World Famous Comics: The Real Odessa: Smuggling the Nazis to Peron's Argentina
The Real Odessa: Smuggling the Nazis to Peron's Argentina
By: Uki Goni Publisher: Granta Books Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Label: Granta Books Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 382 Publication Date: 2002-09
Product Description: It has long been known that Adolf Eichmann, Josef Mengele, Erich Priebke, and many other war criminals found refuge in Argentina. Now, for the first time, a courageous Argentine journalist shows exactly how it was done. This riveting book is the first to map the precise details of the smuggling of Nazis into Argentina, an operation organized with the enthusiastic support of Peron’s presidential palace. Using previously unseen archival sources, The Real Odessa covers a wide geography — Scandinavia, Switzerland, Italy — and proves the complicity of the Vatican and the Argentine Catholic Church in one of the great postwar scandals. This is a factual, historical version of the events fictionalized in Frederick Forsyth’s best-selling novel The Odessa File.
Exceptional! I cannot remember what led me to this book but thankfully I did get to read it. And having read it am still suffering the effects. I consider this to be the sign of a great book. While the details are many, Mr. Goni manages to relate them in a cogent and cohesive fashion - no small feat considering the depth of his research. Less a blame game than an outright castigation of idealogues, this book is an absolute must in understanding WW2 and its aftermath. I followed the book with a viewing of "Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie" which touches on many of the same subjects covered in the book. Greater horror stories have never been written by man.
Odessa, the inside story Everyone has heard about the myth of Odessa, the secret organization with hidden contacts intended to provide sanctuary for the worst nazi criminals after the end of the Second World War
After six of years of deep research in Argentina and Europe, Mr. Goñi shows clearly how the actual Odessa operated smuggling nazis from the Old continent to the South American secluded country, unveiling a contact network made by pro-nazi Peron Argentine government assistants, corrupted diplomats, first rescued nazi criminals with new identities back in Europe, far right Europe politicians acting as liaisons and priests of the Catholic Church in the Vatican
Every interview, record, event and character mentioned is cited with its reference source allowing the reader to delve further in every single topic of his choice
Many novels are written about the Nazi war criminals and their secrecy as a marketing tool in order to attract avid suspense readers and make run of the mill bestsellers, unlike those stories, this is an objective and factual work written as a documentary that can be used in any college course as a contemporary history text book.
Great job
Interesting addition to the studies of the enigmatic Peron THE REAL ODESSA is an interesting expose of the escape of Nazi criminals into Argentina during the time of Juan Peron's reign. As a former exchange student to Argentina, an admirer of Eva Peron, and a person in the process of conversion to Judaism, it is understandable why THE REAL ODESSA would hold interest for me.
Rumors and accusations of nazism have long circled around the figure of Juan Peron, leading many to think that Peronism was simply the South American extension of the Nazi party. Books like THE REAL ODESSA are now being published to bring the truth forward. Part of that truth is that Juan Peron himself was not a Nazi and did not subscribe to any Nazi ideology. As Lawrence Levine notes in INSIDE ARGENTINA FROM PERON TO MENEM, Peron's own views and his political associations were not anti-Semitic: "Peron sought out the Jewish community in Argentina to assist in developing his policies...." Levine also notes that one of Peron's most important allies in organizing the industrial sector was Jose Ber Gerbald, a Jewish immigrant from Poland. Perhaps Robert D. Crassweller states it more succinctly in the appropriately titled PERON AND THE ENIGMAS OF ARGENTINA: "Peronism was not nazism...."
So, if Peronism was not nazism, why exactly did Juan Peron, as THE REAL ODESSA points out, help Nazis excape from justice? Because, as Tomas Eloy Martinez, author of SANTA EVITA, says, Peron was hoping to acquire advanced technology developed by the Germans during the war. (Martinez also notes that Evita herself played no part in any dealings with the Nazis, which I find ironic seeing as how her picture is used on the cover of THE REAL ODESSA.) Peron was not a Nazi; but he *was* a politician, and one not opposed to shady dealings at times. (And yet another confounding thing is that, as Joseph Page writes in PERON: A BIOGRAPHY, there were no concentration camps in Peron's Argentina, Peron was at heart a pacifist, and it was the military government that ousted Peron that killed tens of thousands of people.)
I recommend all of the above mentioned books in addition to THE REAL ODESSA for understanding the often perplexing and contradictory movement known as Peronism.
WW II's Last Chapter, finally Superb, detailed, readable chroncicle of the Nazi-Argentina escape process, with chilling details and look-'em-in-the-eye realism.
Includes lots of "behind the robes" scoop on the Catholic Church's involvement too.
Literally a must-read for anyone with an interest, scholarly or casual, in WW II's aftermath
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