Martin Sommer
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Re: Martin Sommer
Don´t like the look of him...a cruel bastard
Re:
Sorry von Putzbrunn but I dont believe that man on the photo is Sommer. Here is a better quality of that photo.von Putzbrunn wrote:He was called the "hangman of Buchenwald" because he enjoyed to hang inmates in trees, as punishment, from behind. The inmates hands would be tied behind their backs and then hung up in the tree with the wire tied around their thumbs. This way thei thumbs would hold the weight of their entire body. The would hang like this for one or two hours before being let down.
There is a really famous photo of this with 2 prisoners hanging from a tree and one more lying on the ground in front of Sommer himself.
I have it somewhere. Ill post it when I find it.
G.
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Re: Martin Sommer
Is it possible to be Kurt Franz ?goofy wrote:Sorry von Putzbrunn but I dont believe that man on the photo is Sommer. Here is a better quality of that photo.
Re: Re:
The most arcives and museums has agreed thtat the photo is Martin Sommer, the reason is that he has been pointed out by survivors. But if it´s him 100% will never be known, but it seems likely because Sommer was chef over the Bunker and responsible for punish the inmates.goofy wrote:Sorry von Putzbrunn but I dont believe that man on the photo is Sommer. Here is a better quality of that photo.von Putzbrunn wrote:He was called the "hangman of Buchenwald" because he enjoyed to hang inmates in trees, as punishment, from behind. The inmates hands would be tied behind their backs and then hung up in the tree with the wire tied around their thumbs. This way thei thumbs would hold the weight of their entire body. The would hang like this for one or two hours before being let down.
There is a really famous photo of this with 2 prisoners hanging from a tree and one more lying on the ground in front of Sommer himself.
I have it somewhere. Ill post it when I find it.
G.
//Georg
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Re: Martin Sommer
While working as a US Army medic in a political prison around June of 1945 I came in contact with a prisoner who was brought in and who was described as the Butcher of Buchenwald. This was in Reinbach, Germany with the 518th Medical Clearing Company.
He was an officer in the German Army and had a very swarthy complexion as I recall. I tend to believe he was equivalent to either a Captain or Major; as I recall I asked him about his rank. I recall nothing else of our conversation. Having had two years of hi school German I was able to converse briefly with him. I did not have the forethought to ask his name or I may have forgotten it. On his person was a poem which I copied. It is titled Meine Briefe and about 16 lines long.
I have been told that there may have been more than one person who was called the Butcher of Buchenwald. Anyone know anything about that?
He was an officer in the German Army and had a very swarthy complexion as I recall. I tend to believe he was equivalent to either a Captain or Major; as I recall I asked him about his rank. I recall nothing else of our conversation. Having had two years of hi school German I was able to converse briefly with him. I did not have the forethought to ask his name or I may have forgotten it. On his person was a poem which I copied. It is titled Meine Briefe and about 16 lines long.
I have been told that there may have been more than one person who was called the Butcher of Buchenwald. Anyone know anything about that?
