It contains a handwritten note, initialed by Thierack as a signature and also initialed by Klemm, which reads as follows:
“Return note with the addition that such cases are to be submitted to me for the purpose of their examination for quashing in case proceedings are pending.”
In this adroit plan to encourage the murder of Allied airmen and escape the responsibility, therefore, under the recognized rules of warfare, the procedures adopted by the Ministry of Justice were unique and worthy of the legal minds of those who dealt with the matter. As shown in the affidavit of Pejlovec, a secret directive was sent out by the Ministry of Justice calling for reports in cases of the lynching of Allied airmen. This directive was interpreted by Pejlovec to the effect that no prosecutions were contemplated.
The witness Dr. Gustav Mitzschke, Referent in the legislative department, testified that he was instructed to call upon the State Secretary, which he did, and received the following instructions:
“When you talk to General Public Prosecutor Helm at Munich, please tell him that in cases where Allied fliers have been killed or ill-treated, the police and any other agencies concerned are to pass on the files to the prosecution office, and that the prosecution as quickly as possible must make a report to the minister and also forward the files.”
Helm issued a directive to the prosecutors under him. This directive called for reports and files in such cases and stated that they were necessary because sometimes other factors, such as robbery or the use of Allied uniforms to cover the murder of Germans, had to be considered.
Klemm stated that Mitzschke was directed to inform Helm that reports were to be given in all cases.
The witness Helm stated that the note in conformity with Mitzschke’s instructions as to the reports to be made was written and sent out, he thinks, on the same day of Mitzschke’s visit and, in his cross-examination he states that he is sure it was not later than the day after Mitzschke’s visit.
The witness Hans Hagemann, general public prosecutor at Duesseldorf, testified that he was directed that in such cases a report had to be made to the Ministry of Justice. He also verified the secret decree sent out by the Minister of Justice.
The nature of the reports called for, in itself, is not considered by this Tribunal of particular importance. Thierack had directed Klemm, as shown above, to submit to him reports as to cases pending “for quashing.” The procedure followed by the Ministry went beyond this in that it required reports and the transmittal of files of cases where no indictment had as yet been issued. The Ministry of Justice thus took over, in substance, the disposition of these cases and the prosecution throughout Germany was thereby restricted in its normal duty of filing indictments against those who had murdered Allied airmen and were criminals under German law. From the evidence in this case and from sources of judicial information, this Tribunal knows of many instances of the lynching of Allied airmen by the German population. No case has been brought to the attention of this Tribunal where an indictment was actually filed for such offenses. What reports and files were submitted to the Ministry of Justice we do not know, but it is obvious that such reports as were made were allowed to die in the archives of the Ministry.