金融時報:老兵不死

老兵不死

埃瓦德-海因里希·馮·克萊斯特，世界上最后一位參與刺殺希特勒的德國軍官，于2013年3月8日逝世，享年90歲。馮·克萊斯特在戰(zhàn)后成為防務和國際關系專家，發(fā)起創(chuàng)辦了著名的慕尼黑安全會議。FT副總編昆丁·皮爾回顧了他的一生。

測試中可能遇到的詞匯和知識：

lieutenant [lef'ten?nt] n.中尉；副官

Führer['fjur?] n.元首，特指阿道夫·希特勒

Claus von Stauffenberg 施陶芬伯格上校，1944年刺殺希特勒計劃的領導人。計劃失敗后，蓋世太保處決了包括他在內的4,980人。湯姆·克魯斯在影片Valkyrie中扮演了他。

Atlanticist[?t'læntisist] n.大西洋主義,主張西歐和北美在政治、經濟、軍事防衛(wèi)等議題上緊密合作，維護共同價值觀，與大陸主義相對。北約就是大西洋主義組織。

Pomerania[,p?m?'reinj?] n.波美拉尼亞，波羅的海南岸的中歐地區(qū)

monarchist['m?n?kist] n./v.君主主義者

Infantry Regimentv步兵團

Gestapo[ɡes'tɑ:p?u] n.蓋世太保

unashamed[?n?'?e?md] adj.問心無愧的

Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist, plotter against Hitler (821 words)

By Quentin Peel

Anti-Nazi and founder of elite security forum 1922-2013

Though hailed as the last survivor of the group of conspirators who attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler on July 20 1944, Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist might have achieved far greater fame if an earlier plot had succeeded.

The previous year, as a 21-year-old lieutenant in the German army from a deeply conservative Prussian aristocratic family, he undertook to wear a suicide vest underneath the army uniform he was to model for the Führer. He was supposed to detonate the explosives when Hitler stood in front of him.

In the event, the parade did not take place. But Kleist, who has died in Munich aged 90, was again willing to lay down his life by being part of the 1944 assassination attempt led by Claus von Stauffenberg. The plan behind the detonation of a bomb in the Wolf’s Lair, the East Prussian military headquarters (Hitler was saved from serious injury by a table leg), has become an essential part of Germany’s postwar national narrative.

“It showed that at least there was a group that took action, and took it upon themselves to try to ensure that things could not go on,” says Gebhardt von Moltke, former ambassador to the UK. “It is always said it was too little, too late, but at least they tried.”

Kleist was one of the very few plotters who survived interrogation and imprisonment. Almost 5,000 were executed after July 20, including his father Ewald.

His enduring accomplishment came later. After launching a publishing company specialising in defence, in 1963 he founded the Munich Wehrkunde, named after his magazine, as a conference for US and European politicians to discuss security. By attracting top-level American participants such as Henry Kissinger, who went on to become secretary of state, and Edward Teller, “father of the hydrogen bomb”, as well as leading senators, he succeeded in turning the event into an exclusive annual debate for which invitations were eagerly sought. Now called the Munich Security Conference, it has expanded well beyond Nato, although the core remains firmly Atlanticist.

Kleist’s reputation as a member of the anti-Nazi resistance undoubtedly helped gain credibility for his conference, especially in the US. But he always admitted that he was not an instant hero during the war.

He hesitated before accepting the 1943 suicide mission. “When you are young, you don’t want to die,” he said in an interview shortly before his 90th birthday. When the plan was proposed by Stauffenberg, Kleist asked for a day to consult his father on the family estate in Pomerania (now part of Poland). “My thinking was that parents love their children, so I would ask my father, and he would surely say: ‘Don’t do it’.”

But he had underestimated the old man, a passionate monarchist and anti-Nazi. “The answer came in seconds: ‘You must do it,’ he said. ‘If you refuse at a moment like this, you will never be happy again in your lifetime’.”

Born on July 10 1922, Kleist was a member of Infantry Regiment 9, descended from the 1st Prussian Regiment of Foot Guards. Graf Neun (“Count Nine”), as it was known because of its many titled officers, contained no fewer than 19 resistance plotters in its upper ranks.

