Wolfgang Otto; Acquitted of Death Camp Killing

Wolfgang Otto, 78, a former Nazi SS sergeant suspected of the 1944 death camp execution of German communist leader Ernst Thaelmann. In 1986, Otto was found guilty of complicity in the shooting death of Thaelmann at Buchenwald. Thaelmann had been imprisoned when the Nazis took power in 1933. Otto was sentenced to four years in prison but remained free pending an appeal. Prosecutors had argued that Adolf Hitler had personally ordered Thaelmann’s execution and that Otto carried out the order, which Otto denied. The case was appealed to West Germany’s Supreme Court, which overturned the verdict because of a legal error. Two years later, Otto was retried and acquitted of the murder charge by a state court which said there was insufficient evidence. On Sunday in Frankfurt, West Germany, of undisclosed causes.