Waldemar Klingelhöfer attended school in Kassel, served in the German army from June–December 1918 and after the war studied music and voice.

Klingelhöfer later claimed he did this on the orders of Arthur Nebe to make an example out of the victims, then contradicted himself by saying that three women had contacted some partisans, then returned to the town and spoke with the Jews.

[1] This contention was rejected by the court, on the grounds that even if it were true, as an interpreter, his tasks included locating, evaluating and forwarding to the Einsatzgruppe command lists of Communist party functionaries.

[1]The Einsatzgruppen operated with the assumption that a Führer order (Führerbefehl [de]) existed that provided for and required the mass murder of Jews, Gypsies and others whom the Nazis did not deem racially worthy.

This statement has no bearing, of course, on the question of his guilt under counts one and two, but it is helpful in determining the state of mind as to whether he obeyed the so-called superior orders with a full heart or not.

In 1951, under intense political pressure, U.S. High Commissioner John J. McCloy commuted Klingelhöfer's sentence—and those of three other Einsatzgruppen defendants—to life imprisonment.