His 1944 role was modest. Charged with helping to disarm pro-Hitler forces in Berlin, he was arrested as soon as it became clear the Führer had not died. Imprisoned and interrogated, he was then surprisingly released that December. He speculated later that the Gestapo hoped he would lead them to other plotters who had not been identified.

Kleist is survived by his wife Gundula, a son and a daughter. In 1998 he handed over the running of the security conference, which as a result of being an initially intimate event had won a reputation as a forum for outspoken views, even though the debates were in public.

It was the scene in 2003 of an extraordinary confrontation between Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, and Joschka Fischer, when the German foreign minister declared “I am not convinced” about the US arguments for waging war on Iraq.

In 2007, Vladimir Putin was the first Russian leader to attend. He used the occasion to launch a furious attack on US foreign policy, to the organisers’ acute embarrassment.

An unashamed conservative, Kleist nonetheless ensured that Social Democrats were present, although while he was in charge he never invited members of the pacifist Green party such as Mr Fischer.

Kleist, whose family traced its roots back to 1289, always paid tribute to the views of his parents in convincing him that the Hitler regime was evil. Both parents and grandparents, he said, “possessed above all a clear moral compass”. What made him act was experiencing the bombing raids on Berlin. “I saw the misery, the deaths – and it moved me to do something about it.”

請根據你所讀到的文章內容，完成以下自測題目：

1.Which event happened first?

A. He planned to wear a suicide vest and detonate it in front of Hitler.

B. He participated in Stauffenberg's plot of assasination in 1944.

C. His father was killed as a member of anti-Nazi resistance.

D. He helped to disarm pro-Hitler forces in Berlin.

答案(1)

2.What made him decide "to do something about it"?

A. His father's encouragement.

B. His aristocratic family.

C. His experiencing the bombing raids on Berlin.

D. Stauffenberg's proposal.

答案(2)

3.What is correct about the Munich Security Conference?

A. It is a closed-door conference.

B. Kleist's reputation helped gain credibility for the conference.

C. The conference invited only european piliticians at first.

D. It is exclusively open for NATO country politicians.

答案(3)

4.What do we know about Mr.Kleist's view of defence?

A. He was firmly Atlanticist.

B. As a conservative, he shared the view with Social Democrats.

C. He never liked Hawkish politicians.

D. All of above.

答案(4)

* * *

(1) 答案：A.He planned to wear a suicide vest and detonate it in front of Hitler.

解釋：從第一段1944年施陶芬伯格計劃，以及第二段的The previous year可以看出，克萊斯特先生在1943年就計劃過一次刺殺計劃，雖未成功，但也未泄露。

第二次參與的刺殺計劃失敗了，隨后包括他父親在內的抵抗人士被害。而他自己被關押了一段時間后只被輕罪處理。

(2) 答案：C.His experiencing the bombing raids on Berlin.

解釋：這是文章最后一段中提到的，他的家族出身高貴，父母和祖父母一直認為希特勒政權是邪惡的， 而目睹柏林在戰(zhàn)爭中所受的災難使他決心做些什么（還不是刺殺計劃）。When the plan was proposed by Stauffenberg, Kleist asked for a day to consult his father...這時才決心以自殺襲擊的形式刺殺希特勒

(3) 答案：A.Kleist's reputation helped gain credibility for the conference.

解釋：the debates were in public，所以A不對。安全會議一經創(chuàng)辦就邀請美國高官和科學家參加，獲得了巨大影響，所以C不對。D也不對，普京在2007年的會議上猛烈抨擊美國這一著名事件就很讓會議組織者尷尬。

(4) 答案：A.He was firmly Atlanticist.

解釋：慕尼黑安全會議自他創(chuàng)辦以來，一直是堅定的大西洋主義：the core remains firmly Atlanticist. BC與事實相反，An unashamed conservative傾向于鷹派，與社民黨和綠黨的鴿派(Dovish)相對。倒數第二段中說， 他主持會議的時候總是邀請社民黨但是不邀請綠黨。