Klemm explains this document by stating that he merely approved the trip. With the above explanations, Klemm’s counsel stated:
“These are the only documents which the prosecution has submitted against you as far as NN cases are concerned.”
In view of the fact that Klemm was State Secretary when these matters were disposed of and, nominally at least, charged with supervision of Department IV where they were handled, this conclusion is not one which this Tribunal accepts.
With regard to clemency during the time the defendant was State Secretary, Klemm is shown to have dealt with clemency matters as the advisor of Thierack when he was present and as his deputy in his absence. He states that personally he dealt only with clear cases and, further, that in clear cases clemency had been disapproved by seven agencies before it became a clear case. He states that clear cases were legally incontestable.
His testimony that in clear cases seven agencies disapproved clemency during the period when he was State Secretary, does not conform to the testimony of the defendant Lautz or with Exhibit 279 which Lautz cites. Lautz’ testimony on this point is as follows:
“The examination of these clemency pleas for their correctness was no longer possible for the prosecutions in the majority of cases. The prosecutors now had to restrict themselves to adding the pleas to their reports without changing them. The time limit laid down in the decree was, as a rule, not adhered to because the offices at the People’s Court and the Reich prosecution were so overburdened that it was impossible for them to submit the files within the time limit set. Owing to that, occasionally there was sufficient time to make further investigations in the matter of the clemency plea. However, the opinion of the court, the prison, and all other agencies was no longer heard. They had been of importance before.” (Tr. p. 5947.)
Moreover, what may constitute a legally incontestable case is subject to considerable speculation. Presumably a case based upon a confession would be legally incontestable. Certainly it can hardly be assumed that the defendant Klemm was unaware of the practice of the Gestapo with regard to obtaining confessions. He had dealt with this matter during his early period with the department of justice. It is hardly credible that he believed that the police methods which at an earlier time were subject to some scrutiny by the Ministry of Justice, had become less harsh because the Gestapo, in October of 1940, was placed beyond the jurisdiction of law. He must have been aware that a prolific source of clear cases based on confessions and, therefore, legally incontestable, came to him from the obscurity of the torture chamber.
During the time Klemm was State Secretary, the plan of the leaders of the Nazi state to inspire the lynching of Allied fliers by the people of Germany was inaugurated, and during this period the matter of execution of approximately 800 political prisoners, prior to evacuation of the penitentiary at Sonnenburg, took place. These matters will be dealt with more fully hereafter.
As heretofore pointed out in this opinion, the essential elements to prove a defendant guilty under the indictment in this case are that a defendant had knowledge of an offense charged in the indictment and established by the evidence, and that he was connected with the commission of that offense.
As to the matter of knowledge of the defendant Klemm, aside from the sources of knowledge heretofore pointed out in this opinion in regard to all of the defendants herein, certain other facts are significant. The defendant’s sources of information were of a wide scope. He had been the liaison officer between the administration of justice and the SA in Saxony and the legal advisor of the chief of the SA for Saxony. On transfer to Berlin, he acted in the same capacity with the SA main office for the Third Reich and was the liaison officer between the Ministry of Justice and the SA Main office. In Holland he was head of the department of legal matters under Seyss-Inquart. He served with the Office of the Deputy of the Fuehrer and Party Chancellery from March 1941 to January 1944. There he was in charge of Group III-C. He was the friend of Klopfer in charge of Group III and, from the evidence, a trusted lieutenant of Bormann. Finally, he was State Secretary under Thierack, whom he had known since he was his adjutant and personal Referent in Saxony. In Berlin he lived with Thierack for the period in which he was State Secretary.