My "favorite" would have to be a signature found in a guestbook (and graciously given to me by the consignor) of Karl Hans Maximilian von Le Suire (8 November 1898 – 18 June 1954) General der Gebirgstruppe who commanded the XXXXIX Gebirgs-Armeekorps, and a Knights Cross awardee. In November 1943, the 117th Jager Div. began Unternehmen Kalavryta (Operation Kalavryta), intending to encircle Greek guerrilla fighters in the mountainous area surrounding Kalavryta. During the operations, some German soldiers were killed and 77 of them, who were taken prisoners, were executed by the Greek guerrillas. On 10 December 1943 von Le Suire signed the order for the German division to "level the locations Mazeika and Kalavryta". In total, more than 1200 civilians were killed during the reprisal operations. About 1,000 houses were looted and burned and more than 2,000 sheep and other large domestic animals were seized by the Germans. The following day the division burnt down the Monastery of Agia Lavra, a landmark of the Greek War of Independence, and dispatched several monks there by pitching them off a nearby cliff.
My dog in this fight? My great-great grandfather was one of the Greek patriots who swore an oath to fight the Turks in 1821, launching the Greek Revolution - this was at Agia Lavria. My father was raised in Kalavryta, and one or two of his friends survived the massacre by taking blood from other victims, wiping it on their faces, and "playing dead".
Fittingly, von Le Suire was captured by Soviet troops in May 1945 and died in Soviet captivity on 18 June 1954 in a prisoner of war camp at Stalingrad.