Frederick Forsyth's - "The Odessa File" Quiz

Answer: The Assassination of JFK

The story begins on November 22nd 1963. It takes place mainly in Germany, many miles away from Dallas and Texas. But at the time, the real-life tragedy effected people across the globe. In this story, freelance reporter Peter Miller hears the news on his car radio and pulls over to listen.

As the book points out, if Kennedy hadn't died and Peter hadn't pulled over...the world (particularly the Middle East) could well be different today.

Answer: False

Like most young Germans of his generation he does not think about the war crimes very often. Growing up he realised Germans were unpopular in other countries, and later he learned why, but did not dwell on it. But during the week following Kennedy's death, events make him take more of an interest...

Answer: His diary

After Peter finishes listening to the news about poor JFK he resumes his drive home. But then he sees an ambulance with sirens blaring and his reporter's instincts make him follow that instead. And he wouldn't have seen the ambulance if he had not pulled over for the JFK bulletin, would he? An old man, a survivor of the holocaust, has just (ironically) gassed himself. One of the attending police officers knows Peter and tells him it's sad, but not worth writing about. Having said that, he meets Peter a few days later and lends him the old man's diary, which he thinks "might make a human interest story".

Answer: All these things

Peter is horrified to read about how this poor man (and later his wife, too) were taken away simply because they were Jewish. All the shooting, hangings and brutal starvation inflicted upon the inmates at Riga keep him reading, transfixed. Eduard Roschmann the commandant was a brutal sadistic so-and-so (I can't use stronger language on Funtrivia) who later, in 1944, even shot an unarmed German officer to escape the Russians.

It seems poor Salomon Tauber has killed himself 20 years later because he saw Roschmann in present-day Hamburg and knew he couldn't bring him to justice because no one would believe him.

Answer: Vulkan

Roschmann is now living under a new identity and running a radio factory. Little does anyone know "Vulkan" is also working on a tele-guidance system for some Egyptian rockets intended to wipe out Israel and all its people. Naturally Israeli intelligence (The Mossad) want to prevent the rockets launching. Mossad agents are desperately trying to track down Roschmann.

The other answers are all planets in "Star Trek".

Answer: False

It is a wonder Peter does not give up. Neither his mother, girlfriend, employers or friends think his mission is sensible, or offer him much support. Not only is his task risky and sensitive, no one understands his motivation. Why is he so determined to spend so much money and travel so far to find a concentration camp commandant who murdered Jews 20 years ago? Is something else driving him?

Answer: Simon Wiesenthal

Simon Wiesenthal was a holocaust survivor who dedicated the rest of his life to finding Nazi fugitives and bringing them to justice. When Peter meets him he is pleasantly surprised someone is finally going to guide him in the right direction. Wiesenthal does not know the whereabouts of Roschmann but he is certainly wants the man to be found, for obvious reasons. Peter promises to tell him if he finds him.

Answer: False

In English the letters stand for "Organisation of the former members of the SS". Before Frederick Forsyth wrote this story he'd interviewed some former SS men, not telling them who he was. That's why the book is so precise about who was in charge of the ODESSA and when and what they did during the war.

Answer: Impersonates an SS man

One night, after being warned by an ODESSA agent to drop his inquiry and go home, Peter is walking to his car and suddenly surrounded by thugs. They "persuade" him to come with them in their own car (blindfolded). At first he thinks this is the end, then he is surprised to learn these men are actually Jewish.

They are not part of the Mossad but they too are eager to find Roschmann, plus as many others as possible. They are a sort of "revenge squad" who sometimes work with the Mossad but usually just track down the war criminals on their own and kill them. Twice they have tried to infiltrate the ODESSA but their agents couldn't pass for Germans and died. Peter Miller is a lucky find.

Not only is he determined to infiltrate the ODESSA and find Roschmann, he is a genuine German Aryan. Once they make him look ten years older he will be able to contact the ODESSA without raising suspicion.

They send Peter to the home of an ex-SS man who saw the error of his ways years ago and promised to help Leon and the rest of revenge squad. For weeks he trains Peter into walking, talking, saluting, and thinking like an SS man.

He does such a good job that when Peter is eventually questioned by an ex-SS lawyer he stands at attention like a stormtrooper and answers each question perfectly. The ODESSA would have been completely fooled if not for a chancy co-incidence...

Answer: Jaguar

He has made a successful career as a reporter and can afford to drive a Jaguar. The downside to this is it's easy to spot a long black Jaguar with a yellow stripe down the side. So when the ODESSA find out he is asking about them and they know what kind of car he drives, they locate him. By pure chance - Peter is impersonating an SS sergeant in Stuttgart, and the ODESSA lawyer's housekeeper mentions she saw him getting out of a Jaguar...

Answer: He hits a fellow ODESSA man

Peter is sent to meet an ODESSA contact named Bayer. He goes because he needs to track down their passport forger in order to find Roschmann. Little does he know the ODESSA lawyer who sent him now knows he is the very same reporter who's been annoying them for a month! After Peter and Bayer go out for a night on the town, Peter takes the drunken ODESSA man to his hotel room.

