Forged In Blood: The Friendship Between President Pinochet and a Nazi War Criminal

Culture | Forged in blood The friendship of a Chilean dictator and a Nazi war criminal Philippe Sands traces the connections between Augusto Pinochet and Walter Rauff in his new book Augusto Pinochet signing a decree naming new ministers, Santiago, Chile, 1983 Sitting, not in the dockPhotograph: Getty Images May 8th 2025 Save Share Give Listen to this story 38 Londres Street: On Impunity, Pinochet in England and a Nazi in Patagonia. By Philippe Sands. Knopf; 480 pages; $35. W&N; £25 THE TWO men had a lot in common. They shared an affinity for German culture and a disdain for communism; they also both committed mass murder, only on different continents, decades apart. One was Augusto Pinochet (pictured), a Chilean dictator from 1973-90 who murdered thousands of people. The other was Walter Rauff, an SS officer who developed the mobile gas chambers that killed some 100,000 people in the second world war. In “38 Londres Street”, a gripping new book, Philippe Sands shows that the long-rumoured connection between the men was real. After fleeing an Italian prison camp at the end of the war, Rauff ended up in South America. In Quito, Ecuador, in the 1950s, he befriended Pinochet, who encouraged Rauff to move to Chile. Rauff settled in Punta Arenas, a city in the country’s south, where he carved out a new life as the manager of a king-crab cannery. Years later, when Mr Sands visits, many residents recall fond memories of Rauff (and of Pinochet’s dictatorship). A woman who worked at the factory says Rauff “seemed like a good person”. A magazine feature from the time includes a glowing endorsement from the mayor: Rauff “creates no problems for anyone”. Was that really true? Mr Sands sets out to verify another rumour: that the former Nazi helped Pinochet’s secret police torture and disappear people. (The book’s title refers to a building in Santiago that became a detention centre.) Mr Sands’s investigative work leads him to survivors and perpetrators, many of whom claim to remember Rauff. The author leaves it up to the reader to decide whether their testimonies are reliable. “38 Londres Street” is the third book in Mr Sands’s loose trilogy about Nazis, justice and impunity. “East West Street” (2016) chronicled the work of two Jewish lawyers from Lviv, in Ukraine, in defining the legal concepts of crimes against humanity and genocide which were used at the Nuremberg trials. “The Ratline” (2020) retraced the steps of a Nazi fugitive as he tried to flee to South America. As in those books, Mr Sands weaves together travelogue, detective story and legal drama. Walter Rauff leaves the Supreme Court after being taken into custody in Punta Arenas at the request of the West German Government, in Santiago, Chile, December 6th 1962 Photograph: Alamy The author finds he has a personal connection to the events and characters. Some of his Jewish relatives probably died in Rauff’s gas vans; during his research he learns that he is related by marriage to one of Pinochet’s victims, a United Nations diplomat tortured and killed in 1976. Yet his response to the material he uncovers is often fascination rather than horror. He is a curious scholar, not a justice warrior. In 1998 Mr Sands, who is a practising barrister, played a minor role in the efforts to extradite Pinochet from London, where he had been arrested while seeking medical treatment, to Spain, where he had been indicted. Pinochet’s arrest was the first time a former head of state was apprehended abroad under the doctrine of “universal jurisdiction” for large-scale human-rights abuses. A legal battle ensued: the prosecution wanted Pinochet extradited and the defence argued that he had immunity as a former head of state. Mr Sands interviews nearly every lawyer, judge and diplomat involved in the 17-month saga. In the end, Rauff and Pinochet shared another experience: they never faced justice. Pinochet was spared from extradition on flimsy medical grounds. He returned to Chile in a wheelchair, then abandoned it on the tarmac once he reached home soil. He faced prosecution in Chile in his final years, but died in 2006 without standing trial. Rauff also survived extradition attempts and died in Santiago in 1984. Mr Sands concedes that “justice has been limited”, but shows that the law works in indirect ways. Pinochet’s case helped persuade Chile’s Supreme Court to exclude human-rights abuses from a sweeping amnesty law that Pinochet himself signed in 1978, allowing hundreds of cases to be brought against officials in the army or secret police. Rauff and Pinochet may have enjoyed impunity, but some of those complicit in their crimes have died, or will die, behind bars. ■ For more on the latest books, films, TV shows, albums and controversies, sign up to Plot Twist, our weekly subscriber-only newsletter Explore more Culture This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Forged in blood”