Gerhard Hermann Otto Sommer

* 24 June 1921 – Hamburg
† 22 February 2017 – Hamburg

In 2005, Gerhard Sommer was sentenced by an Italian military court to life imprisonment for participation in the massacre at Sant’Anna di Stazzema. In Germany, by contrast, investigations of his actions dragged on and were finally discontinued.
A native of Hamburg, Sommer was a member of Hitler Youth, then the Nazi Party. In Oct. 1939 he joined the Waffen-SS. As a member of the Leibstandarte-SS “Adolf Hitler” Division, he fought in the Balkans in 1941, then on the Eastern Front, which brought him awards and promotion to the rank of SS Unterscharführer. Starting in 1944, he was deployed as a platoon leader and later company leader in a unit of the ‘Reichsführer-SS’ division in Tuscany. In the massacre at Sant’Anna di Stazzema, he commanded the 7^th Company, whose men participated in the shooting to death of women and children in the church square.
After the war, Sommer remained free, living a normal life. The military prosecutor’s office in La Spezia only identified him in 2001, with investigations given impetus the following year through an interview with Sommer by journalists René Althammer and Udo Gümpel broadcast on German television. Beginning in 2015, Sommer was no longer fit to face trial. He died in Hamburg in Feb. 2017.

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Nationality

German

Religion

Protestant; starting 1942 gottgläubig

Formation

Hitlerjugend
SS

Arny Branch

Waffen-SS

Joined the NSDAP

1939

Armed Force

Waffen-SS

Unit

SS ‘Germania’ Regiment 2
8th Company Leibstandarte-SS “Adolf Hitler” Division
16th SS Panzergrenadier Division ‘Reichsführer-SS’

Years of Service

1939-1945

Rank

SS Untersturmführer in the reserves

Campaign

Balkans (Serbia and Greece)
Invasion of Soviet Union
Eastern Front (Ukraine)
Occupation of Italy 1944-45
Eastern Front (Austria)

Confirmed Massacres

Sant’Anna di Stazzema

Post war period

In 2005 condemned in absentia by military court of La Spezia to life in prison. Sentence confirmed on appeal.

In 2015, proceeding against Sommer closed on grounds of inability to stand trial.

Training and wartime experience

Entry into Nazi Party

Gerhard Hermann Otto Sommer was born on 24 June 1921 in Hamburg, into a Protestant family. His father had an export firm and his mother was a housewife. He attended Oberrealschule and, in 1933, joined Hitler Youth, where he would advance to platoon leader in the Deutsches Jungvolk, Hitler Youth’s organization for boys between 10 and 14. At age 14 his mother died and his father remarried. After finishing school, on 6 June 1939 Sommer applied at age 18 for acceptance into the Nazi Party; he was accepted on 1 Sept. Less than two months later, on 23 Oct. 1939, he became a volunteer in SS ‘Germania’ Regiment 2 of the SS Verfügungstruppe in Hamburg – one of the formations from which the Waffen-SS would emerge in 1940. In the same year he was transferred to Leibstandarte-SS ‘Adolf Hitler’ and ended his training in Metz, Lorraine.
From the Balkans to the Eastern Front

In 1941, as a member of this division Sommer was transferred to the Balkans and then, at the end of June, deployed in the invasion of the Soviet Union. He participated in the Battle of Uman and the advance to Mykolaiv and Kherson. Near Taganrog, Sommer was wounded in August 1941. In Nov., he was awarded the Iron Cross 2^nd class and was promoted to SS Rottenführer. While fighting in Ukraine in late 1941, he was again wounded. Early in 1942, he was transferred back to Berlin as a driver in the Lichterfelde SS-barracks. Around this time, Sommer left the Protestant Church; he would now refer to himself as gottgläubig. Early in the following year, he returned to the front, participating in the fighting before Kharkov. Starting in April 1943, he was a member of a training unit in Czechoslovakia and in Oct. he began a reserve-officer training course at the SS Panzergrenadier School in Prosetschnitz (Prosečnice). On 30 Jan. 1944, following completion of the course, Sommer was promoted to SS Untersturmführer in the reserves.

Participation in massacres of civilians

Sommer led the 7^th Company during the massacre at Sant’Anna di Stazzema. The first indication of his participation in the massacre is found in a report on the interrogation of some SS-soldiers by American troops.

In Italy with the 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division ‘Reichsführer SS’

In the early summer of 1944, Gerhard Sommer was assigned to the II Battalion of SS Panzergrenadier Regiments 35 of the 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division 'Reichsführer SS' in Tuscany. Initially, he was platoon leader of the 5^th Company. After heavy losses by the battalion in July 1944, he took over command of the 7^th Company. After the battalion’s commander went missing at Livorno, according to Allied information he briefly led the entire II Battalion before the arrival of SS Hauptsturmführer Anton Galler. During the massacre at Sant’Anna di Stazzema in early August 1944, Sommer continued to serve as leader of the 7^th Company.

The first indication of his participation in the massacre is found in a report on the interrogation of some SS-soldiers that American troops had taken prisoner in the Apennines near Bologna in early Oct. 1944. Josef Udvari, a soldier of Hungarian origin, gave the Americans information about the 7^th Company and its leader, indicating that ‘Sommer participated in the S. Anna vic Pietra Santa massacre of civilians on about 19 August 1944’. According to investigators for the La Spezia prosecutor’s office, at the time the Americans believed the massacre had taken place on that day. The correct date of 12 Aug. 1944 would only be ascertained later.

On 19 Sept. 1944, Sommer was awarded the Iron Cross 1^st class. In the autumn, he was a company leader in the front-area south of Bologna.

