Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin
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| Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin | |
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| Born | 1922 Schmenzin, Pomerania |
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| Occupation | German Army |
| Parents | Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin |
Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin (born 1922) is a former German Army officer and publisher. A member of the von Kleist family, his parents were active in the German resistance against Adolf Hitler and participated in the July 20 Plot.
Kleist was born in Schmenzin (Smęcino) near Köslin (Koszalin) in the Province of Pomerania. His father was Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin (1890–1945). Like his father, who loathed the Nazi ideology and had criticised it in print as early as 1929, Ewald-Heinrich never had any great love for Hitler or National Socialism. The events of June 30, 1934 – the Night of the Long Knives – further solidified the young von Kleist-Schmenzin's hatred of the Nazi régime.
In 1940, at age 18, he joined the Wehrmacht as an 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 to replace the wounded Axel Freiherr von dem Bussche-Streithorst for another suicide assassination attempt against Hitler. This would have involved setting off two hand grenades hidden under his uniform, and jumping on Hitler just before they exploded. Like earlier attempts, the plan was not carried out, as Hitler failed to show up for the scheduled uniform demonstration.
On 20 July 1944, Kleist was one of the many supporters and helpers at the Bendlerblock in Berlin after 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 a trial before the Volksgerichtshof, which almost certainly would have ended with a death sentence, as it did for many of his fellow plotters, including his own father. However, he was imprisoned in Ravensbrück concentration camp, and afterwards he was posted to the front for the rest of the war.
After the war, Kleist went into the publishing business, founding his own publishing house, the Ewald-von-Kleist-Verlag. In 1962, Kleist founded the Wehrkundetagung in Munich, later called, in English, the Munich Conference on Security Policy. He moderated it until 1998.
