The indictment takes as the first phase his activity as Oberstaatsanwalt and Ministerial Councilor in the Reich Ministry of Justice. The two charges specially raised against him in this field are concerned with the so-called “more severe interrogations” through organs of the Gestapo and with the fact that he was the Ministry’s chief of liaison with the SA. I shall prove that it was not the duty of the defendant to suggest in certain cases “more severe interrogations,” in other words, maltreatment of prisoners by the Gestapo. It was, on the contrary, his duty to prosecute such cases through criminal proceedings, since also the Gestapo and its organs were prohibited from ill-treating prisoners. In this connection I shall be able to take the opportunity to describe the attitude of my client by reference to the documents which were submitted in the IMT trial. It was the defendant Klemm who as an official in the Ministry of Justice of Saxony suggested the strict prosecution which was made so much of both in indictment and in the judgment given in the IMT trial of those SA men who had rendered themselves guilty of ill-treatment of prisoners in the concentration camp at Hohenstein in Saxony. There is no ground for the assumption that Klemm’s attitude changed at a later date, when he worked in the Reich Ministry of Justice. The position of a chief of liaison between the Ministry and the SA leaders will be described by me through reference to the documents. The judiciary as a public authority, had the duty to inform the SA leaders of any prosecution or condemnation of a member of the SA. It was the purpose of such information to give the SA leaders the possibility of removing criminal elements from their ranks. This purpose was known to the Reich Ministry of Justice. The chief offices of both organizations had to exchange information and experience and were obliged to ascertain in which special cases they had to be interested. It was necessary to appoint a special Referent for this purpose, merely in order to simplify the handling of these matters. This post was filled by my client Klemm, since he was simultaneously both a member of the SA and of the Ministry of Justice. I hope, indeed, to prove with special effect that it was absolutely opposed to Klemm’s conception of his office as such a liaison chief to suppress criminal proceedings against SA members or protect them against prosecution, but that on the contrary he thought it necessary to support vigorously the interests of justice against the SA leaders. An individual case will give me the opportunity to demonstrate how also in this field Klemm was guided by legal consideration alone, and this individual case will be symptomatic of the attitude of my client.