From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Odessa File
The Odessa File
For the 1974 film adaption, see The Odessa File (film) committed suicide. The next day, Miller is given the dead
man’s diary by a friend in the police. After reading
The Odessa File 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 serv-
ing 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
Author(s) Frederick Forsyth who have vowed to search for German war criminals and
Country United Kingdom kill them and have been attempting to infiltrate Odessa.
Miller is asked to infiltrate ODESSA and agrees. A former
Language English
SS member (working with the team of Israeli agents)
Genre(s) Thriller novel trains him to pass for a former SS sergeant. Miller visits
a lawyer working for ODESSA and after passing a severe
Publication date 1972
scrutiny, is sent to meet a passport forger who supplies
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback) those members who wish to escape.
Slowly Miller unravels the entire system.
ISBN ISBN
But Miller’s identity has been compromised—in part
Preceded by The Day of the Jackal by his ill-advised decision to use his own car; the impov-
Followed by The Dogs of War erished SS man he is impersonating would not have been
able to afford a sports car.
The Odessa File is a thriller by Frederick Forsyth, first pub- ODESSA sets its top hit man on Miller’s trail. Miller es-
lished in 1972, about the adventures of a young German capes one trap by sheer luck; the hit man then installs a
reporter attempting to discover the location of a former bomb in Miller’s car, but because the sports car has a very
SS concentration-camp commander. "stiff" suspension, the bomb is not triggered while Miller
The name ODESSA is an acronym for the German is driving it.
phrase "Organisation der Ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen", Eventually Miller confronts Roschmann at gunpoint
which translates as “Organization of Former Members of and forces him to read from Tauber’s diary. Roschmann
the SS”. The novel alleges that ODESSA is an internation- admits to killing the German Army captain, now revealed
al Nazi organization established before the defeat of Nazi to have been Miller’s father, and attempts to justify his
Germany for the purpose of protecting former members actions.
of the SS after the war instead of a war veterans’ group. 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
Plot there to kill Roschmann for having killed his father.
In November 1963, shortly after the assassination of John Miller, momentarily off guard, is disarmed and
F. Kennedy, Peter Miller, a German freelance crime re- knocked unconscious by another ODESSA man;
porter, follows an ambulance to the apartment of Roschmann manages to escape, eventually flying to Ar-
Salomon Tauber, a Jewish Holocaust-survivor who has gentina. The hit man who has been sent to kill Miller is
killed by an Israeli agent.
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Odessa File
While Miller is recovering in hospital, he is told what
happened while he was unconscious. Josef, his contact,
Film adaptation and SS Captain
warns him not to tell anyone the story. He does disclose Eduard Roschmann
that with Roschmann (code-named "Vulkan") in Argenti-
A movie adaptation of the same name was released in
na, West German authorities (at the urging of the Israelis)
1974 starring Jon Voight versus Maximillian Schell and
will close Roschmann’s radio factory where a rocket
directed by Ronald Neame with a score by Andrew Lloyd
guidance system is being secretly developed for the
Webber. Although the movie was based rather loosely on
Egyptian army. ODESSA’s plan to obliterate the State of
the book, it brought about the exposure of the real-life
Israel by combining German technological know-how
"Butcher of Riga", Eduard Roschmann. After the movie
with Egyptian biological weapons has been thwarted.
was released to the public, he was arrested by the Ar-
Josef, in reality Uri ben Shaul, an Israeli army officer,
gentinian police, skipped bail, and fled to Asunción,
returns to Israel to be debriefed, and performs one final
Paraguay where he died on 10 August 1977.
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. External links
• The Odessa File at the Internet Movie Database
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Odessa_File&oldid=468138421"
Categories:
• 1972 novels
• Thriller novels
• Novels by Frederick Forsyth
• Novels set in Germany
• Novels about journalists
• 1963 in fiction
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