SMGQ-0289 Franz Sommer Gestapo and Einsatzkommando Commander signed post card

An original post war signature in early felt pen.  This guy was a bad dude, and not in good way. In 1939 he was the head of Einsatzkommando 1 of Einsatgruppe VI and was in charge of murdering Poles and Jews. Holding this signature in your hands is as creepy as it gets. The signature is genuine post war example on a WHW Police/SS post card (kriegs winter hilfswerk 1939/40). I don’t think he is pictured on the card but I’m not sure about that. The post card alone is very collectible. The signature is very tough to find since he died in 1980 and was surely in hiding for war crimes after the war.

From Wiki.DE  :

After attending school, Sommer took part in the First World War as a war volunteer from 1914. After the end of the war, he joined the police service in Düsseldorf in 1919 as a police candidate. Sommer was promoted to Kriminalkommissar in 1926. ^[2] From 1931 he headed the political police in Oberhausen.

After the transfer of power to the NSDAP, he headed the Political Police in Düsseldorf from 15 April 1933. From 1 April 1934 he worked for the Gestapo in Düsseldorf, where he was promoted to Kriminalrat at the beginning of October 1934. ^[3] From October 1934 to July 1939, Sommer was head of the Düsseldorf State Police Department.

Sommer joined the NSDAP (membership number 2,266,842) and SS (SS no. 272,578). In november 1940, Sommer was promoted to SS-Obersturmbannführer in the SS. ^[4]

After the outbreak of World War II, Sommer was the leader of Einsatzkommando 1 of Einsatzgruppe VI, which murdered Polish intellectuals and Jews. ^[5][6]

From November 1940 Sommer was for many years head of the criminal police control center in Cologne. ^[7] Due to a lung disease, Sommer was placed on leave for a spa stay in Davos. There he organized documents on a false name and only moved back to the Federal Republic of Germany several years later. ^[8] Sommer lived incognito in Düsseldorf until his death in 1980. Investigations against Sommer were not started because he was not registered in Düsseldorf. ^[9]