Rattenhuber was the head of German dictator Adolf Hitler's personal Reichssicherheitsdienst (Reich Security Service; RSD) bodyguard from 1933 to 1945.

On 15 March 1933 he was appointed head of one of Hitler's personal bodyguard units then known as the Führerschutzkommando (Führer protection command; FSK).

The RSD was technically on the staff of Himmler with the members wearing the uniform of the SS with the SD diamond on their lower left sleeve.

[7] The RSD and FBK worked together for security and personal protection during Hitler's trips and public events, but they operated as two groups and used separate vehicles.

In January 1942 he met with local SS-police leaders and civilian authorities, and ordered that the area be cleared of Jews prior to Hitler's planned arrival in summer 1942.

On 10 January 1942, Rattenhuber's RSD units participated in the mass shooting of 227 Jews at Strizhavka, the actual grounds of the Werwolf site.

Additional massacres of local Jews in the area and POW laborers who worked on the construction of the Werwolf headquarters occurred on the eve of Hitler's arrival in July 1942.

[9] In January 1945, Rattenhuber accompanied Hitler and his entourage into the bunker complex under the Reich Chancellery garden in the central government sector of Berlin.

'Everything is ruined..., and to flee means falling into the hands of the Russians'..."[12]Rattenhuber was not present when Hitler killed himself on the afternoon of 30 April in the Führerbunker.

Instead, Rattenhuber followed Heinz Linge, Otto Günsche, Peter Högl, Ewald Lindloff and several others outside and watched Hitler's body being burned.

The text of this was kept in the Soviet archives until it was published by V. K. Vinogradov in the Russian edition of Hitler's Death: Russia's Last Great Secret from the Files of the KGB in 2000.

By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of September 1955 he was released from prison on 10 October 1955 and handed over to the German Democratic Republic authorities, who allowed him to go to West Germany in 1956.