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Re: Martin Sommer
This is the fellow normally associated with the Buchenwald Sommer, so it may have been a case of mistaken identity:
Sommer, Walter Gerhard Martin (c. 1915-?) [SS Master Sergeant] – service, concentration camp (Konzentrationslager - KL) Buchenwald c. 1938-1943 {SS officer reduced in rank and sentenced by an SS court 1943 to service in a penal battalion on the eastern front; lost an arm and a leg in a tank explosion; taken prisoner by Soviet troops; held after May 1950 as war criminal (NYT 7 May 1950:35:3); impending release pursuant to "Adenauer amnesty" announced by Nikita S. Krushchev 9 Sept 1955 (Gulag Archipelago vol. 3, pps. 441-2); released from Soviet captivity 1955; arrested by West German authorities 1957 on charges of participating in 101 murders; put on trial 11 Jun 1958 by a West German court at Bayreuth on charges of murder and mistreatment of prisoners at KL Buchenwald (NYT 12 Jun 1958:4:8; NYT 3 Jul 1958:5:2); convicted of murdering 25 inmates by hypodermic injections of phenol in 1940-1942 and sentenced to life imprisonment and loss of civil rights 3 Jul 1958 (NYT 4 Jul 1958:4:6; JuNSV Verfahren Lfd.Nr.464; LG Bayreuth 580703; BGH 590505; Buchenwald Report p. 204n).}
There is also an SS-Hauptsturmfuehrer (Captain) Karl Sommer, but he isn't known for serving at Buchenwald:
Sommer, Karl (24.03.1915-?) [SS-Hauptsturmsturmfűhrer (The Camp Men p. 226) or SS-Obersturmbannfűhrer (NYT 4 Nov 1947:12:1)] – SS-Nr. 130199; joined SS late 1933; concentration camp service, concentration camp (Konzentrationslager - KL) Sachsenhausen and KL Oranienburg; Waffen-SS service c. 1940-1941; service (as SS labor allocation administrator), Inmate Labor Assignment office of the German Stone and Earth Works Mar 1941; chief, Inmate Labor Assignment office of Department D II Prisoner Labor Allocation (Amt D II - Arbeitseinsatz der Häftlinge) in the SS Economics and Administration Main Office (SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt - WVHA) Oct 1941-Apr 1945; deputy chief, Department D II Prisoner Labor Allocation (Amt D II - Arbeitseinsatz der Häftlinge) in the SS Economics and Administration Main Office (SS-WVHA) {arrested and put on trial by an American military tribunal in the WVHA ("Pohl") case for having administered the Nazi concentration camp system and employing slave labor in the sprawling wartime SS industrial empire; convicted of war crimes, crimes against humanity and of holding membership in a criminal organization – the General SS (Allgemeine-SS); sentenced to death by hanging 3 Nov 1947 (NYT 4 Nov 1947:12:1; LT 4 Nov 1947:3g); sentence commuted by US Military Governor General Lucius D. Clay to life imprisonment 11 May 1949 (NYT 15 May 1949:39:6); further reduced to 20 years by the Clemency Board (Holo Ency 1790; The Camp Men p. 226).}
Sommer, Walter Gerhard Martin (c. 1915-?) [SS Master Sergeant] – service, concentration camp (Konzentrationslager - KL) Buchenwald c. 1938-1943 {SS officer reduced in rank and sentenced by an SS court 1943 to service in a penal battalion on the eastern front; lost an arm and a leg in a tank explosion; taken prisoner by Soviet troops; held after May 1950 as war criminal (NYT 7 May 1950:35:3); impending release pursuant to "Adenauer amnesty" announced by Nikita S. Krushchev 9 Sept 1955 (Gulag Archipelago vol. 3, pps. 441-2); released from Soviet captivity 1955; arrested by West German authorities 1957 on charges of participating in 101 murders; put on trial 11 Jun 1958 by a West German court at Bayreuth on charges of murder and mistreatment of prisoners at KL Buchenwald (NYT 12 Jun 1958:4:8; NYT 3 Jul 1958:5:2); convicted of murdering 25 inmates by hypodermic injections of phenol in 1940-1942 and sentenced to life imprisonment and loss of civil rights 3 Jul 1958 (NYT 4 Jul 1958:4:6; JuNSV Verfahren Lfd.Nr.464; LG Bayreuth 580703; BGH 590505; Buchenwald Report p. 204n).}
There is also an SS-Hauptsturmfuehrer (Captain) Karl Sommer, but he isn't known for serving at Buchenwald:
