A. Around the turn of the year 1944–1945 in Kranenburg that is the district of the district court of appeals, Duesseldorf, the following case occurred. An SA leader had, during the course of the air war, lost three very close relatives of his due to bombing. One noon he passed the town hall in Kranenburg. There was a guard standing, and with him he had two captured paratroopers. This SA leader went over to him and shot the two captured paratroopers. We prosecuted that case and even though the police as well as the Party offices offered considerable resistance, these discussions were advanced energetically. I do not know the final outcome, because later on due to the events of the war this territory was occupied by the Allied troops.
Q. May it please the Tribunal, may I say briefly I have the approval of the Court already to submit these files of the General Public Prosecutor of Duesseldorf. I do not have them here as yet. When I receive them, I shall then submit them in evidence.
Mr. Klemm, briefly in regard to Exhibit 110, which you have already mentioned, “terror fliers,” secret military matter, that is how it is called; and a note. Did you find out anything about that?
A. These are Wehrmacht files and a correspondence with the Foreign Office, and the problem was to not let terror fliers obtain the status of prisoners of war.
Q. Let me interrupt you; you do not have to discuss it. Did you find out about the matter at the time?
A. The administration of justice neither took part in this case nor did we know anything about it.
Q. The prosecution, furthermore, submitted document 1676-PS, Prosecution Exhibit 417.[310] It is an article which appeared in the Voelkischer Beobachter on 28–29 May 1944. The prosecution asserts that from this article of Goebbels’ in the German press, one can read an indictment of the population to administer lynch justice. Did you find out about this article at the time?
A. I did not have knowledge of this article at the time. It was not the cause for Thierack’s circular letter, which was issued for quite different reasons; as I just described, it was issued for legal considerations. Moreover, according to the affidavit in Document NG-1306, Prosecution Exhibit 440, the issuance of this circular letter must have occurred at a time which shows that it could have had no connection with this article in the newspaper.
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CROSS-EXAMINATION