Editing Eduard Roschmann

{{Villain_Infobox 
|image =Edward Roschmann.jpg
|fullname = Eduard Roschmann 
|alias = The Butcher of Riga<br>Frederico Wagner
|origin = Graz, Austria 
|occupation = Commandant of the Riga Ghetto
|type of villain = War Criminal 
|goals = Exterminate all Jews in Latvia (failed)
|crimes = [[War crimes]]<br>[[Crimes against humanity]]<br>Mass [[murder]]<br>[[Torture]]<br>[[Anti-Semitism]]<br>[[Persecution of Christians]]<br>[[Islamophobia]]<br>[[Misogyny]]
|hobby = 
}}
'''Eduard Roschmann''' (November 25<sup>th</sup>, 1908 – August 8<sup>th</sup>, 1977) was an Austrian [[Nazi Party|Nazi]] [[Schutzstaffel|SS]]-''Obersturmführer'', and commandant of the Riga ghetto during 1943. He was responsible for numerous murders, [[war crimes]], and other atrocities. As a result of a fictionalised portrayal in the novel ''The Odessa File'' by Frederick Forsyth and its subsequent film adaptation, Roschmann came to be known as the '''Butcher of Riga'''.

Like many other Nazis trying to evade justice after the end of [[World War II]], Roschmann fled to Argentina, hiding in the country until 1976, after which he fled to Paraguay to evade an extradition from the German government, where he died a year later.
==Biography==
===Early years===
Roschmann was born on 25 November 1908, in Graz-Eggenberg, in Austria. The son of a brewery manager, he was reputed to have come from the Styria region of Austria from a good family. 

From 1927 to 1934, Roschmann was a member of the Fatherland's Front, which in turn was part of the Austrian home guard ("Heimatschutz"). From 1927 to 1934, Roschmann was associated with an organization called the "Steyr Homeland Protection Force." Roschmann spent six semesters at a university. By 1931, he was a brewery employee, joining the civil service in 1935. 

In 1938, he joined the [[Nazi Party]], and the SS the following year. In January 1941, he was assigned to the ''[[Sicherheitspolizei]]'', or SiPo.

===During [[the Holocaust]]===
Following the German occupation of Latvia during [[World War II]], the SD established a presence in Latvia with the objective of killing all the Jews in the country. To this end, the SD established the Riga ghetto.

Starting in January 1943, Roschmann became commandant of the Riga ghetto. His immediate predecessor was [[Kurt Krause]]. Survivors described Krause as "sadistic", "bloody","monster", and a "psychopath". Roschmann's methods differed from those of Krause. Unlike Krause, Roschmann did not execute offenders on the spot, but, in most cases, sent them to Riga's Central Prison. Whether this was a matter of having qualms about murder is not certain. However, being sent to the prison was likely to be, at best, only a brief reprieve, as conditions there were brutal.

Food for ghetto occupants was strictly rationed and generally inadequate. It was common for Jews assigned to work details to obtain and attempt to smuggle extra food into the ghetto. For this and other reasons, all returning work details were subject to search, although this was actually carried out only on a sporadic basis. When searches did occur, those smuggling food were forced to abandon it before it could be found on their person, which was a serious offence.

Roschmann and his aide, [[Max Gymnich]], accompanied by a trained attack dog, involved themselves in the details of the searches for contraband food, which included inspections of kitchens in the ghetto, again forcing people to discard food they had smuggled in, even when they were about to eat it.

While ghetto commandant, Roschmann became involved with the work detail known as the Army Motor Park (''Heereskraftpark''). This was considered a favourable work assignment for Jews, as it involved skilled labour (vehicle mechanics) necessary for the German army, thus providing some protection from liquidation, and it also gave a number of opportunities to "organise" (that is, to buy, barter for or steal) contraband food and other items. The Jews on the work detail benefited from the fact that the German in charge, Private First Class (Obergefreiter) Walter Eggers, was corrupt and wanted to use the Jews under his command to become rich. Consequently, better treatment could be had, at least for a time, by paying Eggers bribes. Roschmann heard rumours about the "good life", and attempted to prevent it by putting some of the workers into one of the prisons or transferring them to Kaiserwald [[concentration camp]].

Roschmann himself was not above accepting bribes, or at least pretending to accept bribes. In one instance, a shoemaker whose two children had been incarcerated in the Riga prisons as a result of Roschmann's investigation, attempted to secure their release by paying Roschmann a large number of gold coins. Roschmann took the coins, but did not release the children.
===After the war===
In October 1944, out of fear of the approaching Soviet armies, the SS personnel of the concentration camp system in Latvia fled the country by sea from Riga or Liepāja to Danzig, taking with them several thousand concentration camp inmates, many of whom did not survive the voyage.

In 1945, Roschmann was arrested in Graz, but later released. Roschmann concealed himself as an ordinary prisoner of war, and in so doing obtained a release from custody in 1947. After that however he became imprudent and visited his wife in Graz. He was recognised with the assistance of former concentration camp inmates and arrested by the British military police. 

Roschmann was sent to [[Dachau concentration camp]] which had been converted to an imprisonment camp for accused war criminals, but succeeded in escaping from this custody. In 1948 Roschmann was able to flee Germany. He travelled first to Genoa in Italy, and from there to Argentina by ship, on a pass supplied by the International Red Cross. Roschmann was assisted in this effort by [[Alois Hudal]], a strongly pro-Nazi bishop of the Catholic Church.

Roschmann arrived in Argentina either on 10 February 194 or 2 October 1948. He founded a wood import-export firm in Buenos Aires. In 1955 in Argentina Roschmann married, although he was not divorced from his first wife. His second wife left him in 1958; the marriage was later declared null and void. In 1968, under the name "Frederico Wagner" (sometimes seen as "Federico Wegener") he became a citizen of Argentina.

Roschmann died in Asuncion, Paraguay, on 8 August 1977. The body initially went unclaimed, and questions were raised as to whether the dead man was, in fact, Roschmann. The body bore papers in the name of "Federico Wegener", and was missing two toes on one foot and three on the other, consistent with Roschmann's known war injuries.

[[Category:Modern Villains]]
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