German anti-Nazi leader Freya von Moltke dies in US, 98

[cali]

A prominent member of Germany's anti-Nazi resistance during World War II has died, aged 98, at her home in the US.

Freya von Moltke, who had lived in Vermont since 1960, died last Friday after a viral infection, her son said.

She had belonged to a group of aristocrats, clerics and diplomats who backed a failed attempt to kill Hitler with a bomb in 1944.

The group, known as the Kreisau Circle, was led by her husband, Helmuth, who was later executed for his activities.

She told an interviewer in 2002: "To object and then to stand for what you believe in is one of the most important human activities to this day."

Resistance meetings

Von Moltke was born Freya Deichmann in Cologne in 1911 and met her husband when she was 18.

Both she and Helmuth received law degrees and were married in 1931.

They were opponents of Hitler from the start of the Nazi regime and assisted Jews and other victims of Nazism through Helmut's international law practice in Berlin.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8438970.stm