[Signed] Grau
[Answer, 1 February 1943, from the Reich Ministry of Justice, initialed by defendants Mettgenberg and von Ammon.]
To Ministerialrat Grau
Department IV suggests that section 2 of decree No. 7 of 7 December 1941 be given roughly the following form:
“In trials in which according to the regulations a defense counsel has to be appointed for the defendant, the regulation may be ignored if the president of the court is convinced that the character of the defendant or the nature of the charge make the assistance of a defense counsel superfluous.”
However, it might be expedient to obtain the comments of the President of the People’s Court, and of the chief Reich prosecutor at the People’s Court, the presidents of the courts of appeal at Kiel and Cologne and the attorneys general in Hamm, Cologne, and Kiel.
Berlin, 1 February 1943
[Initials] V [Vollmer]
M [Mettgenberg] 1 February
A [von Ammon] 30 January