Gerhard Sommer

Last updated • 2 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
Gerhard Sommer
Born(1921-06-24)24 June 1921
Hamburg, Weimar Republic
Died2019 (aged 9798)
Hamburg, Germany
AllegianceFlag of Germany (1935-1945).svg  Nazi Germany
Service/branch Hitlerjugend (Deutsche Jungvolk)
Schutzstaffel (SS)
RankJungzugführer (in Hitler Youth)
Untersturmführer (second lieutenant)
Unit 1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler
16th SS Panzergrenadier Division Reichsführer-SS
Battles/wars World War II
Awards DEU EK 1 Klasse BAR.svg Iron Cross 1st Class
DEU EK 2 Klasse BAR.svg Iron Cross 2nd Class

Gerhard Sommer (24 June 1921 – 2019) was a German SS- Untersturmführer (second lieutenant) in the 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division Reichsführer-SS who was involved in the massacre of 560 civilians on 12 August 1944 in the Italian village of Sant'Anna di Stazzema. He appeared on the Simon Wiesenthal Center's list of most wanted Nazi war criminals.

Contents

Biography

Sommer was born in Hamburg in June 1921. In July 1933, when he was 12 years old, Sommer became a member of the Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth), where he obtained the rank of Jungzugführer (young platoon leader) in the Deutsches Jungvolk. On 1 September 1939, at age 18, he joined the Nazi Party NSDAP and in October enlisted in the Waffen-SS.

Sommer fought in the 1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler in the Balkans and Ukraine. He was wounded twice and was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd class. In 1943, Sommer applied for the rank of SS-Reserveführer. After training in Proschnitz, he was appointed an SS- Untersturmführer on January 30, 1944. He served as a Zugführer and later a Kompanieführer in the 7th Kompanie des II. Bataillons/SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 35. On 19 August 1944, he received the Iron Cross 1st class. Near the end of the war, Sommer served in the 4th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Brigade Netherlands. [1]

On 22 June 2005, Sommer and nine other former SS members were convicted by an Italian military court in La Spezia for the "continued murder with special cruelty" of 560 villagers at Sant'Anna di Stazzema. All ten were sentenced to life imprisonment and ordered to pay compensation payments. [2]

In 2002, investigations against Sommer were initiated in Germany, but no criminal charges were brought. [3] Gabriela Heinecke, a lawyer from Hamburg in charge of the "Nebenklage" of the Italian survivors of the massacre continues to be denied access to the records by the German public prosecution department. [4] As of May 2006, Sommer was living in a nursing home in Hamburg-Volksdorf, Germany. [5] In May 2015, Sommer was declared unfit for trial due to severe dementia by prosecutors in Germany. [6]

In October 2021, it was revealed that Sommer had died in 2019. [7]

Related Research Articles

<i>Waffen-SS</i> Military branch of the Nazi SS

The Waffen-SS was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's paramilitary Schutzstaffel (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with volunteers and conscripts from both German-occupied Europe and unoccupied lands. It was disbanded in May 1945.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sant'Anna di Stazzema</span> Frazione in Tuscany, Italy

Sant'Anna di Stazzema, officially Sant'Anna, is a village in Tuscany, Italy. Administratively, it is a frazione of the comune of Stazzema, in the province of Lucca.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marzabotto massacre</span> World War II war crime

The Marzabotto massacre, or more correctly, the massacre of Monte Sole, was a World War II war crime consisting of the mass murder of at least 770 civilians by Nazi troops, which took place in the territory around the small village of Marzabotto, in the mountainous area south of Bologna. It was the largest massacre of civilians committed by the Waffen SS in western Europe during the war. It is also the deadliest mass shooting in the history of Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Reder</span> Austrian SS commander

Walter Reder was an Austrian SS commander and war criminal during World War II. He served with the SS Division Totenkopf and the SS Division Reichsführer-SS. He and the unit under his command committed the Vinca massacre and Marzabotto massacre in Italy in 1944. After the war, Reder was convicted of war crimes in Italy.

