What is "odessa"

The ODESSA network (from the German: Organisation der Ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen, meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) was a purported international Nazi underground organization set up towards the end of World War II by a group of SS officers with the aim of facilitating secret escape routes – later known as ratlines – allegedly to allow the SS members to avoid capture and prosecution for war crimes and to escape to Argentina, Brazil or the Middle East under false names.

The codeword "Odessa" – as known by the Allies – appeared for the first time in a memo dated July 3, 1946, by the American Counterintelligence Corps (CIC) whose principal role was to screen displaced persons for possible suspects. The CIC discovered ODESSA at the KZ Bensheim-Auerbach internment camp for the former SS men who used this watchword in their secret attempts to gain special privileges from the Red Cross, wrote historian Guy Walters, but neither the Americans nor the British were able to verify the claims extending any further than that.

The existence of the organisation is a matter of dispute. Guy Walters, in his book Hunting Evil, claimed he was unable to find any evidence of the existence of the network although numerous other organisations such as Konsul, Scharnhorst, Sechsgestirn, Leibwache and Lustige Brüder have been named, including Die Spinne ("The Spider") run in part by Hitler's commando chief Otto Skorzeny. Historian Daniel Stahl in his 2011 essay stated that the consensus among historians is that ODESSA did not actually exist. However, books by T.H. Tetens and Joseph Wechsberg claim to have verified the organisation's existence and provided details of its operations. Wechsberg studied Simon Wiesenthal's memoirs on the ODESSA and correlated them with his own experiences in the book The Murderers Among Us. Today, ODESSA is best known from its appearance in spy novels and fictional movies.

Odessa is the third largest city in Ukraine.

Odessa may also refer to:

1. redirect Odessa, Texas

Odessa is the first album released by alternative country band The Handsome Family. It was released 1994 by Carrot Top Records.

Odessa is a Volvo Ocean 60 yacht. She finished tenth in the W60 class of the 1993–94 Whitbread Round the World Race skippered by Anatoly Verba.

Odessa is a 1969 album by the Bee Gees. Regarded as the most significant of the band's Sixties albums, it was released as a double vinyl record initially in an opulent red flocked cover with gold lettering. An ambitious project, originally intended as a concept album on the loss of a fictional ship in 1899, it created tension and disagreements in the band regarding the album's direction; finally, a dispute over which song to release as a single led to Robin Gibb temporarily leaving the band. The album was not well received by the public or the music press on release, and led to a decline in the band's fortunes until their disco period in the mid 1970s.

Released in March 1969 by Polydor Records in the UK and Atco Records in the US, it was the group's fourth album released internationally, their sixth overall, and their only double album of original music. Odessa would be the final album for the band's original incarnation, and this was the last album to include guitarist Vince Melouney. The album contains " First of May", " Lamplight", " Marley Purt Drive" and " Melody Fair".

The album was reissued as a single-disc in 1976 when interest was revived in the Bee Gees career, since when the album has gained increasing critical acclaim; it was reissued again in 2009 as a deluxe 3 disc set, and is included in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

"Odessa (City on the Black Sea)" is a song by the English rock band the Bee Gees, written by Barry, Robin & Maurice Gibb in 1968 and released in early 1969. The song opened the album of the same name. The song was recorded twice. The first version of the song (without the orchestra) was later to appear on Sketches for Odessa and has a duration to 6:40. The song starts on with a spoken voice. The song was a very long song about the survivor of a shipwreck, and was originally intended to form the basis of the whole album. Musically it was dominated by strings and acoustic guitar. It was originally proposed to be the first single of the album.