HISTORY.   Major Robert Schaefer, US Army (far left of 3ed picture) was an attorney that worked the post WW2 trials in Nuremberg,  Germany.  When Maj. Schaefer returned to the US, he brought this Arrest Report with him as a remembrance of his work in Nuremberg.  It was purchased from his widow.

Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist was an early pioneer of “Blitzkrieg" warfare.  Kleist was the commander of Panzer Group Kleist (later 1st Panzer Army), the first operational formation of several Panzer corps in the Wehrmacht during the Battle of France, the Battle of Belgium, the Invasion of Yugoslavia and Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union.  Kleist was appointed commander-in-chief of Army Group A during the last days of Case Blue, the 1942 German summer offensive in southern Russia. His disagreements with Hitler over strategic decisions led to his dismissal in March 1944 after the German defeat in right-bank Ukraine.  Following the war, Kleist was extradited to the Soviet Union where he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for war crimes; he died in prison.

The Arrest Report is an original carbon copy with original signature, date and stamp.

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