History Literature / TheOdessaFile

* SpannerintheWorlks: Miller's hunting of Roschmann comes at a moment when Roschmann is working on a critical Odessa project. The Odessa give him one warning, and then go lethal. Had it been when Roschmann was less important, they wouldn't have treated him so seriously.
* TheWoobe: Salomon Tauber. He was a Jew who served time in the concentration camps under Roschmann, and when World War 2 was over he was so traumatized at the sufferings and atrocities he'd endured - some by his own doing - that he spent his last years a recluse and eventually took his own life.

* ForeShadowing: Miller always refuses to answer when people ask him why he wants to track down Edward Roschnmann.

* WhamLine:
** I'm sorry for them. [[spoiler: But not that sorry.]]
** An even bigger one just before: [[spoiler:That was my father]].

* DeathByAdaptation: [[spoiler: Roschmann survives in the book and escapes to Argentina, where the real Roschmann was discovered in hiding several years later. In the movie, Miller kills him during their final confrontation.[[/spoiler]]

* DrivingQuestion: Why does Miller insist on hunting down Roschnmann?

* ChangeTheUncomfortableSubject: the attitude of practically every German over a certain age towards the Holocaust, according to Forsyth. As a result, Miller's generation has an incomplete picture at best of the recent past and how something like Nazism could have happened.
** More personally, Miller always, always changes the subject whenever someone asks him why he's looking for Roschmann.

* InterserviceRivalry: discussed between the Wehrmacht and the SS. It's noted that during the war, the two organizations largely despised each other, but that since 1945, the ODESSA has put a lot of effort into propaganda convincing Wehrmacht veterans that the SS too were just ordinary and patriotic soldiers.

* WhamLine: I'm sorry for them. [[spoiler: But not that sorry.]]

* AnonymousRinger, averted: Eduard Roschmann, aka "The Butcher of Riga", really existed. The movie, where he is killed, led to his arrest, unlike in the book. Roschmann fled to Paraguay and died in 1977.
** It also features as a character the late, great NaziHunter Simon Wiesenthal.

Creator/FrederickForsyth's second most famous novel, published in 1972 and adapted two years later into a film directed by Ronald Neame and starring Creator/JonVoight and Maximilian Schell. Said film also features Mary Tamm, who would later appear in ''Series/DoctorWho''.

* [[spoiler:ItsPersonal: that Wehrmacht captain Roschmann shot? His name was [[YouKilledMyFather Miller]]]].

* [[spoiler:YouKilledMyFather]]: The real reason Peter Miller assists the UsefulNotes/{{Mossad}} in infiltrating [=ODESSA=].

* ArabIsraeliConflict

* DirtyCoward: Roschmann. He ran away in battle and tried to commandeer a vehicle meant for Wehrmacht soldiers to make his own escape. [[spoiler:When an officer tried to stop him, he shot him in the back. [[Foreshadowing This will be important later]] ]].

* DirtyCoward: Roschmann. He ran away in battle and tried to commandeer a vehicle meant for Wehrmacht soldiers to make his own escape. [[spoiler:When an officer tried to stop him, he shot him in the back]].

* ArgentinaIsNaziland: Literally, as the ODESSA is said to be based there (a member asks what he assumes is another one "you're from Buenos-Aires?") Egypt is also Naziland, as several alumni are retired there and the ODESSA is trying to curry favor with Nasser's regime [[spoiler:by giving it the means to destroy Israel]]. Most disturbing, however, is the notion that ''Germany'' is still Naziland and that a number of people who really should be dead or imprisoned for war crimes are still walking around. Wiesenthal explains this while showing Miller records that show that various police officers he knows from his work as a reporter were all former SS members, and explains, with regards to a current wanted war criminal: "they can't arrest him. He used to be their superior officer."

Creator/FrederickForsyth's second most famous novel, published in 1972 and adapted two years later into a film starring Jon Voight and Maximillian Schell. Said film also features Mary Tamm, who would later appear in ''Series/DoctorWho''.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/30eae06543564f18bcda4b1819a790c9.jpg]]

* [[spoiler:YouKilledMyFather]]: The real reason Peter Miller assists the {{Mossad}} in infiltrating [=ODESSA=].

* CoolCar: This leads to Miller being exposed as TheMole, as the Nazi's remember his distinctive car.

* AdaptationDistillation

* [[spoiler: YouKilledMyFather]]: The real reason Peter Miller assists the {{Mossad}} in infiltrating [=ODESSA=].

FrederickForsyth's second most famous novel, published in 1972 and adapted two years later into a film starring Jon Voight and Maximillian Schell. Said film also features Mary Tamm, who would later appear in ''Series/DoctorWho''.

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FrederickForsyth's second most famous novel, published in 1972 and adapted two years later into a film starring Jon Voight. Said film also features Mary Tamm, who would later appear in ''Series/DoctorWho''.

The novel was adapted into a film in 1974, starring Jon Voight and Maximillian Schell.