SOMMER: The Oberleutnant says: “Go get me all the civilians together.” It was armored reconnaissance. “The Americans will be here in no time,” he said. “It’s going to be a circus anyway. So I’m going to organize this thing. Here you make two groups. All the civilians have to be brought here in two groups.” Imagine collecting a small city of 5000 to 10,000 inhabitants! It was on the main road to Verdun. So here comes the entire population. They drove them out of their cellars. None of them were partisans or terrorists. The old boy says to me: “Kill the men. Every one, no matter what.” There were at least 300 of them. I searched four of them and said “Raise your hands. Anyone who doesn’t, gets shot.” On two of them, kids around 18 or 19, I found some ammo, packs of it. I say: “Where’d you get that?” “It’s a souvenir.” “Three packs per man?” I say. I separated them out and—teng, teng, teng—three shots and they dropped to the ground. The others were taken aback. I say: “You’ve seen that we didn’t act unfairly. They had ammunition. What are civilians doing with three packs of ammunition?” Always so that I had cover. They admitted everything. Maybe… they said “You swine” and such, but I said: “Thank you. That’s the reason people are getting shot now. We have to protect ourselves. If I let them go with ammunition, and they know where more of it is, then they might kill me. Before I let them shoot me, I’ll shoot them and have the others searched. It’s good that you don’t have any ammunition. You can now leave with your women. Go down there three kilometers.” They were satisfied and left. I never asked to take part. I’ve done every kind of shit, but never because I said: “I want to!” Not me.154
Sommer’s unit, Panzergrenadierregiment 29, had previously been involved in a number of crimes in Italy. The French story refers to atrocities committed in the Robert Espagne region of Lorraine. There, on August 29, 1944, Sommer’s unit murdered eighty-six French civilians.155
Sommer adopts a position of distance to the events he recounts in two respects. In contrast to his first lieutenant, he tries to find a legitimate reason for the execution of civilians, arriving at the fact that they had ammunition on them. This attempt at legitimation is directed both externally and internally. Apparently, Sommer felt the need to justify what he did, assuring himself that his actions did not amount to mere murder. Moreover, he stresses that he did not act of his own free will. He may have participated in every sort of “shit,” but he didn’t volunteer to do so. This recalls the sort of differentiation we found in Müller’s story. Among those who committed crimes, there were more and less willing executioners, and most of the perpetrators wanted to be seen as part of the latter category.
An anecdote told by Sergeant Gromoll contains an example of legalistic justifications for violence:
