The Odessa File Page #7

There were never

80,000 disposed of at Riga.

Not even 70,000.

70,000,60,000. Does it really matter

how many you killed?

Move away from there.

That's just the point.

It doesn't matter. Not now. Not then.

Look, young man, I don't know why

you've come after me, but I can guess.

Someone has been filling your head...

...with a lot of sentimental claptrap

about so-called war crimes and such.

That's all nonsense, absolute nonsense.

How old are you?

Have you done your military service?

You must have.

You know what the army's like?

A soldier is given orders.

He obeys those orders.

He doesn't ask if they are right or wrong.

You know that as well as I do.

All I did was to obey my orders.

Don't compare yourself with a soldier.

You were an executioner.

To put it more plainly,

a mass-murderer, a butcher!

- Don't call me a butcher!

- Don't compare yourself with a soldier.

How dare you call me a butcher!

I was a soldier. We all were.

Just like the rest.

You young Germans don't realize,

don't want to understand, what it was like.

So tell me.

I'm interested in your point of view.

- You are interested?

- What was it like?

What was it like?

It was like ruling the world.

Because we did rule the world,

we Germans.

We had beaten every army

they could throw at us.

For years they'd looked down on us,

and we showed them...

...yes, all of them,

that we were a great people...

...and we still are a great people!

And we of the SS were the elite.

Of course, they hunt us down now.

First the Allies and now the wishy-washy

old women of Bonn.

They want to crush us, they want to crush

the greatness of Germany...

...which we represented and still do.

That's why they divided the country.

You youngsters today...

...don't realize what it means

to be proud of being a German.

You don't speak for Germany,

not anymore.

No? Look around you at today's youth.

Strong and healthy.

Virile. A new generation.

And who created this new generation?

We did, by weeding out

the sickly and the inferior.

Look at yourself.

Strong and healthy.

Virile. Blonde, blue-eyed.

That's what we were working for.

And we succeeded!

You shouldn't be critical of us.

You should be grateful.

Sit down in the chair.

You can point that gun at me,

but we're really on the same side.

Same destiny. Same people.

Why should it matter to you

what happened to a few miserable Jews?

Put your gun away, young man,

and go home.

I said, "Sit down."

Put your hands on the armrests.

Look, Germany was crushed to pieces

in 1945.

And now we are rising again.

Slowly and surely.

And what brings all this about?

Discipline! Discipline and management.

Harsh discipline and harsh management,

the harsher the better.

You see all this?

The house, the estate, Kiefel Electric...

...churning out power

and strength each day.

My factory and hundreds of others like it.

Who do you think did all this?

We did!

You should be more practical, young man.

You should be more realistic.

You should acknowledge the facts of today.

Whatever prosperity there is

in Germany today...

...has to do with millions who work hard

and never murdered anyone in their lives.

That's nonsense, absolute nonsense!

Do you remember a man

with the name of Tauber?

- Who?

- Salomon Tauber.

He was German and Jewish.

One of your prisoners at Riga.

Try to think, Roschmann.

I can't remember all the prisoners' names.

He died in Hamburg last November.

He gassed himself. Are you listening?

If I must.

Yes, you must.

All right, I'm listening.

- He left behind a diary.

- Is that why you came?

Because of the diary of some old Jew?

A dead man's diary is no evidence.

There was a date in the diary

I want to remind you of.

Something that happened at Riga docks...

...on October 11,1944.

So what? The man struck me.

He disobeyed my orders.

I had the right to commandeer that ship.

Was that the man you killed?

- How should I know? It was 20 years ago.

- Was that the man?

All right! So that was the man. So what?

That was my father.

Your father.

So you didn't come about the Jews at all.

I understand.

No, you don't understand!

What you and your kind did

to all those people...

...sickened the whole of mankind.

- But I'm here for my father.

- But how could you know?

How could you possibly know

from that diary...

...that man was your father?

October 11, the same date, the same place.

The Knights Cross

with the oak leaf cluster...

...the highest award for bravery in the field.

Given to very few of the rank of captain.

The same rank,

the same decoration, the same man!

I don't even remember.

You're not going to kill me. You can't.

You called me a butcher.

Wouldn't killing me

make you a butcher, too?

What's the difference?

I wouldn't be killing a man.

- I'd be killing a...

- Look, I was only Commandant...

...until November '43.

Then another man came.

Krause. He took over, Kurt Krause.

- He did all the killing. It wasn't me!

- I know what you are, Roschmann.

Look, I agree with you.

That was horrible, but...

...I didn't do it,

I couldn't even shoot straight.

If you kill me,

you'd be killing the wrong man.

You're disgusting.

But I tell you, it was Krause!

You can tell that

to the German people, Roschmann.

- I will tell them.

- You're not even worth a bullet.

I even have evidence to prove what I say,

a woman wrote to me from New York.

I was only in charge there 11 months,

not one hanging or shooting at that time.

But why?

I was held in custody for three weeks

and then released.

I was confused that no serious charge

was ever brought against me.

I didn't know how much had happened

during the time I was detained.

As a result of Wenzer's meticulously

accurate record of the Odessa...

...immediate action was taken to bring

many Nazi war criminals to justice.

In the first week of February, 1964...

...the research laboratories at Kiefel

Electric were burned to the ground.

Arson was suspected,

though it was never proved.

But Nasser's rockets of Helwan never flew.

Finally, in the spring,

old Marx found himself...

...in the Hall of Remembrance in Jerusalem,

saying a prayer...

...for the soul of his good friend,

Salomon Tauber.

I bear no hatred nor bitterness

towards the German people.

Peoples are not evil.

Only individuals are evil.

If, after my death,

this diary should be found and read...

...will some kind friend

please say Kaddish for me?

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