Hanns Albin Rauter

SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Polizei Hanns Albin Rauter
Rauter in 1939
Born	4 February 1895 Klagenfurt,Austro-Hungarian Empire
Died	24 March 1949(1949-03-25)(aged 54) NearScheveningen,Netherlands
Allegiance	Nazi Germany
Service/ branch	Schutzstaffel
Years of service	1914–1919, 1921, 1927–1945
Rank	SS-Obergruppenführer
Unit	Gestapo
Commands	Chief of theSS& Police of the Netherlands (1940–1945)

Johann Baptist Albin Rauter(4 February 1895 – 24 March 1949) was a high-ranking Austrian-bornSSfunctionary and war criminal during theNazi era.He was the highestSS and Police Leaderin the occupiedNetherlandsand therefore the leading security and police officer there during the period of 1940–1945. Rauter reported directly to the Nazi SS chief,Heinrich Himmler,and also to the Nazi governor of the Netherlands,Arthur Seyss-Inquart.AfterWorld War II,he was convicted in the Netherlands of crimes against humanity and executed by firing squad.

Early life and career

Born inKlagenfurt,Rauter graduated from high school in 1912 and started training as an engineer at theGraz University of Technology.At the outbreak ofWorld War IRauter volunteered for service in theAustro-Hungarian Army.He served with aGebirgsschützenregimentand was discharged in 1919, having reached the rank ofOberleutnant.Rauter took part in theAustro-Slovene conflict in Carinthia,and from May until July 1921 he fought in theFreikorps OberlandinOberschlesien.For his service during the war, Rauter received several decorations includingAustrian Military Merit Cross 3rd Class with War decoration,Silver Medal for Bravery,Wound MedalorKarl Troop Cross.

Rauter first metAdolf Hitlerin 1929 and joined theNazi cause in Austria.His forays in Austria forced him to flee to Germany in 1933, where he became part of theNSDAPdepartment for Austria. He joined the SA, and was active in planning illegal NSDAP activities in Austria. In 1935 he left theSAto become a member of theSS.Until 1940 he was the Leader of the SS Southeast department inBreslau.

Actions in the occupied Netherlands

Dutchpuppet leaderAnton Mussertspeaking toNSBrecruits withReich CommissionerArthur Seyss-Inquart,generalHendrik Seyffardtand Rauter to the rear;The Hague,October 1941

In May 1940 he was appointedGeneralkommissar für das Sicherheitswesen(General Commissioner for Security) andHöherer SS-und Polizeiführer(Higher SS and Police leader) for theoccupied Netherlands.In his position aspolicecommander and highest ranking SS leader in the Netherlands, Rauter was responsible for the deportation of 110,000Dutch Jewsto theNazi concentration camps(6,000 survived) and the repression of theDutch resistance.He had 300,000Dutchmendeported to Germany forforced labour.His first victims to die were those killed during the armed break up of theFebruary strikeon 26 February 1941, accounting for 9 dead that day: he also immediately declared astate of emergencyand orderedsummary executions.

He was the chief promoter of terror through summary arrests and internment in the Netherlands. The SS set up a concentration camp named Herzogenbusch after the city of's-Hertogenbosch,but located in the neighboring town ofVughtthat gave the camp its name:Kamp Vught.In total this camp detained 31,000 people, of whom some 735 were killed. Also, his SS manned a so-calledpolizeiliches Durchgangslageror police transit camp nearAmersfoort,known asKamp Amersfoort,in fact also a concentration camp, where some 35,000 people were detained and maltreated and 650 people (Dutch and Russian) died. Rauter's SS also managed theKamp Westerbork(polizeiliches Durchgangslager Westerbork), the place from which some 110,000 Dutch Jews were deported to Naziconcentrationandexterminationcamps, mainlyAuschwitzandSobibor.

Under Rauter's guidance, a special block was built for 'political prisoners' (i.e. resistance workers) in theScheveningenprison. These were often held inindefinite detention.In total 28,000 people were detained here over 4 years; many were severely mistreated, some were tried and 738 men and 21 women died here or on the nearby execution field, theWaalsdorpervlakte(now a national place of remembrance).

Rauter also instigated a system of retaliation for assaults on Nazi officials and their Dutch collaborators: one killed Nazi equalled ten Dutch victims, one killed Dutch collaborator equalled three Dutch victims. During 1944 these numbers sharply increased with the rise of resistance violence.

During the Allied assault onArnheminOperation Market Garden,Rauter took the active field command of theKampfgruppe Rauterduring operations in theVeluwearea and near the bridges over theIJssel river.Kampfgruppe Rauterconsisted of theLandstorm Nederland,Wachbataillon Nordwestand a regiment of theOrdnungspolizei.After the assault on Arnhem had been fought off by the Germans, Rauter was given the command of the Maas front as a General in theWaffen-SS.

In the night of 6–7 March 1945 he was severely wounded by an attack staged by the Dutch resistance atWoeste Hoeveon theVeluwe,a small village betweenArnhemandApeldoorn.In a reprisal organised bySS-BrigadeführerKarl Eberhard Schöngarth,the Germans executed 117 political prisoners at the location of the attack as well as 50 prisoners inKamp Amersfoortand 40 prisoners each inThe HagueandRotterdam—a total of 263 persons were killed.This attack had not been planned; the resistance merely wanted to hijack a truck and use it to drive to a farmer who had butchered cows for the German army. Instead of the truck, Rauter'sBMWmotorcar was stopped by members of the resistance dressed in Germanuniforms.However, Rauter had just two weeks earlier issued a directive stating that German patrols should not stop any German military vehicles outside towns or villages, and a firefight broke out. His fellow passengers were all killed, but Rauter feigned death and survived. He was found by a German militarypatroland transferred to a hospital where he remained until his arrest byBritish Military Policeafter the end of hostilities.

After the war

Rauter on trial atThe Haguein 1948

Rauter was handed over to the Dutch government by theBritishand was tried by a special court inThe Hague.Rauter denied committingwar crimes,but the court found him guilty and sentenced him to death. A film record was made of the trial.

Thedeath sentencewas confirmed by a higher court on 12 January 1949, and Rauter was executed byfiring squadnearScheveningenon 24 March 1949.The location of his grave remains astate secret.

References

Media related toHanns Albin Rauterat Wikimedia Commons