The Nazi is laughing until Peter bends back some of his fingers and demands he reveal the ODESSA forger's details. Peter then ties up the ex-SS man up and leaves. Neither man knows Mackensen is watching from a building across the street. Watching, and waiting, with a rifle.

But Peter actually sneaks out the back way so Mackensen does not realise only Bayer is in the room.

When Bayer finally gets free he stands up beside the window...and never stands again.

Answer: Impersonates a priest

Unaware the ODESSA know who he is, where is or what he's up to, Peter visits Osnabruck and the home of one Herr Winzer, who makes fake passports for the ODESSA. He is surprised to learn Winzer has abruptly left town. Readers know why: the ODESSA has just phoned Winzer and warned him to not be there when they "take care of Herr Miller".

But Winzer's maid tells Peter her boss ordinarily visits his dying ex-housekeeper in hospital today, so she is perplexed. Peter goes to the hospital, tells the doctor he's the old lady's nephew and gets to visit her instead since Winzer cannot be found.

In the dim light of the room the old lady mistakes Peter for a priest. Since she is close to death, she confesses she used to be a guard at the woman's concentration camp of Ravensbruck and was a bad person.

She also confesses Winzer's secrets, how he helped war criminals escape and kept a written record of each Nazi's new name. When Peter hears of this "ODESSA File" he is delighted. He will need it to finally find Roschmann.

When he leaves he asks the doctor to send her a real priest to perform last rites.

Answer: Telephones a safe-cracker

In Peter's colourful career as a reporter he has met all sorts of weird and wonderful crooks in Hamburg. A year ago he felt sorry for the wife of one sent to jail for burglary and slipped her some money. Later on the man wrote from prison that he was grateful and owed Peter a favour. Since Peter now needs help to do a night's breaking and entering, he phones this man in Hamburg and asks him to urgently get on a train to Osnabruck.

They agree if he gets Peter into the safe in Winzer's study the thief can keep anything else.

A few hours later, Peter holds the precious ODESSA file in his hands.

Answer: He isn't

The ODESSA's assassin Mackensen has been trying to find Peter for over a week. When he finally tracks the reporter down he is ordered not to kill him in Winzer's town (the police might connect the two men). So instead Mackensen makes a bomb - designed to only go off when Peter's car hits a high speed on an autobahn.

It does not occur to the silly assassin that the Jaguar's designers took into account the pressure and speed of an open road, and so the bomb does not go off. Poor Peter is literally driving a bomb without even realising. Having said that, the bomb saves his life later on.

Answer: He killed his father

The other answers are true to a lesser extent, but readers correctly guess there is an ulterior motive for Peter chasing this man. The answer is revealed towards the end when he learns from the ODESSA file where Roschmann is living. He visit him one morning (after leaving his sleeping girlfriend with instructions to mail the ODESSA file to Simon Weisenthal if she never hears from him again) and threatens Roschmann with a gun. Roschmann at first is not afraid and just says "Go home, young man", trying to explain how Germans are superior and had a right to dispose of Jews. Roschmann, like his ODESSA chums, cannot understand why this one reporter is so bothered about Riga. Then Peter produces poor Salomon Tauber's diary and orders Roschmann to read a certain page. The page that describes his flight from the Soviets in 1944 when he shot an army captain to get away. Peter produces a photo of that very same man. Roschmann says "So what?" acknowledging the face in the photo. Peter snarls "He was my father."
Roschmann turns pale. He knows now there is no hope of convincing the young man to back down and any anti-Semitic talk is pointless. Peter is about to shoot him...then decides to turn him over to the police, instead. He ties him up, dodges an attempt by the ex-Nazi to knock him out, and leaves for the village to ring the authorities. Or at least he tries to leave, but he comes face-to-face with Roschmann's bodyguard Oskar who knocks him out. Roschmann shouts "You idiot!" because Peter has told him he has an accomplice somewhere who will mail the ODESSA file to interested parties if Peter doesn't telephone her soon. Oskar hurries into the village to get a doctor who can revive Peter. Then he sees Peter's parked Jaguar and decides to drive that instead, and... BOOM! Mackensen's bomb finally works after all.
Roschmann eventually frees himself and disappears - as he did in real life. As for poor unconscious Peter, Mackensen visit the home, sees Roschmann has gone, his assistant has blown up, and his arch-enemy is helpless. He smiles, steps forward, and is suddenly aware of another man behind him. They chat, and then the new man reveals he comes from Jerusalem. Before Mackensen realises the significance of that...he is lying next to Peter, never to wake up again. When Peter eventually wakes up in hospital the Mossad agent who saved his life tells him not to "tangle with professionals" again and just act like none of this has happened. Roschmann has vanished so his Vulkan project fails. Israel is safe. The Egyptian rockets never fly and it's inadvertently thanks to Peter. His girlfriend had given his rescuer the ODESSA file and 1964 becomes a very bad year for ex-Nazis!