Odessa File (DVD, 2010)
Interesting movie concerning events of 1963 in West Germany. A journalist, Peter Miller (Jon Voight), happens to be out one night when an ambulance passes his car. He had just heard the news of the assassination of President Kennedy on the radio. He decided to follow the ambulance to see if there was a story to be covered. Upon arrival at the destination, he was told, by a police inspector friend, that it was nothing but a suicide of an old Jew. He had however, found a journal that the old man had written and gave it to Peter to read, thinking that maybe it contained a human interest story. Peter reads the journal and it changes his life. He reads the story of an old man, Solomon Tolbert, who along with his wife, had been confined in Riga Ghetto Concentration Camp in Riga, Latvia. His wife had been gassed in the camp in 1943, but he had managed to survive. The Commandant of the camp at that time was SS-Obersturmfuhrer Eduard Roschmann, who was known as The Butcher of Riga. He was a sadist who enjoyed tormenting the dying, and personally enjoyed murdering prisoners himself. He was officially charged with being responsible for 80,000 deaths under his command. He was arrested in 1947 but escaped and was presumed dead and forgotten. But, Solomon Tolbert had just seen him in Hamburg one month ago. Having gone to the police but receiving no help, he killed himself out of frustration. Now because of what he has read, Peter decides to find Roschmann and bring him to justice. He went to the police War Crimes division and soon realizes that nobody is interested; even worse, they are protecting these criminals. He goes to Vienna, to see Simon Wiesenthal, head of the Nazi hunters, where he finds out about The O.D.E.S.S.A., a secret Nazi organization that supplies documents, money, and new identities to former SS criminals. Peter is intercepted by Israeli Agents, and with their help goes undercover to attempt infiltrating the ODESSA, as a means of finding Roschmann. He has been living as Hans Josef Kieffel (Maximillian Schell) owner of Kieffel Electric, a defence contractor secretly building rockets to attack Israel from Egypt, under then President Nasser. Peter is successful in getting close to the document maker and narrowly escapes capture and murder. He is able to secure information on many former Nazis, their new identities and locations from a log book inside his safe. One of them is Roschmann, who Peter tracks down and confronts - not just about his murderous activities at Riga, but for a specific incident on a specific date and place, where Roschmann murdered a German officer who would not allow him to seize a ship intended for evacuating wounded soldiers, for his own escape from advancing Allied forces. This officer was Peter's father! In a struggle, Peter shoots and kills Roschmann and is also wounded. No charges were ever filed and no record of this is ever made. Released, Peter gives the log book to the Israeli Mossad agents. *** In reality, there is plenty evidence of murder by Eduard Roschmann. There were thousands of Germans who were Mass Murderers, Almost NONE ever prosecuted. This story has been called fiction, but one thing is certain: Roschmann did escape in 1947 through Genoa, Italy, with a phony Red Cross passport. He arrived in Argentina in Feb. 1948, and died in Paraguay as Frederico Wagner on 8/8/1977. He constantly escaped deportation, and was moved at least six times to escape prosecution. He was 69 years old when he died.Read full review
