Wilhelm Schäfer (20 October 1911 – 16 June 1961) was an SS-Hauptscharführer who was complicit in numerous war crimes, including the executions of hundreds of prisoners in Buchenwald concentration camp.

While in Buchenwald, Schäfer operated with the group "Kommando 99", which carried out executions, mostly against Soviet POWs, using the Genickschussanlage.

[1][3] From 1943 to the end of the war, he was with the 20th Waffen-SS Grenadier Division, an SS unit which consisted mostly of Estonian volunteers and conscripts.

[1] In the early 1960s, pressure mounted on the remaining independent farmers in East Germany to collectivize their farms.

East German authorities asked representatives from Nordhausen district to convince farmers in Arnstadt to collectivize.

Due to the severity of the charges, the case was heard directly by the Supreme Court of East Germany.

During his trial, 25 former Buchenwald prisoners brought from Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Austria, and East Germany attested to Schäfer's extreme brutality.

They ruled that a life sentence was too lenient on the grounds of the severity of Schäfer's crimes and that he posed a serious danger to society.