The Real Odessa: How Peron Brought the Nazi War Criminals to Argentina [Paperback]

Uki Goni (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2003

Drawing on American and European intelligence documents, Uki Goni shows how from 1946 onward a Nazi escape operation was based at the presidential palace in Buenos Aires, harboring such war criminals as Adolf Eichmann and Josef Mengele. Goni uncovers an elaborate network that relied on the complicity of the Vatican, the Argentine Catholic Church, and the Swiss authorities. The discoveries made in this meticulously researched book reveal the entangled web of the Nazi regime and its sympathizers and has prompted Argentine officials to demand closed files on the Nazi era from their current government.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A chilling, detailed story of one of Argentina's most shameful secrets."

About the Author

Uki Goni was born in 1953 and educated in Argentina and in Dublin where his father was Argentine ambassador from 1968-75. He is a regular contributor to the Buenos Aires Herald, Time magazine, The Sunday Times and The Guardian. He lives in Buenos Aires.

Product Details

• Paperback: 410 pages
• Publisher: Granta UK (January 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1862075522
• ISBN-13: 978-1862075528
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #52,529 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #4 in Books > History > Americas > South America > Argentina
  • #49 in Books > History > Military > World War I

More About the Author

Author Uki Goni and his book "The Real Odessa" have been the object of countless interviews and documentaries by international media such as Discovery Channel, the BBC and television stations in the US, Germany, Holland, Switzerland and Italy.

Apart from his ground-breaking work as a researcher of recent history, Uki has written for various publications such as Time, The New York Times and The Miami Herald in the US and The Guardian, The Observer, The Sunday Times and The Sctosman in the UK.

Uki was born in Washington DC, being raised in the US, Argentina, Mexico and Ireland. He interrupted his studies at Trinity College, Dublin, at the age of 21, to settle in Buenos Aires, the native city of his parents. He remains a constant traveller.

For more data, visit Uki's website: http://ukinet.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Odessa, the inside story, September 29, 2003

By 

Manuel Gwiazda (Buenos Aires, Argentina) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Real Odessa: Smuggling the Nazis to Peron's Argentina (Hardcover)

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

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As reviewed in 'Foreign Affairs' January/February 2003, July 10, 2008

By 

a reader... (new york city) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Real Odessa: How Peron Brought the Nazi War Criminals to Argentina (Paperback)

The Real Odessa: Smuggling the Nazis to Peron's Argentina. Uki Goni. New York: Granta Books, 2002, 382 pp. $29.95.

Reviewed by Kenneth Maxwell, Foreign Affairs, January/February 2003

A chilling, detailed story of one of Argentina's most shameful secrets: the enthusiastic role of dictator Juan Peron in providing cover for major Nazi war criminals as the Third Reich collapsed, allowing them to lead prosperous and protected lives after the war. Few characters get off easily in this passionate account, which untangles the networks and escape mechanisms that made it all possible. Coming to Peron's assistance were numerous institutions and individuals: the Vatican, the Argentinean Catholic Church, the Argentinean government, and the Swiss authorities who cooperated through a secret office set up by Peron's agents in Bern. Operatives from Heinrich Himmler's secret service arrived in Madrid as early as 1944 to prepare an escape route; in 1946, this operation moved to Buenos Aires, establishing its headquarters in the presidential palace. Eventually, this operation's tentacles stretched from Scandinavia to Italy, aiding French and Belgian war criminals and bringing in gold that the Croatian state treasury had stolen from 600,000 Jewish and Serb victims of the Ustasha regime. Ingrained antisemitism, anticommunism, greed, and corruption all fortified these clandestine protection rackets. Today, the stain remains, as does the secrecy. This astonishing book delineates in gripping detail what was long suspected -- and also hints at how much remains to be told.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting addition to the studies of the enigmatic Peron, July 3, 2003

By 

Andrew Olivo Parodi (Oregon, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Real Odessa: Smuggling the Nazis to Peron's Argentina (Hardcover)

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.