Posted on 03/12/2013 10:34:16 AM PDT by Borges
Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist, the last surviving member of the main plot to kill Adolf Hitler has died. He was 90.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Amazing that he was released after being interrogated, while most of the other conspirators were executed.
Apparently, he managed to cover up his resistance activities very well.
VERY well....he was released for lack of evidence.
And yet Erwin Rommel was ordered to off himself apparently for no more than breathing the same air as the conspirators.
At first I thought it was this guy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Ludwig_Ewald_von_Kleist
And I thought: A fieldmarshall from WWII was still alive?? Turns out they are from the same family, but not so closely related. And the elder of these two died in the 1950s.
Of course, no one is suggesting that they didn’t let him do it because it might have caused a time paradox.
It’s amazing how I was getting ready to say the exact same thing.Except Rommel’s most unfortunate set of circumstances was that as one of officers caught in the explosion kept on repeating Rommel’s name while he lay in a coma never to recover. Rommel who approached by the conspirators but only to say he would join the conspirators only after its success, As a professional soldier, officer he remained loyal to Hitler as a mater of principle, military duty, honor to the very end, was not at all part of the conspiracy.
Not only were the plotters killed but the Nazis instituted the ‘’siphenhaft’’ policy which relatives, even distant ones of the plotters were considered suspect/guilty as well. In all some 700 people were executed in the plot.
He would have only been about 21 years old at the time - perhaps the Nazis simply thought he was a callow youth.... After all, why would the likes of top guys like Rommel trust such a young guy?
Just a thought...
It appears that, besides having titles of nobility, at least these few people actually had real class.
Rommel’s big crime was to never become a Nazi Party member, that alone made his suspicious.
Kinda like those of us not goose stepping to obama.....
“Von” implied they were part of the old Prussian nobility, and Hitler, although he needed them, despised them.
Given that his father, Ewald von Kleist, was executed for his part in the plot, I'm thinking this may not have been the case.
Hitler hated (likely jealous of) the aristocracy, especially the landed nobility of eastern Germany and Prussia collectively known as the Junkers. Hitler's contempt and mistrust of his general staff is well known. That many from Hitler's general staff conspired against him after he rolled the dice a few times too many is not surprising.
Like the NY cop who was found guilty of “planning” to kill and eat his wife?
As Terri Garr put it, "Da feelin' is moochal!"
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.