Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin
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Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin |
Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin (
22 March,
1890 â€"
9 April,
1945) was a
lawyer, a
conservative politician, and the owner of an estate in Pomerania, northeast of Berlin. He was also a
resistance fighter in
Nazi Germany, a member of the
July 20 Plot.
Born in Dubberow,
Pomerania, now Dobrowo, near
Białogard,
Poland, Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin supported the
German National People's Party (
Deutschnationale Volkspartei). As a conservative, he supported the idea of
monarchy and Christian ideals. He was a staunch, active opponent of
Nazism even before
Hitler came to power in
1933. He ended up being arrested as a result in May and June of that year, although he was never held very long. He refused to fly the Nazi flag over his
Schloss.
Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin went to the
United Kingdom in
1938 as Admiral
Wilhelm Canaris's and Colonel-General
Ludwig Beck's secret emissary. He was to make the
British government aware of the resistance to Hitler's rule inside
Germany. He used his contacts with
Winston Churchill and
Robert Vansittart to try to shift British policy away from one of
appeasement to one based more on the use of force. He believed that only if the British were seen to be willing to use force to support
Czechoslovakia would the opposition in Germany have the support that it needed among Germany's High Command to move against the FĂĽhrer. Churchill agreed that a change of leadership in Germany would be a good idea, and even sent Hitler a strongly worded letter, but since Churchill was not yet Prime Minister, it had no effect on Hitler. Kleist-Schmenzin's efforts to get the British to change their policy failed, as did a number of other later missions sent by the conspirators.
Kleist-Schmenzin nonetheless still supported the idea of overthrowing Hitler, and to that end, he met
Carl Friedrich Goerdeler in
1942 and
1943, a fellow conservative and resistance fighter, who also favoured a
coup d'Ă©tat. Kleist-Schmenzin eventually found his way into the plot's inner circle and advocated a number of violent acts to get rid of Hitler. He urged his son, Lieutenant
Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin, to go through with a
suicide-
assassination plot in January
1944 which would have seen him blow himself and the FĂĽhrer up with two
hand grenades hidden under a new uniform that he was to "demonstrate" to Hitler. However, Hitler did not show up (and as of this writing, Ewald-Heinrich is still alive). Kleist-Schmenzin also supported
Claus von Stauffenberg's plan to kill Hitler with a briefcase bomb that the Count would take to the
Wolf's Lair in
East Prussia. Stauffenberg appointed Kleist-Schmenzin political representative in the
Stettin military district in preparation for the coup d'Ă©tat.
Stauffenberg's briefcase bomb failed to kill Hitler on
20 July, 1944, and Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin was arrested
the next day. He was brought before the
Volksgerichtshof on
23 February,
1945, where he was sentenced to death for his part in the plot. He was hanged at
Plötzensee Prison in Berlin on
9 April, 1945.
*
Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin at the Jewish Virtual Library*
Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin at "Joric"*
Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin at Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand
