Odessa

The ODESSA is an American codename (from the German: Organisation der Ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen, meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 for a hypothetical Nazi underground escape plan at the end of World War II by a group of SS officers with the aim of facilitating secret escape routes. The routes are also called ratlines. The supposed goal was to allow the SS members to escape to Argentina, Brazil, or the Middle East under false names. The American counterespionage unit searched for evidence it might have existed in 1945, but found no evidence for it. Though many wanted Nazis and war criminals did in fact escape Europe, the existence of ODESSA as commonly imagined is not supported by experts. Guy Walters, in his book Hunting Evil, stated he was unable to find any evidence of the existence of the network although numerous other organisations such as Konsul, Scharnhorst, Sechsgestirn, Leibwache, and Lustige Brüder have been named, including Die Spinne ("The Spider") run in part by Hitler's commando chief Otto Skorzeny. Historian Daniel Stahl in his 2011 essay stated that the consensus among historians is that ODESSA did not actually exist. Joseph Wechsberg, a musician who moved to the U.S. in 1939, claims to have verified the organisation's existence and provided details of its operations. Wechsberg used Simon Wiesenthal's memoirs on the ODESSA in the book The Murderers Among Us. Experts have not been convinced by his claims. Today, ODESSA is best known from its appearance in spy novels and fictional movies.