The Odessa File
The ODESSA File is a thriller novel by Frederick Forsyth, first published in 1972, about the adventures of a young German reporter tracing an SS concentration-camp commander. ODESSA is an organization for ex-Nazis of the SS.
Plot
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The plot begins in Hamburg on November 22, 1963, the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
Young German crime reporter Peter Miller follows an ambulance to the apartment of Salomon Tauber, a Jewish Holocaust-survivor who has committed suicide. Miller is given the dead man's diary by a friend in the police.
Miller reads Tauber's life story.
During the war, Tauber was in Riga concentration camp commanded by the sadistic Eduard Roschmann, "The Butcher of Riga", who forced Tauber to put his own wife in a poison-gas van.
Later in the war, Soviet forces were closing in on German-held Riga. The concentration camp was to be destroyed and the camp's SS personnel and prisoners evacuated to German-held territory by ship.
Tauber described the escape from Riga. Roschmann commandeered the ship by shooting in the back a German Army captain who had orders to use the ship to evacuate wounded soldiers, and who had punched Roschmann to the ground when he first attempted to seize the ship. The dead captain had the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, one of the highest German awards for bravery. The ship docked in Danzig.
After the war, the frail and scarred Tauber lived a lonely and miserable life in Hamburg, only staying alive in the hope of giving testimony about Roschmann's war crimes. Tauber decided Roschmann's arrest and conviction was impossible.
Tauber's last request: Should the diary be read in Israel, would someone there say Kaddish for him?
After reading the diary, Miller resolves to hunt down Roschmann.
Meanwhile, the news of Kennedy's death is seen by the ODESSA as an unexpected stroke of good fortune. It delights the members of the ODESSA who oppose the Eisenhower-brokered, Kennedy-supported secret arrangement to have West Germany sell arms to Israel. It is hoped that Kennedy's successor, Johnson, will withdraw U.S. support for the arrangement.
The ODESSA has helped to establish and develop the secret Egyptian rocket project. They are building rockets to destroy Israel, rockets laden with bubonic plague and radioactive Cobalt-60. The guidance systems for these rockets are being designed in secret at a West German radio factory. The owner of the factory, an ODESSA man codenamed "Vulkan", is to be protected at all costs.
Miller tracks down Tauber's only friend, Marx, another concentration-camp survivor. Miller informs Marx about Tauber's death. Marx is not surprised about his friend's suicide. Marx knew Tauber was bitter and extremely unhappy because of his wartime experiences.
Marx reveals to Miller Tauber had seen Roschmann the previous month entering a taxi with two others outside of Hamburg's opera house. Miller realizes Tauber's story would not have been believed. Marx figures that was why Tauber killed himself.
A prominent magazine publisher who frequently buys Miller's stories refuses to commission the Roschmann story, explaining that that kind of story was unpopular and could cause trouble.
Despite the rejection, Miller pursues the story on his own. He visits the State Attorney General's office. That visit was unhelpful. He visits the Z Commission, a nationwide group of war crime investigators and prosecutors, who want to help but can't for legal reasons.
Miller travels to do the research for the story. His research gets noticed. "Dr. Schmidt" visits Miller.
"Dr. Schmidt" tries to dissuade Miller by telling him Roschmann died just after the war, but all he does is confirm that Roschmann is still alive.
"Dr. Schmidt" was acting on orders of the "Werwolf", the head of ODESSA in West Germany. As a result of the "Herr Doktor's" report, he reluctantly orders an assassin, Mackensen, to kill Miller.
Miller's investigations into Roschmann's disappearances since the end of the war take him to the famed war-criminal investigator Simon Wiesenthal, who tells him about the ODESSA. He also explains the importance of the passport in establishing false identification in West Germany. Wiesenthal believes the ODESSA must have a passport forger, since Roschmann was exposed and had disappeared in 1955.
If the provider of false passports could be located, Wiesenthal figures, he probably would know where to find Roschmann. The only way to find the ODESSA's false-identification expert is to penetrate the ODESSA. Only an ex-SS man can do that.
While following up another lead, Miller is approached by a Jewish man named Motti, who offers to help him. Miller is taken away blindfolded to meet Motti's friends, Leon and his gang of concentration-camp survivors who have vowed to hunt down German war criminals to kill them, not to have them arrested, as Wiesenthal would do.
Leon wants to have Miller infiltrate the ODESSA and find the passport forger so that his gang can find war criminals to eradicate. Miller agrees and a former SS officer trains him to pass for an SS man. Leon is joined by a Mossad agent, Josef, who wants to use Miller to identify the chief recruiting officer of scientists for the ODESSA's Egyptian rocket project.
Leon has Miller adopt the identity of a recently-deceased SS sergeant.
Miller visits the "Werwolf" and asks for help to escape the police who are hunting him for war crimes. After passing a three-hour test, Miller is sent to Bayer, the man who will obtain a passport for him.
