The Odessa File Page #3

with the oak leaf cluster.

Early in 1945,

a few weeks before the liberation...

...Captain Roschmann of the SS

made up his mind to disappear.

He slipped quietly away in a car

with two other officers.

He was wearing the uniform

of an army corporal.

I saw him go and I was determined

one day to bring him to justice.

But now I know I never will.

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?

Still awake?

Yeah.

Are you all right?

No.

I have a job to do.

You don't even know

if this Roschmann's still alive.

But if he were, say,

hiding out someplace and I found him...

...that would be worth your investment?

Dead Jews don't sell papers.

These people Roschmann killed...

...they weren't Russians or Poles,

they were Germans.

German Jews.

- But still Germans.

- Tragic.

It's a sick world, isn't it?

These are the best we can get

on Lady Bird Johnson.

And you think that's why

I should give you a commission...

...because the victims of Riga

were German Jews?

Yes.

People don't want to know, Peter.

It's a dead duck.

- Not to me it isn't.

- Take my advice. Drop it.

But, Peter, why?

Why do you want to do this suddenly?

It's over.

Nobody wants

these dreadful trials anymore.

It upsets people.

People shouldn't be upset by the truth.

What is the truth?

What do you young people really know?

You were too young to understand

what it was like.

I'll go and make the coffee.

Mother...

...what was it like for you?

For me?

We lived in Perfallstrasse then.

You were about that size.

There were bombings every night.

One night, we left the cellar

and the whole street was gone.

There were firebombs everywhere.

All I tried...

All I tried to do was hide your eyes...

...so you couldn't see

people burning like torches.

When your father came back on leave...

...it took him three days to find us,

because we'd moved.

We'd moved in with a family

on the other side of town...

...in Altona. You probably remember that.

What was my father like?

Was he something like me?

He was always...

...very sure of himself.

Maybe he was a little more secure.

Well then, I'll tell you something.

Father would have been

the first person to say, "Go ahead."

I don't like the press.

It won't be any trouble.

It's just a sort of story...

...human interest, you know?

You can't go up. I've re-let the room.

Did he have any possessions?

Possessions?

- They're out the back.

- Can I see them?

Possible.

Is this his wife?

I don't know.

Did he have any friends?

- Never saw anybody except old Marx.

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