Sommer, Karl (24.03.1915-?) [SS-Hauptsturmsturmfűhrer (The Camp Men p. 226) or SS-Obersturmbannfűhrer (NYT 4 Nov 1947:12:1)] – SS-Nr. 130199; joined SS late 1933; concentration camp service, concentration camp (Konzentrationslager - KL) Sachsenhausen and KL Oranienburg; Waffen-SS service c. 1940-1941; service (as SS labor allocation administrator), Inmate Labor Assignment office of the German Stone and Earth Works Mar 1941; chief, Inmate Labor Assignment office of Department D II Prisoner Labor Allocation (Amt D II - Arbeitseinsatz der Häftlinge) in the SS Economics and Administration Main Office (SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt - WVHA) Oct 1941-Apr 1945; deputy chief, Department D II Prisoner Labor Allocation (Amt D II - Arbeitseinsatz der Häftlinge) in the SS Economics and Administration Main Office (SS-WVHA) {arrested and put on trial by an American military tribunal in the WVHA ("Pohl") case for having administered the Nazi concentration camp system and employing slave labor in the sprawling wartime SS industrial empire; convicted of war crimes, crimes against humanity and of holding membership in a criminal organization – the General SS (Allgemeine-SS); sentenced to death by hanging 3 Nov 1947 (NYT 4 Nov 1947:12:1; LT 4 Nov 1947:3g); sentence commuted by US Military Governor General Lucius D. Clay to life imprisonment 11 May 1949 (NYT 15 May 1949:39:6); further reduced to 20 years by the Clemency Board (Holo Ency 1790; The Camp Men p. 226).}
Re: Martin Sommer
MisterJack, maybe you're referring to Max Schobert. He was on of the worst criminals in Buchenwald and held a rank of SS-Sturmbannführer (major)
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Re: Martin Sommer
Schobert, Max (25.12.1904-19.11.1948) [SS-Sturmbannfűhrer] – SS-Nr.: 3531; service, concentration camp (Konzentrationslager - KL) Dachau 1935 (as Schutzhaftlagerfűhrer); service, KL Flossenbuerg 1938-1939; service, KL Buchenwald 1939-1941 {arrested and put on trial 11 Apr 1947 by an American military tribunal at Dachau for the murder and mistreatment of allied nationals at KL Buchenwald (NYT 12 Apr 1947:5:4; NYT 15 Apr 1947:8:5; NYT 11 Jul 1947:6:3); convicted 12 Aug 1947 (NYT 13 Aug 1947:14:4); sentenced to death by hanging 14 Aug 1947 (NYT 15 Aug 1947:5:2); executed 19 Nov 1948 (The Camp Men pps. 210, 287; Buchenwald Report p. 41n; Third Reich Factbook - Marcus Wendel and Dean Robson, "SS personnel serving at Buchenwald," http://www.skalman.nu/third-reich/ss-ca ... enwald.htm; Third Reich Factbook - Marcus Wendel and Dean Robson, "Buchenwald Trial," http://www.skalman.nu/third-reich/warcr ... enwald.htm; Dienstaltersliste der Waffen-SS [1 Jul 1944]; Third Reich Historical Forum, "Landsberg Executions," http://www.thirdreichforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=23517).}
Re: Martin Sommer
Never seen the picture of the older Sommer.
As to the `Singing Trees` pic of the hanging prisoners & a supposed Sommer, something has been scratching my memory all day so I had to search.
Found it.....From Scapbook Pages....Half way down the link.
The photograph below, taken in the Dachau Museum in May 2001, shows a scene that was created in 1958 for an East German DEFA film. (Source: H. Obenaus, "Das Foto vom Baumhängen: Ein Bild geht um die Welt," in Stiftung Topographie des Terrors Berlin (ed.), Gedenkstätten-Rundbrief no. 68, Berlin, October 1995, pp. 3-8) This photo was removed from the Dachau Museum because it is a recreation, not an authentic photo.
http://www.scrapbookpages.com/dachauscr ... Weiss.html
As to the `Singing Trees` pic of the hanging prisoners & a supposed Sommer, something has been scratching my memory all day so I had to search.
Found it.....From Scapbook Pages....Half way down the link.
The photograph below, taken in the Dachau Museum in May 2001, shows a scene that was created in 1958 for an East German DEFA film. (Source: H. Obenaus, "Das Foto vom Baumhängen: Ein Bild geht um die Welt," in Stiftung Topographie des Terrors Berlin (ed.), Gedenkstätten-Rundbrief no. 68, Berlin, October 1995, pp. 3-8) This photo was removed from the Dachau Museum because it is a recreation, not an authentic photo.
http://www.scrapbookpages.com/dachauscr ... Weiss.html