The Odessa files

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The Odessa File is the German title of a novel by Frederick Forsyth from 1972. The original title is The Odessa File , under this name the book was filmed in 1974 . A translation of the novel into German by Tom Knoth was published in 1973. In 2012 The Odessa Files were presented as an audio book. In 2013 the novel was published as an e-book in German translation. The work is also included in the Klassik Radio Edition Starke Krimis .

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The story takes place in the years 1963–1964, mostly in the Federal Republic of Germany. The Hamburg journalist Peter Miller found in researching about the suicide of an old man - Salomon Tauber - out that he has killed himself because he of his former tormentors, the head of the concentration camp in the Nazi era is again encountered on the road. Eduard Roschmann , the butcher of Riga, can live unmolested in Germany despite his crimes.

The journalist begins to investigate and initially runs into great difficulties with authorities who are either disinterested, intimidated or hindered by bureaucratic restrictions. A public prosecutor from the Central Office of the State Justice Administrations ("my hands and feet are bound by instructions") secretly gives him the reference to the Berlin Document Center , where he finds extensive documents about Roschmann for the first time - and arouses the attention of former Nazis.

When he visits Simon Wiesenthal in Vienna, he learns about a network of former Nazis who have built new livelihoods in Germany, South America and Egypt and who are supporting Egypt in the war against Israel: the name OdeSSA stands for Organization of Former SS Members .

While an Odessa killer is looking for him, Peter Miller works with a group of Holocaust survivors who have dedicated themselves to hunting down Nazis in hiding. In order to smuggle him in undercover at the OdeSSA, the group gives him the identity of an SS member who has just died. Since the journalist only experienced the war as a child, he is outwardly trimmed to look a little older. In addition, he receives instruction from a friend of his former member of the SS in the behavior and rituals of the SS in order to fulfill his role. The Mossad has also tracked the concentration camp commandant Eduard Roschmann and used the young German for their research.

In the course of his work, Miller came across Nazi ropes in the police and business community. He finds connections to South America and Egypt (see also rat lines ). The camp commandant and the OdeSSA support the development of rockets in Egypt and research into biological and chemical warfare agents in Arab countries with the aim of destroying the State of Israel.

In addition to his professional interests, Peter Miller has a private reason: his father, an officer in the Wehrmacht , perished towards the end of the war. In the old man's diary entries Miller finds a description of an officer and his death, which obviously applies to his father - and his murderer is SS man Eduard Roschmann.

Due to a rookie mistake, Miller reveals himself after a short time and barely escapes the Odessa killer without knowing it. Nevertheless, he was able to trace Roschmann and found him - as the owner of a radio equipment manufacturer to which a top-secret research department is attached, whose actual task is military research for Egypt. Since Miller meets Roschmann alone and without combat experience, his attempt fails; Roschmann's bodyguard overwhelms him, Roschmann can flee. When the Odessa killer tries to kill the unconscious Miller, the Mossad agent rescues him, who was informed just in time by Miller's friend Sigi.

The research department is dissolved and the missile threat to Israel has been averted. Numerous Odessa members are withdrawing from Germany, and Mossad agent Uri Ben Shaul says a prayer for Salomon Tauber at the Yad Vashem memorial .

The book is dedicated: For all reporters .

Historical significance

The portrayal of the research carried out by a German journalist in the 1960s sheds significant light on the state of the then coming to terms with the past in the Federal Republic of Germany. Forsyth describes in detail the - mostly unsuccessful - journey of his protagonist to German agencies that are actually engaged in the prosecution of war criminals, but whose engagement is very limited. The Nazi elites had returned to their former positions in politics, business, administration and science. Numerous members of the government of the post-war period are on a list of politicians with a Nazi past.

In Vienna, the protagonist of the novel finally seeks out the "Nazi hunter" Simon Wiesenthal and only there finds noteworthy help. From this point of view, at least the first half of the book is also of contemporary historical interest.

Contemporary history background

Like other Forsyth novels, The Odessa Files are embedded in historical facts. An important element of the plot is the affair over German missile experts in Egypt . In fact, German researchers had worked on the development of Egyptian missiles, which, according to experts, lacked an efficient guidance system. In the book, the von Roschmann company develops such a steering system, which makes it interesting for the Mossad.

In addition, the coming to terms with the past in Germany in the post-war period is addressed - the slow processing of criminal offenses, the (often hesitant) persecution of Nazi criminals and the role that “Nazi hunters” like Simon Wiesenthal played in it.

During their escape, Nazi criminals often had well-organized and influential helpers, for example via “ rat lines ”, such as Bishop Alois Hudal , who is also mentioned in the book . However, the conspiracy theory of the “Organization of Former SS Members OdeSSA” has been disproved. The historian Gerald Steinacher wrote in 2010: "Reality was more complicated, the network of escape routes was widely ramified, there was no tightly organized system of escape organizations".

By opening numerous archives in the Vatican, the question of whether the Catholic Church systematically helped Nazi war criminals to flee is being investigated. In this context, instead of “rat lines”, “monastery lines” are used. The most interesting escape route was from Sterzing via Brixen and Bozen to Rome and from there to Genoa - with the destination Argentina or Chile . Strict anti-communists of the Catholic faith were welcomed with open arms by the local Catholic Church. In this area of ​​research, too, the conclusion was reached that the Odessa files are a myth, a literary fiction. Instead, there was a kind of recommendation system. Many roads led to the escape. After the end of World War II, there were a number of networks, institutions, and governments that had a political interest in helping war criminals. Argentina's President Perón wanted to modernize his country and arm the military. German and Austrian experts should serve this purpose. Italy was the ideal starting point because the Allies were hardly present there from 1946. Travel documents were easy to get from Vatican authorities. Argentine consular missions in Genoa and Rome were in charge of targeted recruitment. Argentinians of German origin were used.

