterans' group.
, Peter Miller, a German freelance crime reporter, follows an ambulance to the apartment of Salomon Tauber, a Jewish Holocaust
-survivor who has committed suicide
. The next day, Miller is given the dead man's diary by a friend in the police. After reading Tauber's life story and learning that Tauber had been in Riga
concentration camp commanded by Eduard Roschmann, "The Butcher of Riga," Miller resolves to search for Roschmann. Miller's attention is especially drawn to one diary passage in which Tauber describes having seen Roschmann in anger fatally shoot a German Army Captain wearing an unusual military decoration matching that of Miller's late father, who had died serving in that area.
Miller pursues the story and visits the State Attorney General's office and other offices where he learns that no-one is prepared to search for or prosecute former Nazis. But his investigations take him to the famed war-criminal investigator Simon Wiesenthal
, who tells him about the society "ODESSA
".
Miller is approached by a group of Mossad
agents who have vowed to search for German war criminals and kill them and have been attempting to infiltrate Odessa. Miller is asked to infiltrate ODESSA and agrees. A former SS member (working with the team of Israeli agents) trains him to pass for a former SS sergeant. Miller visits a lawyer working for ODESSA and after passing a severe scrutiny, is sent to meet a passport forger who supplies those members who wish to escape.
Slowly Miller unravels the entire system.
But Miller's identity has been compromised—in part by his ill-advised decision to use his own car; the impoverished SS man he is impersonating would not have been able to afford a sports car.
ODESSA sets its top hit man on Miller's trail. Miller escapes one trap by sheer luck; the hit man then installs a bomb in Miller's car, but because the sports car has a very "stiff" suspension, the bomb is not triggered while Miller is driving it.
Eventually Miller confronts Roschmann at gunpoint and forces him to read from Tauber's diary. Roschmann admits to killing the German Army captain, now revealed to have been Miller's father, and attempts to justify his actions.
Miller tells Roschmann that he isn't there to avenge Roschmann's Jewish victims and doesn't care how Roschmann tries to justify what he did to them. He is there to kill Roschmann for having killed his father.
Miller, momentarily off guard, is disarmed and knocked unconscious by another ODESSA man; Roschmann manages to escape, eventually flying to Argentina
. The hit man who has been sent to kill Miller is killed by an Israel
i agent.
While Miller is recovering in hospital, he is told what happened while he was unconscious. Josef, his contact, warns him not to tell anyone the story. He does disclose that with Roschmann (code-named "Vulkan") in Argentina, West German authorities (at the urging of the Israelis) will close Roschmann's radio factory where a rocket guidance system is being secretly developed for the Egyptian army. ODESSA's plan to obliterate the State of Israel by combining German technological know-how with Egyptian biological weapons has been thwarted.
Josef, in reality Uri ben Shaul, an Israeli army officer, returns to Israel to be debriefed, and performs one final duty. He has taken Tauber's diary with him and per the last request in the diary, Uri visits Yad Vashem
and says Kaddish
for the soul of Salomon Tauber.
was released in 1974 starring Jon Voight
versus Maximillian Schell and directed by Ronald Neame
with a score by Andrew Lloyd Webber
. Although the movie was based rather loosely on the book, it brought about the exposure of the real-life "Butcher of Riga", Eduard Roschmann. After the movie was released to the public, he was arrested by the Argentinian police, skipped bail, and fled to Asunción
, Paraguay
where he died on 10 August 1977.
Frederick Forsyth
Frederick Forsyth, CBE is an English author and occasional political commentator. He is best known for thrillers such as The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, The Fourth Protocol, The Dogs of War, The Devil's Alternative, The Fist of God, Icon, The Veteran, Avenger, The Afghan and The Cobra.-...
, first published in 1972, about the adventures of a young German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
reporter attempting to discover the location of a former SS concentration-camp commander.
The name ODESSA
ODESSA
The ODESSA, from the German Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen, meaning “Organization of Former SS Members,” is believed to have been an international Nazi network set up toward the end of World War II by a group of SS officers...
is an acronym for the German phrase "Organisation der Ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen", which translates as “Organization of Former Members of the SS”. The novel alleges that ODESSA is an international Nazi organization established before the defeat of Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
for the purpose of protecting former members of the SS after the war instead of a war veterans' group.
Plot
In November 1963, shortly after the assassination of John F. KennedyJohn F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
, Peter Miller, a German freelance crime reporter, follows an ambulance to the apartment of Salomon Tauber, a Jewish Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
-survivor who has committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
. The next day, Miller is given the dead man's diary by a friend in the police. After reading Tauber's life story and learning that Tauber had been in Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
concentration camp commanded by Eduard Roschmann, "The Butcher of Riga," Miller resolves to search for Roschmann. Miller's attention is especially drawn to one diary passage in which Tauber describes having seen Roschmann in anger fatally shoot a German Army Captain wearing an unusual military decoration matching that of Miller's late father, who had died serving in that area.
