Hans Sommer

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Hans Sommer (1914) was a German national who served as SS Obersturmführer in the Sicherheitsdienst during World War II. After the war, he found a working relationship with Gehlen Org. and was subsequently a spy for the East German Stasi.

Sommer joined the Hitlerjugend at age sixteen, and joined the SS (1932) and NSDAP (1933) respectively. He was chiefly in function of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) before his service in the Wehrmacht (1936-38). Afterwards, he became a deputy to Otto Somann at SD Leignitz, followed by a stint in Breslau. He was active in the occupation of Sudetenland with rank of Oberscharführer. On his return to Germany, he came to work at the SD headquarters, for which he was later posted to Paris, France. In 1940, he was promoted to Obersturmführer.

In October 1941, unbeknownst to his superiors, Sommer helped plan an attack on seven synagogues in Paris, inspired by the 1938 pogrom, in collaboration with Eugène Deloncle.[1] A four week suspension of pay resulted for "SS-unwürdigen Verhaltens" and he wouldn't find promotion in the next three years. He was subsequently posted to Marseille and Nice.

After the war, Sommer was captivated by the Americans, who sought his employ to infiltrate a Nazi ratline formed around Frenchman Charles Lescat, whom Sommer met in Madrid just before his capture. He was moved to Camp King, Oberursel, after convincing the Americans that such an attempt would be unsuccessful. From Camp King he was deported to France to stand trial before a military court, which sentenced him to two years detention. He settled back to Germany afterwards.

Between 1950 and 1953 he found himself working for the Gehlen Organization (GO), the unofficial West German intelligence organization. Unemployed in 1953, Sommer began to spy for the East German Stasi, handing over far reaching details on his former West German employer.[1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b "Weiße Flecken in der Geschichte des Bundesnachrichtendienstes", Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, May 13, 2008. 

[edit] Further Reading

  • Henry Leide (2005). NS-Verbrecher und Staatssicherheit. Die geheime Vergangenheitspolitik der DDR. 
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