Gerhard Sommer

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.

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.

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.

[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.