First, it must be said that this book is not about the wonderful city of Odessa. "Odessa" here is an abbreviation derived from the name "Organisation der ehemaligen SS - Angehörigen. In English it means: "Organization of former SS members. Frederick Forsyth's novel is precisely about this "Odessa.
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 recently The Cobra and The Kill List.
Briefly about the plot. The book is set in 1963-1964. An independent German journalist, Peter Miller, accidentally gets his hands on the diary of a certain Solomon Tauber - a former prisoner of the Riga concentration camp. In the diary, Tauber describes everything that happened to him in the camp, and also reveals that the man responsible for the murder of 80,000 prisoners, Eduard Roschmann, nicknamed the Butcher of Riga, the commandant of the camp, is still alive and at large. Peter resolves to track down Roschmann by all means. In his search he encounters the reluctance of the police or the authorities of Germany to search for war criminals, as well as the mysterious organization "Odessa".
It should be noted that Peter belongs to the generation of Germans born during or immediately after the war. These young Germans were inculcated with the guilt and responsibility that every German bears for everything the Nazis did. At the same time, 20-30 year old Germans knew nothing specific about the SS and its role in World War II. Peter's quest is to learn how the SS differed from ordinary Wehrmacht soldiers and to discover the monstrous truth that hundreds of thousands of war criminals not only were not punished, but lived quite happily in Latin America, Egypt and in Germany itself.
Peter Miller follows in the footsteps of Roschmann and the people he encounters, be they friends or enemies, wonder why he, an Aryan, would seek out a war criminal. Until the very end of the book, it will never be clear what guided Peter. But in the finale, Frederick Forsythe manages to put everything in its place.
This book is interesting not only dashingly twisted and just as dashingly finished plot. On the contrary. It is interesting because of the extensive factual material, which the author provides the reader, about war criminals, their search and capture, or rather that so many managed to escape punishment. So Peter Miller learns about the existence of "Commission Z" - a tiny agency where people worked for a pittance, dedicated to one goal - the search for Nazis guilty of crimes against humanity. Before the special "Statute of Limitations" recognized only single and mass murders as such, the crimes against humanity included extortion, robbery, torture and so on. But even after all the restrictions, the lists of "Commission Z" included at least a hundred and seventy thousand people, so it is understandable why the main emphasis was on the search for a few thousand perpetrators of mass murders. However, their search was often unsuccessful. Many of us have heard about Eichmann, who lived peacefully in Argentina until the 1960s, but was hunted down by Mossad agents, tried and sentenced to death; and Mengele, who was never brought to trial. But hardly many people know that not just a few, but tens of thousands escaped justice. Forsyth's novel can open our eyes to the truth. It can also give an idea of why it happened. For example, immediately after the war it was easy to get documents in someone else's name. How many soldiers lost their documents in battles? Therefore, it was not difficult for the SS to find a Wehrmacht soldier's uniform and call themselves by any fictitious name. There was neither the opportunity nor the time to check it all.
The book by F. Forsythe is not fiction in the part about the war criminals who escaped punishment. Eduard Roshmann was indeed the commandant of a concentration camp in Riga and was indeed able to escape justice. "Odessa" is an organization that not only helped former SS men (although the word "former" is hardly appropriate here) to hide, but also infiltrated its members into all areas of life in Germany at the time. Like Peter Miller, you would be surprised how many SS members entered the top business and political circles of post-war Germany. Why did this happen? The fact is that there was no law in the FRG that forbade former (?) Fascists to engage in the same politics, for example. "... No CDU or CSU candidate who zealously advocated the investigation of war crimes was elected to the Bundestag or even to the Landtag. A politician explained it very simply: "It's all about mathematics," he said. - Six million dead Jews cannot vote. But five million living Nazis can and do vote."
This article was sponsored by Robert Bachhuber
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