The Real Odessa: Smuggling the Nazis to Peron's Argentina [Hardcover]

Uki Goni (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2002

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A remarkable if depressing account...The only bright spot is Goni himself, who has dared to expose these bleak truths." -- Sunday Telegraph

"Documents for the first time how Juan Peron clandestinely maneuvered to bring Nazi and other war criminals to Argentina." -- New York Times--March 9, 2003

"Goni has powerfully exposed the deceits and conniving, and pierced what he calls the 'wall of silence'." -- Sunday Times (London)

"Goni's analysis of the arrival of Nazis and collaborators in Argentina is impressive and convincing." -- TLS

"This astonishing book delineates in gripping detail what was long suspected--and also hints at how much remains to be told." -- Foreign Affairs--January/February 2003

"To work as Goñi has...revealing the real Argentina in his journalism, calls for outstanding courage, commitment, dedication and talent." -- Robert Cox, Charleston Post and Courier

About the Author

Uki Goni was born in 1953 and was educated in the USA, Argentina, Mexico, and Ireland. A regular contributor to American, Argentine, and British newspapers, he has also published two books in Spanish: one on Argentina's 1976-1983 dictatorship and the second, the precursor to The Real Odessa, on Peron's relationship with Nazi Germany. Since 1975, he has lived in Buenos Aires.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 382 pages
• Publisher: Granta Books; 1st US edition (September 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1862075816
• ISBN-13: 978-1862075818
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,334,583 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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.