The Odessa File (1974) Timeline Explained – Every Event in Order

Salomon Tauber, a Jewish Holocaust survivor who had endured the horrors of the Riga Ghetto, took his own life after years of living with the trauma of his experiences. The diary he left behind detailed the crimes of SS officer Eduard Roschmann, including the murder of a Wehrmacht officer attempting to flee at the end of the war. The weight of surviving the Holocaust and the knowledge of Roschmann's continued freedom appears to have become unbearable.

• salomon tauber
• suicide
• riga ghetto
• holocaust survivor
• eduard roschmann

ODESSA is a covert network of former SS officers who helped each other escape justice after World War II. The name is an acronym for Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen (Organization of Former SS Members). According to Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal, ODESSA was developing a missile guidance system for Nasserist Egypt and had infiltrated the Hamburg Police, making them untrustworthy. The organization provided fake identities to war criminals, allowing them to live comfortably under aliases in postwar Germany.

• odessa
• ss
• secret organization
• former ss
• fake identities
• simon wiesenthal

After reading Salomon Tauber’s diary detailing Roschmann’s crimes in the Riga Ghetto, Peter Miller became determined to hunt down the former SS officer and bring him to justice. When Israeli Mossad agents proposed he go deep undercover within ODESSA to gather evidence against war criminals, Peter accepted because it aligned with his personal quest to expose Roschmann and get closure for the victims, including his own father who Roschmann had murdered.

• peter miller
• mossad
• undercover
• odessa mission
• eduard roschmann

Peter’s cover was compromised when he made a phone call to his girlfriend Sigi from a train station. ODESSA’s operatives traced the call and realized it didn’t match the identity of the deceased SS soldier Peter was supposed to be. They calculated that Peter was not who he claimed to be and dispatched an assassin to eliminate him.

• peter miller
• odessa
• cover identity exposed
• phone call
• assassin

The ODESSA file is a book discovered in Klaus Wenzer’s safe that documents every fake ID the forger created and reveals the real identities of the people they were created for. This file essentially serves as a blueprint of ODESSA’s network of war criminals living under false identities in postwar Germany. Peter hid it in a train station locker and used it as leverage, refusing to reveal its location until Roschmann was captured.

• odessa file
• klaus wenzer
• fake ids
• evidence
• war criminals

During the final days of World War II, Roschmann murdered a Wehrmacht officer who was attempting to flee. That officer was Peter Miller’s father. When Peter confronted Roschmann with Salomon Tauber’s diary, he revealed this specific crime, the cowardly murder of a fellow German officer trying to escape as the war ended. This personal connection was the final piece that motivated Peter to pursue Roschmann relentlessly.

Foreshadowing: Salomon Tauber’s diary mentions Roschmann murdered a Wehrmacht officer attempting to flee at the end of the war, which is later revealed to be Peter’s father.

• eduard roschmann
• peter miller father
• wehrmacht officer
• murder
• revenge

Peter killed Roschmann in self-defense during their confrontation at the mansion. After Peter revealed Salomon Tauber’s diary and exposed Roschmann’s crimes, including the murder of Peter’s father, Roschmann realized he was about to be exposed and went for his gun. Peter was forced to defend himself and shot Roschmann, ending the former SS officer’s life.

• peter miller
• eduard roschmann
• killed
• self-defense
• confrontation

After Roschmann was killed, his munitions factory, which was being used to develop a missile guidance system for Nasserist Egypt, mysteriously burned to the ground before any rockets could be delivered to Egypt. The fire’s origin was never explicitly explained in the story, though it effectively ended ODESSA’s plans to supply advanced weapons to Egypt.

• roschmann factory
• fire
• egypt
• missiles
• rocket guidance system

Klaus Wenzer was a forger working for ODESSA who created fake identities for war criminals. He was described as a shy, insecure young man living with his mother. Klaus initially agreed to make Peter a fake passport as part of his regular work for ODESSA, not knowing Peter’s true identity. Later, Klaus became suspicious and called Peter back urgently, but it was too late, Peter had already discovered the ODESSA file in his safe.

• klaus wenzer
• forger
• fake passport
• odessa
• 协助

After Peter killed Roschmann, the detailed ODESSA files he recovered were handed over to authorities. The files contained the real identities of numerous war criminals who had been living under false names, including high-ranking members of the police who had been protected by ODESSA. This evidence enabled authorities to arrest a significant number of Nazi war criminals who had escaped justice since the end of World War II.

• odessa files
• arrests
• war criminals
• police
• evidence

Peter gave Sigi the key to the train station locker where he had hidden the ODESSA file as a precaution. Knowing he was in grave danger going up against ODESSA and an experienced assassin, Peter wanted to ensure that if something happened to him, the evidence would still be accessible. Sigi was the only person he trusted to safeguard the key.

• sigi
• locker key
• odessa file
• safety
• evidence