E. von Kleist | Anti-Hitler plotter, 90

Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist on Jan. 28, 1978 in Munich. He was the last surviving member of the main plot to kill Hitler. He died at his Munich home at age 90 on March 8, his wife said. (AP Photo/dpa, Hartmut Reeh)
Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist on Jan. 28, 1978 in Munich. He was the last surviving member of the main plot to kill Hitler. He died at his Munich home at age 90 on March 8, his wife said. (AP Photo/dpa, Hartmut Reeh) (AP)
Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist on Jan. 28, 1978 in Munich. He was the last surviving member of the main plot to kill Hitler. He died at his Munich home at age 90 on March 8, his wife said. (AP Photo/dpa, Hartmut Reeh)GALLERY: Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist on Jan. 28, 1978 in Munich. He… (AP )
Posted: March 14, 2013

Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist, 90, the last surviving member of the main plot to kill Adolf Hitler, died Friday at his home in Munich.

As a 22-year-old German army lieutenant, Mr. von Kleist volunteered to wear a suicide vest to a meeting with Hitler. The assassination did not come to pass, but he went on to play a key role in the most famous attempt on Hitler that same year.

Despite his family's opposition to the Nazis, the younger von Kleist joined the German army in 1940, and was wounded in 1943.

During his convalescence, he was approached in January 1944 by Col. Claus von Stauffenberg and presented with a plan to kill Hitler. It never came to fruition.

Months later, he was approached again by von Stauffenberg to take part in what would become known as the July 20 plot - for the day in 1944 that the assassination was attempted. Mr. Von Kleist was supposed to carry a briefcase packed with explosives to a meeting with Hitler. In a change of plans, von Stauffenberg decided to plant the bomb himself.

But Hitler escaped the full force of the blast. Scores were arrested and executed in an orgy of revenge killings. Mr. Von Kleist was arrested and sent to a concentration camp but then inexplicably let go and returned to combat duty.

After the war, he founded a publishing house and became involved in security issues and trans-Atlantic relations. - AP

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