ODESSA

ODESSA (an acronym for Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen, German for "Organization of former SS-members") was an alleged Nazi fugitive network set up towards the end of World War II by a group of former SS officers.

With alleged ties to Germany, Switzerland, Italy and the Vatican, ODESSA allegedly operated out of Buenos Aires and helped Adolf Eichmann, Josef Mengele, Erich Priebke and many other war criminals find refuge in Latin America. SS Obersturmbannführer; Otto Skorzeny was believed to have been active in this organization, but this supposition has never been proved.

Table of contents

1 Did ODESSA exist? 2 Quote 3 External links

Did ODESSA exist?

According to Simon Wiesenthal, ODESSA was set up in 1946 to aid fugitive Nazis.

Other sources, such as many interviews by the ZDF (German TV station) with former SS men, suggest that ODESSA never was the single world-wide secret organization that Wiesenthal described, but that there were several organizations, both overt and covert, (including the CIA, the Vatican, and several Latin American governments) that helped ex-SS men.

Uki Goņi, in his book The Real Odessa: Smuggling the Nazis to Perķn's Argentina (ISBN 1862075816) suggests that this more complex story is the real truth.

See also: Kameradenwerk, Operation Paperclip, The Odessa File

Quote

• ODESSA from www.us-israel.org
• ZDF article: The Myth of ODESSA: Truth or legend? (in German)
• The Straight Dope column on ODESSA and Nazis in Latin America