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ODESSA
ODESSA is an American codename (from the German language, German: ''Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen'', meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 to cover Ratlines (World War II aftermath), Nazi underground escape-plans made at the end of World War II by a group of ''SS'' officers with the aim of facilitating secret escape routes, and any directly ensuing arrangements. The concept of the existence of an actual ODESSA organisation has circulated widely in fictional Spy fiction, spy novels and movies, including Frederick Forsyth's best-selling 1972 thriller ''The Odessa File''. The escape-routes have become known as "Ratlines (World War II), ratlines". Known goals of elements within the ''SS'' included allowing ''SS'' members to escape to Argentina or to the Middle East under false passports. Although an unknown number of wanted Nazis and war criminals escaped Germany and often Europe, most experts deny that an organisation called ODESSA ever existed. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frederick Forsyth
Frederick McCarthy Forsyth ( ; 25 August 1938 – 9 June 2025) was an English novelist and journalist. He was best known for thrillers such as ''The Day of the Jackal'', ''The Odessa File'', ''The Fourth Protocol'', ''The Dogs of War (novel), The Dogs of War'', ''The Devil's Alternative'', ''The Fist of God'', ''Icon (novel), Icon'', ''The Veteran (short story collection), The Veteran'', ''Avenger (Forsyth novel), Avenger'', ''The Afghan'', ''The Cobra (novel), The Cobra'' and ''The Kill List''. Forsyth's works frequently appeared on best-sellers lists and more than a dozen of his titles have been adapted to film. By 2006, he had sold more than 70 million books in more than 30 languages. He also worked as a journalist, first joining Reuters in 1961 before serving as an assistant diplomatic correspondent in 1965 for the BBC. He also frequently wrote a column for the middle market newspaper ''Daily Express'' often regarding political issues, such as his climate change denial, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Odessa File
''The Odessa File'' is a thriller by English writer 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 "Organisation of Former Members of the SS". The novel depicts ODESSA as an international Nazi organisation established shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany for the purpose of protecting former members of the SS after the war. Plot In November 1963, shortly after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Peter Miller, a German freelance crime reporter, follows an ambulance to the apartment of Salomon Tauber, a Holocaust survivor who has committed suicide. The next day, Miller is given the dead man's diary by a friend in the Hamburg police. After reading Tauber's life story and learning that he had been in the Riga Ghetto commanded by Edu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Uki Goñi
Uki Goñi (born 17 October 1953) is an Argentine author. His research focuses on the role of the Vatican, Swiss authorities and the government of Argentina in organizing " ratlines"—escape routes for Nazi criminals and collaborators. Personal life Goñi was born on 17 October 1953 in Washington, D.C., and was raised in the United States, Argentina, Mexico, and Ireland. In Ireland, he was educated at St Conleth's College, where one of his schoolteachers was Louis Feutren. Feutren was a former member of the Bezen Perrot and a "boastful, unrepentant and proud" former officer of the SS by Goñi's account. In 2023, Goñi and other past pupils sent a letter to the St Conleth's board of management stating that Feutren abused and humiliated the students he taught, with Goñi writing that "I was physically bashed by Feutren during my first days there. It was the start of many beatings I myself received and that I witnessed Feutren inflict upon others". The group of past pupils re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Simon Wiesenthal
Simon Wiesenthal (31 December 190820 September 2005) was an Austrian Holocaust survivor, Nazi hunter, and writer. He studied architecture, and was living in Lwów at the outbreak of World War II. He survived the Janowska concentration camp (late 1941 to September 1944), the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp (September to October 1944), the Gross-Rosen concentration camp, a death march to Chemnitz, Buchenwald, and the Mauthausen concentration camp (February to May 1945). After the war, Wiesenthal dedicated his life to tracking down and gathering information on fugitive Nazi war criminals, so that they could be brought to trial. In 1947, he co-founded the Jewish Historical Documentation Centre in Linz, Austria, where he and others gathered information for future war crime trials and aided Jewish refugees in their search for lost relatives. He opened the Documentation Centre of the Association of Jewish Victims of the Nazi Regime in Vienna in 1961, and continued to try to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Juan Perón
Juan Domingo Perón (, , ; 8 October 1895 – 1 July 1974) was an Argentine military officer and Statesman (politician), statesman who served as the History of Argentina (1946-1955), 29th president of Argentina from 1946 to Revolución Libertadora, his overthrow in 1955 and again as the 40th president from 1973 to his death in 1974. He is the only Argentine president elected three times and holds the September 1973 Argentine presidential election, highest percentage of votes in clean elections with universal suffrage. Perón is arguably the most important and controversial Argentine politician of the 20th century and his influence extends to the present day. Perón's ideas, policies and movement are known as Peronism, which continues to be one of the major forces in Argentine politics. On 1 March 1911, Perón entered military college, graduating on 13 December 1913. Over the years, he rose through the military ranks. In 1930, Perón supported the coup against President Hipólito ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ratlines (World War II Aftermath)
The ratlines () were systems of escape routes used by German Nazis and other fascists to flee Europe from 1945 onwards in the aftermath of World War II. These escape routes mainly led toward havens in South America, particularly Argentina, as well as Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Bolivia. Additional destinations included Spain, Switzerland, Canada, and the United States. Two primary routes from Germany to South America developed independently with their operators eventually collaborating. The first transferred through Spain and the second through Rome and Genoa. The ratlines were supported by some clergy of the Catholic Church, such as Austrian bishop Alois Hudal and Croatian priest Krunoslav Draganović. Starting in 1947, U.S. Intelligence used existing ratlines to move certain Nazi strategists and scientists, known as Operation Paperclip. Ratlines Two primary routes developed independently but their operators eventually collaborated. The first went from Germany to Spain ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ratlines (World War II)
