Walter Rauff Net Worth

Background and career

Hermann Julius Walther Rauff, also Walther Rauff (19 June 1906 – 14 May 1984) was a mid-ranking SS commander in Nazi Germany. From January 1938, he was an aide of Reinhard Heydrich firstly in the Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst or SD), later in the Reich Security Main Office.

At the end of World War II Rauff was placed in an Allied internment camp in Italy. He was able to escape and hide in Italian monasteries. In 1948, he was recruited by Syrian intelligence and subsequently by the Israeli secret service. He sailed to South America in December 1949 and landed in Ecuador, initially living in Quito for almost ten years. He departed in 1958 and travelled to Chile before returning to Germany in 1960 to collect his German Navy pension. After this Rauff was recruited by Augusto Pinochet. Rauff played a role in the creation of the Chilean internal security apparatus during the military dictatorship. His funeral in Santiago, Chile was attended by several former Nazis. He also worked for the Federal Intelligence Service of West Germany (Bundesnachrichtendienst) between 1958 and 1962.

Rauff is accused of being responsible for nearly 100,000 deaths during World War II. Among other actions, he was instrumental in the use of mobile gas chambers for the execution of prisoners. He was arrested in 1945, but subsequently escaped and was never brought to trial. He was described in a documentary on the History Channel as one of the seven most dangerous Nazis who fled to South America after World War II.