In Austria, too, it could not be clarified whether there were structures that went beyond personal networks. The role of possible escape helpers, such as Bishop Alois Hudal, the involvement of the Vatican, Caritas or the International Red Cross, also remains open:

“The role of Austria as a transit route, the route across the Alps to the ship connections to Genoa, was proven by examining the refugees' individual biographical data. The existence of an escape organization of SS members (ODESSA) or of rat lines, however, cannot be supported by any evidence from Austrian archives. "

- Edith Blaschitz : Documentation archive of the Austrian resistance April 2003

Reviews

“But to blow up the secret organization of the former Waffen-SS into a threatening state within the state, to let it shake the livelihoods of the state of Israel - that does not seem like a confirming recourse to the reality of what has been, but like pure boasting of fiction. So it seems a bit convulsively exaggerated that the journalist, who is looking for an SS murderer who has been declared dead all alone in a long German corridor, encounters horror instead of assistance everywhere, yes that even the police and his all-powerful magazine boss only advise him, yes they do To keep hands off the matter. "

- Hellmuth Karasek : ZEIT magazine from April 13, 1973

“But the topicality, which Forsyth with its detailed reality, which has amazed even intimate connoisseurs of the scene, seems to be constantly on the trail, only absorbs the excesses of a monstrous fantasy. All of this may still work, is asked and is devoured. The fact that the bullfighter, jet pilot and journalist Forsyth used the diary entries of a battered concentration camp prisoner - regardless of whether they were true or fictitious - as an exposition for a political jumble arranged with calculation and cynicism, does not mark the author as a sensitive contemporary out. The fact that, just after reading this document, he puts the hero Peter on the camp of Sigi's incarnate lust for purposes that are easy to interpret is of course only tasteless. "

- Birgit Lahann : Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. March 27, 1973

success

The book was number 1 on the Spiegel bestseller list for twelve weeks in 1973 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Frederick Forsyth: The Odessa Files . 1st edition. Piper, Munich 1973, ISBN 3-492-01992-7 (English: The Odessa File . Translated by Tom Knoth).
  2. ↑ Frederick Forsyth: The Odessa Files . Audio Media, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-86804-732-5 (English: The Odessa File . 6 CDs).
  3. ↑ Frederick Forsyth: The Odessa Files . Piper ebooks, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-492-96049-6 (Original title: The Odessa File .).
  4. ↑ Klassik Radio-Edition STARKE KRIMIS (Ed.): The Labyrinth / Deadly Laughter / Dogs of Riga / Nobody Will Hear Your Plea / The Odessa Files / Naked Souls . Abridged readings. 1st edition. audio media verlag, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-86804-739-4 (35 CDs).
  5. ^ Quote from Frederick Forsyth: The Odessa Files. 1974 edition, p. 5.
  6. ↑ Ulrich Herbert: Return to the bourgeoisie? Nazi elites in the Federal Republic. LISA The science portal of the Gerda Henkel Foundation, April 20, 2010, accessed on November 16, 2015 .
  7. ↑ Ralf Beste, Georg Bönisch, Thomas Darnstädt , Jan Friedmann, Michael Fröhlingsdorf, Klaus Wiegrefe : Wave of Truths . In: Der Spiegel . No. 1 , 2012 ( online - Jan. 2, 2012 ).
  8. ↑ Joachim Riedel: On a lonely mission. Zeit Online, September 16, 2010, accessed November 16, 2015 .
  9. ↑ The Kurt Wiese case. Simon Wiesenthal Archive, accessed on November 16, 2015 .
  10. ^ Charles E. Ritterband: Frederick Forsyth, thriller writer. In: NZZ Folio . November 1992. Retrieved November 16, 2015 .
  11. ↑ German missiles for Nasser . In: Der Spiegel . No. 19 , 1963 ( online - May 8, 1963 ).
  12. ↑ Rocket Jug: Friends of the Bride . In: Der Spiegel . No. 40 , 1962 ( online - Oct. 3, 1962 ).
  13. ↑ Heidi and the detectives . In: Der Spiegel . No. 13 , 1963 ( online - Mar. 27, 1963 ).
  14. ↑ Uki Goñi: Odessa: The True Story. Escape aid for Nazi war criminals . 1st edition. Assoc. A, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-935936-40-0 (English: The real Odessa . Translated by Toni Bruns and Stefanie Graefe).
  15. ↑ Susanne Kusicke: After the end of the world war: Escape on the rat line. faz.net, May 7, 2015, accessed November 16, 2015 .
  16. ↑ Gerald Steinacher: Nazis on the run. How war criminals escaped overseas via Italy . 1st edition. Fischer Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2010, ISBN 978-3-596-18497-2 .
  17. ↑ Kirsten Serup-Bilfeldt: Persilschein in the name of God. Deutschlandfunk, December 12, 2014, accessed on November 16, 2015 .
  18. ↑ Gerald Steinacher: Argentina as a Nazi escape destination. The emigration of war criminals and National Socialists through Italy to the Rio de la Plata 1946–1955. Myth and Reality. (PDF) University of Nebraska - Lincoln, January 1, 2008, p. 252 , accessed November 16, 2015 .
  19. ^ Edith Blaschitz: Nazi refugees of Austrian origin: The way to Argentina. (PDF) In: Jahrbuch 2003. Documentation Archive of Austrian Resistance, 2003, pp. 103-136 , accessed on November 16, 2015 .
  20. ↑ Hellmuth Karasek: Fear of the once black man. Die Zeit, April 13, 1973, accessed November 16, 2015 .
  21. ↑ Birgit Lahann: The Odessa files. (PDF) Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, March 27, 1973, accessed on November 16, 2015 .