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.
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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.
