Johann Baptist Albin Rauter (4 February 1895 – 24 March 1949) was a high-ranking Austrian-born SS functionary and war criminal during the Nazi era.

After World War II, Rauter was convicted in the Netherlands of crimes against humanity and executed by firing squad.

Born in Klagenfurt, Rauter graduated from high school in 1912 and started training as an engineer at the Graz University of Technology.

[1] In May 1940, he was appointed Generalkommissar für das Sicherheitswesen (General Commissioner for Security) and Höherer SS-und Polizeiführer (Higher SS and Police leader) for the occupied Netherlands.

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, the Waalsdorpervlakte (now a national place of remembrance).

In the night of 6–7 March 1945 he was severely wounded by an attack staged by the Dutch resistance at Woeste Hoeve on the Veluwe, a small village between Arnhem and Apeldoorn.

[2] 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.

Rauter denied committing war crimes, but the court found him guilty and sentenced him to death.

The death sentence was confirmed by a higher court on 12 January 1949, and Rauter was executed by firing squad near Scheveningen on 24 March 1949.