Hitler assassination plotter dies

A former German army lieutenant who was part of a plan to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944 has died. Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist died aged 90 at his home in Munich last Friday, his wife Gundula told the media.

Von Kleist was 22 when he volunteered to wear a suicide vest at a meeting with Hitler.

The meeting did not come off, but months later he played a key role in what became known as the 20 July plot, the BBC reports.

He was supposed to carry a briefcase packed with explosives to a meeting with the Nazi leader, but in a change of plan the bomb was planted by plot mastermind Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg.

Col von Stauffenberg placed the bomb in a conference room where Hitler was meeting his officials inside the Wolf''s Lair, Hitler's command post in East Prussia. But, the plot did not go to plan as the briefcase was moved out of the way and Hitler escaped the full force of the blast.

Image: Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist died at the age of 90 | Reuters