MATRIARCH OF CONSPIRACY
Ruth von Kleist 1867-1945
2nd Updated Edition, soft
cover
by Jane Pejsa
Excerpt From
MATRIARCH OF CONSPIRACY
Ruth von Kleist 1867-1945
by Jane Pejsa
"1939
October. Victory in Poland is swift––thirty-five days, to be exact, from the
September 1 invasion. ... In the wake of the military conquerors come the German
SS occupation divisions. For the next six years they will have complete
jurisdiction over these lands. By October all Polish Jews are being herded into
walled ghetto areas hurriedly constructed in Polish towns. Auschwitz, the first
of the concentration and death camps, is also under construction. Others will be
added shortly. It will be several months before the massive operation of
transporting Jews to these camps gets under way."
"By
the end of the year, the grim program Hitler announced earlier is being carried
out across German-held Polish lands––the systematic internment and killing
of Polish intellectuals, clergy and politicians. When it is all over, more than
six million Poles will have died, 3,200,00 of them Jews."
"1940.
Documentation of the atrocities now being routinely committed in Poland has made
its way to Berlin through military channels. Other reports are filtering through
to the public by word of mouth and from the foreign press. At the Abwehr [German
counterintelligence] in Berlin, every military report, some of which are coming
from the generals themselves, is being carefully cataloged to be used at the
trial being planned for Hitler and other leaders of the Third Reich. The man
responsible for building the case against Hitler is Hans von Dohnanyi, a lawyer
recruited by Canaris."
"Dohnanyi
stands with Canaris and Oster as the third man in the Abwehr conspiracy. these
conspirators are in touch with a small group of high officers in the army, who
see it as their task to gain commitment from enough generals to ensure friendly
military control in the event of a political coup. At the moment the Abwehr plan
is to seize Hitler at the time of the coup, then put him on trial so that the
entire German nation will learn what the conspirators already know. After the
trial, they hope to execute him. The plan also includes a provisional
military-backed government. Just as the commitment of the generals is always in
flux, so is the composition of this proposed cabinet. At all times it includes
the name of Ewald von Kleist of Schmenzin, the leading proponent of
monarchy-based legitimacy."
"To
increase the power base of the conspiracy in the Abwehr, Dohnanyi has recruited
like-minded colleagues into the unit., ostensibly for their abilities and
connections but in reality for their commitment to the overthrow of the German
government. Three of these recruits are Dohnanyi's brothers-in-law––Rüdiger
Schleicher and Klaus and Dietrich Bonhoeffer; Hans is married to Christine
Bonhoeffer and Rüdiger is married to Ursula Bonhoeffer."
"January.
Reserve officers Hans Jürgen von Kleist and Hans von Wedemeyer, Ruth's son and
son-in-law, are both in uniform. Six of her grandsons––Konstantin
and Jürgen Christoph von Kleist, Alla and Hans Conrad Stahlberg, Jürgen and
Hans Otto von Bismarck––are
also reserve officers. One by one Ruth's grandsons visit their grandmother in
their officer's dress. Her old Prussian heart is still stirred at the sight of
young men in uniform, but at the same time her grandmotherly heart breaks to see
them marching off to war. ..."
"March.
Ruth no longer plays hostess to Jewish and half-Jewish strangers––friends
and acquaintances of Dietrich [Bonhoeffer] who stayed with her while Dietrich
arranged visas and passage to Sweden for them. With Germany now at war, the
borders have been closed. It is now all but impossible to leave the country. One
did not speak of Ruth's houseguests while they lived in her [Stettin] flat or at
Klein Kršssin; one does not speak of them now that they are absent. Clearly it
can only get worse for the Jews. A rumor is abroad that recently a large number
of Jewish residents of Stettin were loaded into boxcars and transported to
Poland. It is a rumor that everyone knows to be fact. (History will record that
this freight train was the first transport of German Jews to the death camps in
Poland.) "
Matriarch
of Conspiracy by Jane Pejsa @ $22.95 Mit dem Mut einer Frau by Jane Pejsa @ $22.95
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