. NMT05-T1061
Volume V · Page 1061
| the Dresdner Bank for the
financing of the Wewelsburg construction work. But when Klein entered this
financial deal, the credit had already been obtained at the bank, the
initiative having been taken in this respect by General Wolff on Himmler's
orders. The sums which were then made available by Klein were used by Bartels
who, on orders from Pohl, was not required to make any accounting for them to
Klein. The Tribunal also finds that Klein's participation in the matter of the acquisition of the Lakowicz property did not involve the commission of a war crime or crime against humanity. The little part which Klein had to do with this acquisition followed in point time its confiscation by another Reich agency with which Klein was in no way connected. Nor is there any connection between Klein and the pamphlet ; "The Subhuman," placed in evidence by the prosecution. Although this unsavory document was published by the Nordland Publishing Company, of which Klein had at one time been legal advisor and Prokurist, his connection with this organization had been severed a year or two prior to the appearance of the pamphlet. Although Klein was a member of the SS, his conduct and attitude as it has come to us through the evidence did not reveal any fanatic adherence to the Nazi ideology. In point of fact, he got into personal difficulties himself because of his failure to cooperate wholeheartedly with the Nazi program. On 1 October 1944 he was arrested because of a statement he had made criticizing certain practices of the Third Reich and the SS. An immediately ensuing illness which kept him confined to his home under guard and under observation saved him from trial and a possible severe penalty. His own sister, Frau Helga von Rouppert, was also arrested, denounced by the Gestapo, and committed to the concentration camp at Ravensbrueck. Her crime also consisted of derogatory remarks against the Reich. One specific statement had to do with her criticism of the German generals for not having deposed Hitler as the Italians had ousted Mussolini. Frau von Rouppert testified in Court and stated that her husband was also persecuted by the Gestapo, and, in order to avoid arrest, with attendant torture and degradation, committed suicide. Klein states that his own father died as the result "of all this excitement." From all the evidence in the case the Tribunal concludes that Klein is not guilty under counts two and three of the indictment. |
| COUNT FOUR |
| Under the interpretation of the IMT decision, pointing out the factors required to convict an SS member of criminality, the |