Miller pursues the story and visits the State Attorney General's office and other offices where he learns that no-one is prepared to search for or prosecute former Nazis. But his investigations take him to the famed war-criminal investigator Simon Wiesenthal
Simon Wiesenthal
Simon Wiesenthal KBE was an Austrian Holocaust survivor who became famous after World War II for his work as a Nazi hunter....
, who tells him about the society "ODESSA
ODESSA
The ODESSA, from the German Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen, meaning “Organization of Former SS Members,” is believed to have been an international Nazi network set up toward the end of World War II by a group of SS officers...
".
Miller is approached by a group of Mossad
Mossad
The Mossad , short for HaMossad leModi'in uleTafkidim Meyuchadim , is the national intelligence agency of Israel....
agents who have vowed to search for German war criminals and kill them and have been attempting to infiltrate Odessa. Miller is asked to infiltrate ODESSA and agrees. A former SS member (working with the team of Israeli agents) trains him to pass for a former SS sergeant. Miller visits a lawyer working for ODESSA and after passing a severe scrutiny, is sent to meet a passport forger who supplies those members who wish to escape.
Slowly Miller unravels the entire system.
But Miller's identity has been compromised—in part by his ill-advised decision to use his own car; the impoverished SS man he is impersonating would not have been able to afford a sports car.
ODESSA sets its top hit man on Miller's trail. Miller escapes one trap by sheer luck; the hit man then installs a bomb in Miller's car, but because the sports car has a very "stiff" suspension, the bomb is not triggered while Miller is driving it.
Eventually Miller confronts Roschmann at gunpoint and forces him to read from Tauber's diary. Roschmann admits to killing the German Army captain, now revealed to have been Miller's father, and attempts to justify his actions.
Miller tells Roschmann that he isn't there to avenge Roschmann's Jewish victims and doesn't care how Roschmann tries to justify what he did to them. He is there to kill Roschmann for having killed his father.
Miller, momentarily off guard, is disarmed and knocked unconscious by another ODESSA man; Roschmann manages to escape, eventually flying to Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
. The hit man who has been sent to kill Miller is killed by an Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i agent.
While Miller is recovering in hospital, he is told what happened while he was unconscious. Josef, his contact, warns him not to tell anyone the story. He does disclose that with Roschmann (code-named "Vulkan") in Argentina, West German authorities (at the urging of the Israelis) will close Roschmann's radio factory where a rocket guidance system is being secretly developed for the Egyptian army. ODESSA's plan to obliterate the State of Israel by combining German technological know-how with Egyptian biological weapons has been thwarted.
Josef, in reality Uri ben Shaul, an Israeli army officer, returns to Israel to be debriefed, and performs one final duty. He has taken Tauber's diary with him and per the last request in the diary, Uri visits Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, established in 1953 through the Yad Vashem Law passed by the Knesset, Israel's parliament....
and says Kaddish
Kaddish
Kaddish is a prayer found in the Jewish prayer service. The central theme of the Kaddish is the magnification and sanctification of God's name. In the liturgy different versions of the Kaddish are used functionally as separators between sections of the service...
for the soul of Salomon Tauber.
Film adaptation and SS Captain Eduard Roschmann
A movie adaptation of the same nameThe ODESSA File (film)
The Odessa File is a 1974 film adaptation of the thriller novel by Frederick Forsyth, about a struggle between a young German reporter and the ODESSA, an organization for ex-Nazis. The film stars Jon Voight and was directed by Ronald Neame, with a score by Andrew Lloyd Webber.- Plot :The plot opens...
was released in 1974 starring Jon Voight
Jon Voight
Jonathan Vincent "Jon" Voight is an American actor. He has received an Academy Award, out of four nominations, and three Golden Globe Awards, out of nine nominations. Voight is the father of actress Angelina Jolie....
versus Maximillian Schell and directed by Ronald Neame
Ronald Neame
Ronald Elwin Neame CBE, BSC was an English film cinematographer, producer, screenwriter and director.-Early career:...
with a score by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
. Although the movie was based rather loosely on the book, it brought about the exposure of the real-life "Butcher of Riga", Eduard Roschmann. After the movie was released to the public, he was arrested by the Argentinian police, skipped bail, and fled to Asunción
Asunción
Asunción is the capital and largest city of Paraguay.The "Ciudad de Asunción" is an autonomous capital district not part of any department. The metropolitan area, called Gran Asunción, includes the cities of San Lorenzo, Fernando de la Mora, Lambaré, Luque, Mariano Roque Alonso, Ñemby, San...
, Paraguay
Paraguay
Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...
where he died on 10 August 1977.
External links
- The Odessa File at the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...