Frederick Forsyth's bestseller "The Odessa File" has brought worldwide attention to Eduard Roschmann, the ghetto commander in Riga. Shortly after the war, he was arrested, but the "Butcher of Riga" managed to escape to Buenos Aires via Rome in 1948, where he led an inconspicuous life for nearly three decades. Facing the threat of extradition, he fled from Argentina to Paraguay in 1977, where he soon passed away. The life of the subordinate SS man Eduard Roschmann, a bureaucrat and opportunist, a man without any remarkable traits, is of limited interest. There is no doubt that he was part of the murder apparatus in Riga. This study explores how his persona became the subject of speculation and fiction, and to what extent testimonies and witnesses, reports and literature conflict with historical research.