Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin
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Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin |
Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin (born
1922 in Schmenzin,
Pomerania (now Smęcino near
Koszalin in
Poland)), sometimes known simply as
Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist or
Ewald von Kleist, is a former
Wehrmacht officer and resistance fighter, active in the
Third Reich against
Adolf Hitler. He was involved in the
July 20 Plot.
Von Kleist-Schmenzin never had any great love for Hitler or
National Socialism, influenced as he was by his father,
Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin who loathed the Nazi régime. The events of
June 30 1934 – the
Night of the Long Knives – further solidified von Kleist-Schmenzin's opposition to the Nazi régime.
Infantry Officer Kleist was personally recruited for the resistance by
Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg. In January 1944, at his father's urging, he volunteered for a suicide assassination attempt against Hitler which would have involved setting off two
hand grenades hidden under his uniform, and jumping on Hitler just before they went off. The plan was not carried out, however, as Hitler failed to show up for the scheduled uniform demonstration.
On
20 July 1944, he functioned at the
Bendlerblock in
Berlin as one of the many supporters and helpers in the attempt on Hitler's life at the
Wolf's Lair near
Rastenburg in
East Prussia. After the plot's failure, he managed to cover up his resistance activities. Proceedings against him were later dismissed for want of evidence in December 1944, thereby sparing Kleist the horror of a trial before the
Volksgerichtshof, which almost certainly would have ended with a death sentence, as it did for so many fellow plotters. However, his exoneration did not come before a stay in
Ravensbrück concentration camp, and afterwards he was posted to the front for the rest of the
war.
After the war, he went into the publishing business, founding his own publishing house, the Ewald-von-Kleist-Verlag.
In
1962, he founded the
Wehrkundetagung in
Munich, later called, in
English, the
Munich Conference on Security Policy. He moderated it up until
1998.
*
Biography*
Interview with Ewald von Kleist (English)
*
Interview with Ewald von Kleist (German)
