Georg Rauschning, 1876-1956 President of the Hamburg Regional Finance Office © Deutsches Zollmuseum, Hamburg The jurist Georg Rauschning was head of Reich Financial Administration in Hamburg from 1925 to 1943. Rauschning was a convicted National Socialist which made him a compliant collaborator in the persecution of the Jews. As early as 1936, he spoke of "Jewish creatures who know no Fatherland, but rather bestow their presence upon those countries at whose expense they can profit." In close cooperation with the Gestapo, his department's tax collectors and customs agents bullied and robbed Hamburg's Jews. According to the reports of his subordinate Wilhelm Jordan, Rauschning convened a secret session in 1941 and disclosed to his leading officials, "that the assets confiscated by the Gestapo from the Jews to be evacuated from Germany" will be handed over to and managed by the Reich Financial Administration. "For Hamburg, the assets of 5,200 Jews would come into consideration." In the autumn of 1942, Rauschning fell into a disagreement with Hamburg's Gauleiter Karl Kaufmamm concerning the allocation of the confiscated Jewish assets. Kaufmann complained to Hermann Göring that Rauschning, "may be an exemplary civil servant with outstanding expertise," but that his leadership qualities were nonetheless inadequate. Rauschning lost his position as President of the Regional Finance Office, and was given instead one of Hamburg's local district tax offices to run. On Rauschning's eightieth birthday, the Federation of German Customs Agents declared that he had "unerringly guided the destiny of the Reich Financial Administration in Hamburg through turbulent and critical times for nearly two decades, in the best tradition of the German civil service." When Rauschning died, the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper made no mention of his role in the persecution of the Jew in Hamburg, but wrote instead, "Death came to him as a good, gentle friend - it surprised the elderly gentleman in his sleep, after a long stroll in the radiant sunshine."