A Frankfurt jury court acquitted today, “for lack of irrefutable proof, ” a 49-year-old former deputy commandant of a Nazi concentration camp tried on charges of having caused the suicide of a Jewish Socialist in 1933.
The verdict, which was announced by the court’s presiding judge with “regret and uneasiness, ” evoked widespread press and radio condemnation. The defendant, Wilhelm Dusenscheen, was set free. He had been charged with causing the suicide of Dr. Fritz Solmitz, who had been editor of a Lubeck paper.
The Frankfurter Rundschau said that the defendant was acquitted under “formal law” but could not be freed from his “moral guilt. ” A Hesse radio commentator even went so far in his protest as to suggest a means of appealing the verdict.
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.
