R.I.P. Ewald Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin

Lt. Ewald Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin

Ewald Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin died Friday March 8, 2013.

The announcement of his passing came on March 13, the 70th anniversary of Operation Flash (aka Operations Spark), Henning von Tresckow's 1943 assassination attempt on Hitler involving the secreting of a bomb on Hitler's plane during his rare visit to the Eastern Front HQ of Army Group Centre. Kleist was the sole remaining survivor of those who were directly involved in the July 20, 1944 bomb plot and who were ctually present in the HQ of the Home Army in the Bendlerblock on July 20. Although he was heavily involved in the Operation Valkyrie plot, for some unknown reason he strangely escaped retribution while others who were only peripherally involved were executed like cattle at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin.

Leutnant von Kleist was the son of Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin, an East Prussian landowner and early and adamant opponent of Hitler. Kleist the elder was heavily involved in Hans Oster's 1938 coup attempt. He acted as  primary diplomatic liaison to the British government as the Sudetenland Crisis percolated. Prior to the collapse of the nascent coup as a resultof the Munich conference, Kleist visited high level members of the British government including Loard Halifax (Foreign Minsiter) and Winston Churchill (then out of power) to lobby for a firm stand to be taken against Hitler.

Ewald Heinrich was a young Leutnant in the famous 9th Potsdam Infantry Regiment, a unit that another famous resister, Axel von dem Bussche-Streithorst once said was notorious for having more men executed for involvement in the German Resistance than any other. While serving in the regiment, Kleist was recruited as an active resister by his commander Fritz (Fritzi) Dietlof Graf von der Schulenburg. Schulenburg was to serve as deputy chief of the Berlin police force during the muddle that was July 20, 1944.

In January 1944, Kleist was approached by Oberst Claus Graf von Stauffenberg and asked if he would consider carrying out a suicide bomb attack on Hitler during an upcoming planned demonstration of new army uniforms. Kleist's brother officer in the 9th Regiment, Axel von dem Bussche-Streithorst, had previously volunteered for such an attack after witnessing an SS atrocity in the East. However, the demonstration was delayed and before it could be rescheduled, von dem Bussche was temporarily posted back to his unit on the Russian front where he was wounded and lost a leg.

Ewald von Kleist (the elder)

Kleist asked for 24 hours to think over the proposal and returned home to discuss it with his father. Kleist the
elder noted his son's distracted manner and asked what was wrong. After the son described Stauffenberg's plan, the father turned away and gazed out the window for a time before turning back to face his son. If Ewald Heinrich was expecting to be barred from carrying out the plan, he was in for a surprise. His father told him: "Yes. You must do it. A man who is offered such a chance and who does not do it can never be happy in this life again." It can only be imagined what saying these words cost the father. Kleist returned to Stauffenberg and agreed to the plan. He attack was never carried out due to the fact that the demonstration was rescheduled and the opportunity was lost.

Kleist was the last survivor of those who were actually present at the Bendlerstrasse on July 20. He witnessed this historic event first hand and took an active role in it. He has given several interviews post-war, notably in his appearance in the Oscar nominated documentary "The Restless Conscience," in which he convincingly describes the tension in the Bendlerblock on that day. He stated that normally there is a certain weight of the air upon one's skin, but on that day, when "history was balancing on the edge of a knife," the weight of the atmosphere on his skin seemed a thousand times heavier.

Kleist was one of four young subalterns from the 9th Regiment sent by Schulenburg to assist the plotters during the coup. He was there when Stauffenberg returned from Wolfschanze and he witnessed the drama that occurred when Generaloberst Fromm refused to co-operate in issuing the Operation Valkyrie orders. In company with Stauffenberg's ADC Werner von Haeften, Kleist drew his pistol when Fromm threatened the plotters with arrest. He jammed his weapon into Fromm's stomach and arrested him instead. Later in the day, between 6 and 7 PM, Kleist did the same to General Joachim von Kortzfleisch, the Commander of  Berlin's military district Wehrkreis III, when he visited the Bendlerblock and denied Hitler was dead. Later in the evening General der Infanterie Olbricht sent Kleist into the streets surrounding the Bendlerblock to review the posture of Remer's Großdeutschland
Guard battalion. He was later sent out on missions to liaise with the city commandant and police units.

Otto Skorzeny in the Bendler Courtyard Iuly 21, 1944

When the coup failed, Kleist was arrested as an active conspirator. There were ample witnesses to his involvement through the day. He made two attempts to escape on the night of july 20. In the first he struck down a guard who was armed with rifle and fixed bayonet and in the second he struggled free of an officer. The second time, he fled into a room in search of a window to leap from and instead burst into a room full of SS. When Otto Skorzeny toured the premises early in the morning of the 21st, he walked into a room where Kleist sat handcuffed to a chair. Not seeing the restraints, Skorzeny bowed and introduced himself thinking Kleist was a loyal officer who had assisted in retaking the building.

Amazingly, Kleist was not executed that night. In fact he was not executed at all or even held in custody for the duration. He saw his father one last time but he could not exchange words with him. He remembers a look from his father in the basement cells of the Gestapo HQ in the Prinzalbrechtstrasse that he interpreted as "I hope you behave." Soon after, Kleist the elder was sentenced to death by Volksgerichtshof or "Peoples' Court"  Judge Roland Freisler and he was decapitated at Ploetzensee. Ewald Heinrich was released for lack of evidence and he immediately made his way to the front where he was captured. Kleist wonders to this day why he was released when he had been arrested in the commission of treasonous acts before many witnesses, all in a country where even a negative statement or ill-timed joke about Hitler could send you to the gallows. One theory he has heard is that the Gestapo released him hoping that he would lead them to his co-conspitator and brother officer, Ludwig von Hammerstein-Equord, who had successfully eluded capture and gone underground.

Kleist Interviewed in the Oscar-nominated Film "The Restless Conscience,"

After the war, Kleist founded a respected publishing house and the annual Munich Security Conference, to this day a key date on the international security calendar. The conference still draws senior statesmen, soldiers and foreign service officers from around the globe.

Kleist's is the only signature in my collection that was signed for me personally and for that reason has a special place in my collection. I wrote to him in 2006 decribing my interest and requesting an autograph to add to my other signatures. He generously provided a signed embossed card, shown below with the transmittal letter from his secretary.