The ratlines () were systems of escape routes used by German Nazi Party, Nazis and other fascists to flee Europe from 1945 onwards in the aftermath of World War II. These escape routes mainly led toward havens in South America, particularly Argentina, as well as Brazil, Nazism in Chile, Chile, Paraguay, and Bolivia. Additional destinations included Francoist Spain, Spain, Switzerland, Canada, and the United States. Two primary routes from Germany to South America developed independently with their operators eventually collaborating. The first transferred through Spain and the second through Rome and Genoa. The ratlines were supported by some clergy of the Catholic Church, such as Austrian bishop Alois Hudal and Croatian priest Krunoslav Draganović. Starting in 1947, U.S. Intelligence used existing ratlines to move certain Nazi strategists and scientists, known as Operation Paperclip. Ratlines Two primary routes developed independently but their operators eventually collabo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Die Spinne
''Die Spinne'' ( German for "the spider") was a post-World War II organisation that helped certain Nazi war criminals escape prosecution. Its existence is still debated to this day. It is believed by some historians to be a different name for, or a branch of ODESSA, an organisation established during the collapse of Nazi Germany, similar to ''Kameradenwerk'' and ''der Bruderschaft'', and devoted to helping German war criminals flee Europe. It was led in part by Otto Skorzeny (Hitler's commando chief), as well as by German intelligence officer Reinhard Gehlen. ''Die Spinne'' helped as many as 600 former '' SS'' men escape from Germany to Francoist Spain, Juan Peron's Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, Bolivia, the Middle East and elsewhere. Skorzeny, Gehlen and their network of collaborators gained significant influence in parts of Europe and Latin America. Skorzeny travelled between Francoist Spain and Argentina, where he acted as an adviser to President Juan Perón and as a b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Counterintelligence Corps
The Counter Intelligence Corps (Army CIC) was a World War II and early Cold War intelligence agency within the United States Army consisting of highly trained special agents. Its role was taken over by the U.S. Army Intelligence Corps in 1961 and, in 1967, by the United States Army Intelligence Agency. Its functions are now performed by its modern-day descendant organization, United States Army Counterintelligence. The National Counter Intelligence Corps Association (NCICA), a veterans' association, was established in the years immediately following World War II by former military intelligence agents. Origins The CIC had its origins in the Corps of Intelligence Police founded by Ralph Van Deman in 1917. This organization, operating within the USA and on attachment to the American Expeditionary Force in France, at its peak numbered over 600 men. However, in the post-war period, the policy of isolationism, retrenchment of military spending, and economic depression meant that by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Displaced Persons
Forced displacement (also forced migration or forced relocation) is an involuntary or coerced movement of a person or people away from their home or home region. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR defines 'forced displacement' as follows: displaced "as a result of persecution, conflict, generalized violence or human rights violations". A forcibly displaced person may also be referred to as a "forced migrant", a "displaced person" (DP), or, if displaced within the home country, an "internally displaced person" (IDP). While some displaced persons may be considered refugees, the latter term specifically refers to such displaced persons who are receiving legally-defined protection and are recognized as such by their country of residence and/or international organizations. Forced displacement has gained attention in international discussions and policy making since the European migrant crisis. This has since resulted in a greater consideration of the impacts o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bensheim-Auerbach Station
Bensheim-Auerbach station is a station on the Main-Neckar Railway in the Bensheim district of Auerbach on the Bergstraße Route, Mountain Road in the German state of Hesse. It has a heritage-listed entrance building. The station is classified by Deutsche Bahn (DB) as a German railway station categories, category 5 station. Only Regionalbahn services stop at the 3 platform tracks (only tracks 1 and 2 are used regularly). History The station was opened in 1850 along on the Main-Neckar Railway, which was opened in 1846 between Frankfurt and Heidelberg. The plans for the entrance building were probably drawn up by the Darmstadt court architect Georg Moller. The station is a two-storey building, originally containing railway residential and administrative spaces. It features a gable roof covered with a low pitched roof. Beneath the eaves there are small mezzanine windows. The station has three lines of windows built of yellow sandstone. The southern gable is clad in timber. On the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
German Language
German (, ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, mainly spoken in Western Europe, Western and Central Europe. It is the majority and Official language, official (or co-official) language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. It is also an official language of Luxembourg, German-speaking Community of Belgium, Belgium and the Italian autonomous province of South Tyrol, as well as a recognized national language in Namibia. There are also notable German-speaking communities in other parts of Europe, including: Poland (Upper Silesia), the Czech Republic (North Bohemia), Denmark (South Jutland County, North Schleswig), Slovakia (Krahule), Germans of Romania, Romania, Hungary (Sopron), and France (European Collectivity of Alsace, Alsace). Overseas, sizeable communities of German-speakers are found in the Americas. German is one of the global language system, major languages of the world, with nearly 80 million native speakers and over 130 mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
