Wilhelm Schepmann, the former Chief of Staff of the brown-shirted S. A. Storm Troops, who now represents the BHE refugee party in the democratically-elected town parliament and county council of Gifhorn, Lower Saxony, was acquitted here of having employed “illegal coercion” during his 1933 tenure as police chief of this city.
There was no proof that he had done any such thing, held the local court. This ruling may clear the way for the confirmation of Schepmann, a veteran Nazi, as a teacher in the schools of Gifhorn. He had been named to that post last spring by the unanimous vote of all parties in the town parliament, even though he had not set foot in a classroom during the quarter century when he was a professional leader of the Storm Troop rowdies, and even though he was convicted of “crimes against humanity” in 1950.
The State Ministry of Education, last May, held up the approval of his appointment, pending a decision in the court case which has now ended in acquittal. In view of the fact that he is properly “denazified,” observers doubt whether Schepmann, who is already drawing a civil service pension, can still be barred from becoming an educator of Germany’s youth.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