17th SS Panzergrenadier Division <i>Götz von Berlichingen</i> German armored division

The 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division "Götz von Berlichingen" was a German Waffen-SS division that saw action on the Western Front during World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fritz von Scholz</span> Waffen-SS member (1896–1944)

Fritz von Scholz was a high-ranking member of the Nazi Waffen-SS during World War II and a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords of Nazi Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Distomo massacre</span> Mass-killing in Distomo, Nazi-occupied Greece

The Distomo massacre was a Nazi war crime which was perpetrated by members of the Waffen-SS in the village of Distomo, Greece, in 1944, during the German occupation of Greece during World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hugo Kraas</span> German SS commander during World War II

Hugo Gottfried Kraas was a German SS commander during World War II. He served in the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler and was the last commander of the SS Division Hitlerjugend. Kraas was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves. Following the war, Kraas was investigated by Italian and West German authorities for the murder of Italian Jews in 1943.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stazzema</span> Comune in Tuscany, Italy

Stazzema is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Lucca in the Italian region Tuscany, located about 80 kilometres northwest of Florence and about 25 km (16 mi) northwest of Lucca.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Søren Kam</span> Danish Nazi criminal

Søren Kam was a Danish junior officer in the Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany during World War II. He was wanted for murder in Denmark and listed by the Simon Wiesenthal Center as one of the most wanted Nazi war criminals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">16th SS Panzergrenadier Division Reichsführer-SS</span> German armored division

The 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division "Reichsführer-SS" was a motorised infantry formation in the Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany during World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heinz Barth</span> WW2 Nazi SS officer & war criminal (1920-2007)

Heinz Barth was a mid-ranking member in the Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany during World War II. He was a convicted war criminal who was responsible for the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre of 1944.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sant'Anna di Stazzema massacre</span> 1944 killings by the Waffen-SS in Italy

The Sant'Anna di Stazzema massacre was a German war crime, which was committed in the hill village of Sant'Anna di Stazzema in Tuscany, Italy, in the course of an operation against the Italian resistance movement during the Italian Campaign of World War II. On 12 August 1944, the Waffen-SS, with the help of the Brigate Nere, murdered about 560 local villagers and refugees, including more than a hundred children, and burned their bodies. These crimes have been defined as voluntary and organized acts of terrorism by the Military Tribunal of La Spezia and the highest Italian court of appeal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georg Preuß</span>

Georg Preuß was a mid-ranking commander in the Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany during World War II. He was a convicted war criminal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Max Simon</span>

Max Simon was a German SS commander and war criminal during World War II. Simon was one of the first members of the SS in the early 1930s. He rose through the ranks of the SS, and became a corps commander during World War II. After the war, Simon was convicted for his role in the Marzabotto massacre and the Sant'Anna di Stazzema massacre.

Gerhard Schreiber was a German military historian who specialised in the German–Italian relations during the Nazi era. He was a widely published author on the history of World War II and Nazi Germany. Schreiber was a long-term researcher at the Military History Research Office (MGFA) and contributor to two volumes of the seminal series Germany and the Second World War from the MGFA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Axis war crimes in Italy</span> Aspect of World War II

Two of the three major Axis powers of World War II—Nazi Germany and their Fascist Italian allies—committed war crimes in the Kingdom of Italy.

Werner Fromm was a German SS-Oberführer and Oberst of police. During the Second World War he served as the SS and Police Leader (SSPF) in the Bialystok District, and subsequently as the police commander in Sarajevo. He also fought as an officer in the Waffen-SS.

References

  1. Tribunale Militare di La Spezia, Urteil im Verfahren gegen Gerhard Sommer u.a., La Spezia, 22 June 2005; Bundesarchiv, SSO-Karte, Gebührnis-Karte, Sommer Gerhard, 24.06.1921; John P. Moore, Führerliste der Waffen-SS, s. u. Sommer Gerhard, 24.06.1921.
  2. Das Massaker von Sant’Anna di Stazzema am 12. August 1944 - Materialiensammlung 1 für eine bundesweite Kampagne zur Anklageerhebung in Deutschland Archived 2018-10-30 at the Wayback Machine , May 2006, pp. 12-14/17-19/23-24/30-34 (Pdf 880 KB).
  3. "Simon Wiesenthal Center's Tenth Annual Report on the Investigation and Prosecution of Nazi War Criminals | Simon Wiesenthal Center". Archived from the original on 2014-02-28. Retrieved 2011-06-12.
  4. Flugblatt zu Gerhard Sommer Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine (Pdf 121 KB)
  5. Das Massaker von Sant’Anna di Stazzema am 12. August 1944. Materialiensammlung 1 Archived 2018-10-30 at the Wayback Machine , May 2006, pp. 32-34 (Pdf 880 KB).
  6. Most-wanted German Nazi Sommer 'unfit for trial' 28 May, 2015
  7. After killing hundreds of Italian civilians, a brutal SS division evaded justice