Meanwhile, Josef is informed that Roschmann is "Vulkan". The rocket guidance systems are being developed in West Germany, not Egypt, as the Mossad had been led to believe.
While Miller and Bayer are out for a night on the town, the "Werwolf" telephones Bayer's wife who says the young man arrived in a black sports car with a yellow stripe on each side. The "Werwolf" recognizes the car as belonging to Miller and sends Mackensen after him.
Miller takes a drunken Bayer back to his hotel room and binds, gags, and tortures him until he reveals the identity of the ODESSA's passport forger. After Miller has left, Bayer manages to free himself but is shot by Mackensen who mistakes him for Miller. Mackensen, realizing his mistake, looks for Miller but finds Miller has disappeared; he is not in town.
The "Werwolf" is not pleased with Mackensen's report. Mackensen asks what information Bayer could have provided Miller. The "Werwolf", realizing that Miller is after the forger, tells him where he has gone and to drive like hell to get there.
Miller visits the house of Klaus Winzer, the ODESSA's forger and passport expert, but he has left town, having been warned off by the "Werwolf". Miller has no idea how to obtain Roschmann's new name and address until Winzer's housekeeper tells him about her predecessor who is in a nearby hospital.
Miller goes to the hospital and tricks the dying woman into revealing that Winzer's file of SS fugitives who needed new identities is inside a hidden safe. Winzer made up the file as insurance in case he was ever threatened by the ODESSA.
Miller and a professional safecracker who owes him a favor break into Winzer's house to steal the file. The file does indeed contain Roschmann's new name and address.
Mackensen has caught up with Miller. He installs a bomb in Miller's car, rigged to the suspension, but the sports car's suspension is stiffer than that of most other cars. The bomb fails to explode as Miller drives to Roschmann's mountain manor.
Miller stops at a hotel and calls his girlfriend to come and deliver his pistol and handcuffs. Miller leaves orders for her: in case of trouble while he sees to the arrest of Roschmann, have The ODESSA File sent to the Z Commission; and notify Leon of his whereabouts.
Winzer returns to his house. His housekeeper informs him of the burglary. The hospital informs him of the death of his former housekeeper. He informs the "Werwolf" of the file's loss. The "Werwolf" informs Winzer he will be killed. Winzer shoots himself.
The "Werwolf" sends Mackensen over to Roschmann's to make sure The ODESSA File will not be exposed.
Miller leaves the hotel and calls on Roschmann. He confronts Roschmann at gunpoint and forces him to read from Tauber's diary. It is the part where Roschmann killed the German Army captain. After Roschmann identifies a photograph of the officer, Miller reveals that the officer was his father. Miller handcuffs Roschmann to the fireplace and intends to hand him over to the police, but Roschmann's bodyguard, Oskar (who'd just returned from town reporting telephone trouble), knocks him out cold.
The manor's telephone line had been brought down by a tree branch that broke with the weight of snow which, in turn, pulled down the telephone pole.
Roschmann tells Oskar to go to town, fetch the doctor to revive Miller, and inform the "Werwolf" of what happened. Oskar takes Miller's car and drives over the pole at which point the car explodes.
Roschmann hacksaws free from the handcuffs, informs the "Werwolf" of what happened, and escapes to Argentina.
Mackensen shows up at the house to find a burnt and mangled corpse (Oskar) and a gutted car (Miller's). He finds Miller unconscious inside.
Mackensen splices the telephone line and reports to the "Werwolf". The "Werwolf" reveals to Mackensen what Miller had exposed and again orders Mackensen to kill Miller.
Josef, who had been summoned to Roschmann's by Miller's girlfriend, shows up to find Mackensen pointing his pistol at (the still-unconscious) Miller. Josef distracts Mackensen from his task. Mackensen figures the new arrival is from the ODESSA; but he is puzzled. As Mackensen realizes Josef is an Israeli, Josef shoots him.
While Miller is recovering from concussion in a hospital, Josef tells him what happened while he was unconscious and warns him not to tell anyone the story.
With Roschmann ("Vulkan") in Argentina, West German authorities (at the urging of the Israelis) will close the radio factory and see to the destruction of the rocket guidance system project. The Egyptian rockets are never deployed, to be destroyed on the first day of the Six Day War.
After taking Tauber's diary back to Israel, Uri, formerly Josef, visits Yad Vashem and says Kaddish for the soul of Salomon Tauber.
Film adaptation
A movie adaptation of the same name was released in 1974 starring Jon Voight versus Maximillian Schell and directed by Ronald Neame with a score by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
SS Captain Eduard Roschmann
Although the movie was based rather loosely on the book, ironically, it was the movie which brought about another exposure of the real-life "Butcher of Riga", Eduard Roschmann. After the movie (which had Roschmann killed) came out, he was arrested by the Argentinian police, skipped bail, and fled to Asunción, Paraguay where he died on 10 August 1977. See List of SS personnel.