How Frederick Forsyth was the first to see the organized escape of Nazi leaders

The existence of an organization dedicated to facilitating the escape of Nazi leaders after the end of World War II is the subject of countless newspaper articles and academic publications. Its primary source comes not from historical documents but from a fictional account: Frederick Forsyth's 1972 novel Odessa , which depicts a group of SS members colluding in a secret lodge whose goal was to rescue comrades and found a Fourth Reich. The book's impact, a bestseller, fueled the hunt for war criminals in the mid-1970s and contributed to Argentina's image as a country hospitable to fugitives.

Forsyth , who died on Monday at the age of 86 , based his work on real events that he learned from his previous experience as a journalist and British espionage agent, but also incorporated fictional characters and situations that are difficult to distinguish from historical ones.

The novel was established as a kind of document about the alleged secret organization and was a source of discussion among researchers of Nazism.

The line between fiction and non-fiction begins to blur in the prefatory note for Odessa , where Forsyth expresses his gratitude to the sources he consulted and dramatically excuses himself from revealing their identities.

The reasons given reinforce the novel's perceived truth and project a conspiratorial plot that Forsyth skillfully constructs: "Some (informants), former members of the SS, did not know who they were talking to, nor could they imagine that what they said would appear in a book. Others asked me not to name them when I cited my sources of information about the SS, and as for others, the decision not to give their names was taken on my own initiative, and more in their interests than in my own."

Odessa put the spotlight on Eduard Roschmann (1908-1977), “the Butcher of Riga,” who had taken refuge in Buenos Aires in 1948. Forsyth includes precise details about the war criminal’s escape and new life under the identity of Fritz Wegener and as a timber exporter, but at the same time imagines the novel’s protagonist embarking on a quest to avenge his father’s death.

The novel also sets in Buenos Aires the former SS officer Richard Glücks, who lived in the country before World War II but committed suicide on May 10, 1945.

The blend of fiction and non-fiction had been key to Forsyth's debut as a writer , The Day of the Jackal (1971). This novel recounts a plot by the Secret Army Organization (OAS) to assassinate Charles de Gaulle in 1963.

The event is imaginary, but the fiction is based on the thwarted attempts on the French president's life in 1961 and 1962 ; and while he wasn't a gifted writer, Forsyth gives the action a frenetic pace based on the contrast between the actions of the assassin recruited by the OAS—whose identity is not revealed—and the investigator who, blindly and against state bureaucracy, tries to prevent the assassination.

The action of Odessa begins on November 22, 1963, the day of President John F. Kennedy 's assassination. The choice of date is also suggestive. In his essay "Enigmas and Plots: An Investigation into Investigations ," French sociologist Luc Boltanski argues that the incessant proliferation of versions of the Dallas attack inaugurates a trend toward explaining historical events through conspiracy theories.

Events as diverse as the arrival of man on the moon, the Roswell incident, the origin of HIV, and the escape of Nazi criminals thus share a narrative matrix according to which the true story has been hidden by factors of power.

The espionage narrative, according to Boltanski, posits that reality is an appearance concealing the true power that governs social life. Widespread suspicion becomes normal and rational behavior and a method of investigation that feeds back into the cycle of conspiracy theories. Forsyth conceives an organization like Odessa in this mold, whose acronym in German stands for "Organization of Former SS Members."

The novel revived other sensitive themes in the collective imagination regarding the Nazis and their relationship with Argentina . “Even before the war,” Forsyth wrote, SS leaders “smuggled large quantities of gold out of the country, deposited them in numbered bank accounts, issued false identity documents, and opened escape routes.”

The Commission for the Clarification of Nazi Activities in Argentina, created by the Carlos Menem administration in 1996, analyzed the accounting books of the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic and reported that there was no evidence of the entry of "Nazi gold." However, as is the case even with the death of Adolf Hitler, the investigators' conclusions do not preclude the development of alternative versions.

Forsyth claims that the secret organization operated in Argentina, provided financial assistance to Roschmann , and housed him “at the home of a German family named Vidmar on Hipólito Yrigoyen Street.”

At the same time , he subscribes to the versions about the collaboration of the first Peronist government , also controversial by historical research: in Europe, "Odessa had already established excellent relations with Juan Perón's Argentina, which had issued several hundred blank Argentine passports."

Beyond fiction, the success of Odessa prompted journalistic investigations into the presence of Nazis in Argentina . In October 1976, Germany requested Roschmann's extradition, to which Jorge Videla's dictatorship responded on July 5, 1977, with a statement acknowledging receipt of the request. The war criminal then escaped to Asunción, Paraguay, where he died a month later.

The documentation on Nazism recently released by the national government includes a file on "Eduard Roschmann or Fritz Wegner or Federico Wegener." However, the reports do not reveal the Nazi's situation, as they include only a photograph of his ID and follow a false trail in La Rioja. They reveal the dictatorship's interest in producing information at Germany's request.

Fiction based on real events and historical events reimagined in a conspiracy-themed tone were a trademark of Forsyth's books. Among other titles, The Dogs of War (1974) addresses the interest in mining and European military intervention in Africa; The Fist of God (1994) addresses the first Gulf War; The Afghan (2006) addresses Islamic terrorism; and Cobra (2010) addresses drug trafficking.

Odessa provided an effective figure for narrating the escape of war criminals , and also for obscuring the interest and concrete actions of Western countries in this regard.