Leading a combat patrol on 12 Dec. 1944, Sommer was badly wounded by the explosion of an artillery grenade. He was brought to a military hospital near Bologna, then moved to Riva del Garda and finally to Meran. From there, in March 1945 he returned to his unit, which was fighting against the Red Army in the border region between Hungary and Austria.

After the war

Arrest and return to Germany

British troops took Sommer prisoner on 10 May 1945 in Grafenstein, Kärnten. After imprisonment in a POW camp in Italy, on 26 May he was moved to the Munster camp in the British occupation zone, south of Hamburg. He was released on 13 April 1946. Almost nothing is known about his professional or private life following his release. In Hamburg, directly after his return he completed a lathe-operating apprenticeship. Then he and his stepbrother took over the machine-exporting firm his father had founded. Sommer married and lived with his family in Hamburg’s Poppenbüttel and Volksdorf districts. He retired in 1984, aged 63.

As a former member of the SS and Nazi Party, the United States denied him entry as a tourist in Sept. 1997.

Until discovery of the files kept in the ‘cabinet of shame’ in 1994, Sommer’s name remained unknown to investigators. In 1996, by way of Interpol, first inquiries regarding his person reached, among other places, the Ludwigsburg Central Office, the German Federal Archives, and the Deutsche Dienststelle/WASt. He would only be identified in late 2001.

Identification and trial in Italy

Until discovery of the files kept in the ‘cabinet of shame’ in 1994, Sommer’s name remained unknown to investigators. In late Nov. 1996, by way of Interpol, first inquiries from Italy regarding his person reached, among other places, the Ludwigsburg Central Office, the German Federal Archives, and the Deutsche Dienststelle/WASt. In the framework of first inquiries into the massacre at Sant'Anna di Stazzema, German officials were given the names of 13 presumed perpetrators; only 7 of these could be identified and Sommer was not among them. He would only be identified in late 2001. Then, in early Feb. 2002, the military prosecutor of La Spezia began to investigate him and other incriminated men.

In the spring of 2002, the journalist Udo Gümpel interviewed Sommer in Hamburg. The interview was broadcast on German TV on 11 April 2002, and this accelerated the investigation. The appointment of Marco De Paolis as La Spezia military prosecutor in mid-April was a direct result of public reaction to the interview.

Sommer only responded once to the accusations being levelled against him, to the Hamburg prosecutor’s office in July 2002. Afterwards he declined to make any statement. The trial of the men responsible for the Sant'Anna di Stazzema massacre was held in the summer of 2005 in La Spezia. Gerhard Sommer was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment. His former rank as company leader was the highest among all those found guilty.

The proceedings in Stuttgart and Hamburg

On 25 October 2002, the Ludwigsburg Central office handed over the inquiry concerning the Sant’Anna di Stazzema case to the Stuttgart prosecutor's office. Notably, this transfer did not involve the Hamburg prosecutor, despite Hamburg being Sommer’s place of residence. This might be attributed to the presence of a larger group of suspects residing in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg. However, Sommer held the primary defendant position, possessing the highest military rank among the accused individuals who were still alive throughout the proceedings.

On 8 May 2006, a demonstration organized by left-leaning groups took place before the Hamburg nursing home where Sommer was being cared for since May 2005. Commemorative plaques with the names of the victims of the Sant'Anna di Stazzema massacre were set up before the nursing home.

More than six years later, in Oct. 2012, the Stuttgart prosecutor’s office ended the proceedings on grounds of insufficient evidence against those accused who were still alive. In response, the chairman of the Associazione Martiri di Sant'Anna di Stazzema, Enrico Pieri, and his lawyer Gabriele Heinecke, filed for compulsory criminal prosecution before the Higher Regional Court of Karlsruhe, which granted the request. In 2014, the legal proceedings were transferred to the jurisdiction of the Hamburg prosecutor's office. These proceedings eventually reached their conclusion in May 2015, primarily because Sommer had been diagnosed with progressive dementia. It's worth noting that all the remaining defendants had already passed away by that time. Gerhard Sommer died on 22 Feb. 2017.

Sources

There is very little documentary material pertaining to Gerhard Sommer’s life. The available documents refer to his relatively short military career. More complete material is found in the files of German and Italian courts, now kept at Rome’s military court. This included documents and photos confiscated during the search of his apartment. Some personal documents are located in the Bundesarchiv in Berlin (German Federal Archives in Berlin): BArch, Lichterfelde, SSO Gerhard Sommer, Gebührniskarte (pay card) und Offizierskarte; BArch, PA (ex WASt), P.O.W. Form/ Kriegsgefangenen oder kapitulierten Mannschaften Form, Z-Karte S 2085/279.

Literature

Carlo Gentile, Wehrmacht und Waffen-SS im Partisanenkrieg: Italien 1943-1945, Paderborn, Ferdinand Schöningh, 2012, pp. 279, 281.

Authorship and translation

Translated from German by: Joel Golb

2023

Text: CC BY NC SA 4.0

Gerhard Hermann Otto Sommer

Training and wartime experience

Entry into Nazi Party

From the Balkans to the Eastern Front

Participation in massacres of civilians

Sommer led the 7th Company during the massacre at Sant’Anna di Stazzema. The first indication of his participation in the massacre is found in a report on the interrogation of some SS-soldiers by American troops.

In Italy with the 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division ‘Reichsführer SS’

After the war

Arrest and return to Germany

Identification and trial in Italy

The proceedings in Stuttgart and Hamburg

Information on data protection

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Sommer led the 7^th Company during the massacre at Sant’Anna di Stazzema. The first indication of his participation in the massacre is found in a report on the interrogation of some SS-soldiers by American troops.