Johannes von Miquel (19 February 1828 – 8 September 1901) was a German statesman. He was one of the main founders of the National Liberal Party. He was a leader of the right wing of the National Liberals in the Prussian House of Representatives from 1867 to 1882. He also served as Minister of Finance of the Prussian State.

Miquel passed his Abitur exam in 1846 at the Gymnasium Georgianum (Lingen). From 1846 to 1849 he studied law in Heidelberg and Göttingen and became a member of the Burschenschaft Neckarbund Heidelberg in 1846. He initially liked the ideology of the communists and maintained relationships with Karl Marx, whom he had met through Wilhelm Pieper, He participated in the democratic student movement in 1848 and was a member of the illegal covenant of communists until 1852. Wikipedia

He was also a founding member of the German Colonial Association along with Social Darwinist and anti Semite Heinrich von Treitschke. The association was formed to promote the creation and expansion of a German Empire which did manifest in 1871. They rejected the concerns of the Enlightenment and liberalism for individual rights and the separation of powers, in favor of an authoritarian monarchist and militarist concept of the state.

“Every virile people has established colonial power. All great nations in the fullness of their strength have desired to set their mark upon barbarian lands and those who fail to participate in this great rivalry will play a pitiable role in time to come.” – Heinrich von Treitschke Wikipedia

Johannes von Miquel was praised for his progressive tax system and welfare accomplishments. He was forced to resign when a canal project failed. He died in 1901.

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 in the Security Service SD and later in the Reich Security Main Office.

Rauff started his career in the German Navy (Kriegsmarine) as a cadet in 1924. After 13 years of service he was forced out after an adultery scandal but was released with full honors. He was recalled to service in 1940 but then sent to work for Heydrich. He was involved in the design and operation of “gas vans” used to exterminate Jews and others.

Rauff supervised the modification of scores of trucks, with the assistance of a Berlin chassis builder, to divert their exhaust fumes into airtight chambers in the back of the vehicles. The victims were then poisoned and/or asphyxiated from the carbon monoxide accumulating within the truck compartment as the vehicle traveled to a burial site. The trucks could carry between 25 and 60 people at a time. MI5 report Wikipedia

Rauff was involved in exterminations in Vichy France and in North Africa was attached to Rommel‘s Afrika Korps to do the same. Tunisia is the African nation famous for Nazi persecution Jews and partisans by Rauff (National Holocaust Museum).

He was stationed in North Italy after Afrika Korps defeat. There he commanded the Gestapo and SD units. His job there was the same; extermination.

Near the end of the war Rauff, then the senior SS and police official in northern Italy, tried to gain credit for the surrender of German forces in Italy, but ended up only surrendering himself. After escaping from an American internment camp in Rimini, Rauff hid in a number of Italian convents, apparently under the protection of Bishop Alois Hudal. Wikipedia

In 1948 he was recruited by Syrian intelligence and involved himself in a coup attempt. He was arrested but convinced the government of his innocence. They deported him and he sailed to Ecuador where he was employed by German businesses until 1958. Unsubstantiated speculation is that Rauff was working as a double agent for Mossad while in Syria.

Rauff left Ecuador for Chile in 1958 or 59.

Rauff had been brought to Chile by then Major Augusto Pinochet as an “international expert” to organize Chile’s internal security apparatus. To this end, Rauff functioned as head of a whole group of German former SS and Gestapo officers who worked in various advisory functions to the Chilean military Wikipedia

Rauff was employed by the West German government from 1958 until 1962 to spy in Chile. He was released because he was deemed untrustworthy. Efforts to extradite him from Chile proved futile. After the Chilean coup of 1973 he worked for Manuel Contreras in the formation of a security apparatus called the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA).

Rauff was valued as an expert for the Solución Final, meaning the killing and disappearance of dissidents. Rauff planned and supervised the building of concentration camps and was involved in finding means of disposing the dead bodies of tortured and murdered dissidents. He allegedly used contacts to former German military officers to smuggle sarin to Chile. Rauff also was involved in the creation of Operation Condor. Former DINA and Chilean military personnel later detailed that Rauff was strongly involved with Contreras’ work and acted as executive command officer in DINA. Wikipedia

Walter Rauff died in Santiago on 14 May 1984 from a heart attack. His funeral was held at a Lutheran church and was attended by other former Nazis.