Dachau Trials - Notable Acquittals

Notable Acquittals

• Georg Johannes Rickhey: Former senior official with the Reich Ministry for Armaments and War Production (1942-1945) and director of the Mittelwerk GmbH munitions facility located in Mittelbau-Dora (1944-1945), where he oversaw V-weapons production. Arrested by the United States Army in May 1945 and later brought to Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio and employed under the terms of Operation Paperclip. Subsequently indicted by US authorities in August 1947 for his alleged involvement in war crimes at Mittelbau-Dora, including the use of forced labor, collaboration with the SS and Gestapo, and responsibility for the catastrophic working conditions at Mittelwerk. Acquitted due to lack of evidence on 30 December 1947.
• Heinrich Schmidt: Ex SS-Hauptsturmführer and medical officer in the Dachau and Mittelbau-Dora concentration camps. Indicted by US authorities in August 1947 for suspected war crimes committed during his service as chief physician of the Nordhausen sub-camp of Mittelbau-Dora (March-April 1945). Acquitted due to insufficient evidence on 30 December 1947. Later indicted by the District Court of Düsseldorf in November 1975 for alleged crimes against humanity perpetrated during his service as a medical officer in the Majdanek concentration camp (1942-1943). Again acquitted due to lack of evidence on 20 March 1979, after what became the longest and most expensive criminal trial in German history.
• Otto Skorzeny: Ex SS-Obersturmbannführer and commander of SS-Panzer Brigade 150 during the Battle of the Bulge. Indicted by US authorities in August 1947 for violations of the 1907 Hague Convention stemming from his leadership of Operation Greif, a false flag operation in which German troops were infiltrated behind Allied lines in the Ardennes forest while wearing British and US Army uniforms and using captured vehicles. Acquitted of all charges on 9 September 1947.