The Desert Fox

I just had the strangest thought. Say Hitler never found out that Rommel was one of the ones who tried to get him killed and didn't force Rommel to commit suicide. When the Germans lost the War would Rommel be tried for war crimes? and crimes against Humanity?
 
I just had the strangest thought. Say Hitler never found out that Rommel was one of the ones who tried to get him killed and didn't force Rommel to commit suicide. When the Germans lost the War would Rommel be tried for war crimes? and crimes against Humanity?

Please do some research before asking stupid questions.

1) Rommel had nothing to do with the Bomb Plot

2)He commited no war crimes and was loved by the Anglo-American media.

He'd probably live a quiet retiremtn touring the USA givinglectures and writing an autobiography.
 
Please do some research before asking stupid questions.

1) Rommel had nothing to do with the Bomb Plot

2)He commited no war crimes and was loved by the Anglo-American media.

He'd probably live a quiet retiremtn touring the USA givinglectures and writing an autobiography.

1.sorry I ment to say that he joined the conspiricy against him. thats what he was killed for.
I know he didn't commit war crimes, he went as far as to disobey orders to kill jews but he was still a Nazi would they not have locked him up for at least a little while?
 
1.sorry I ment to say that he joined the conspiricy against him. thats what he was killed for.
I know he didn't commit war crimes, he went as far as to disobey orders to kill jews but he was still a Nazi would they not have locked him up for at least a little while?

He'd probably be interned for a while but Guderian was a War Criminal and he got out in 1948 so expect Rommel to get out before or around the same time.
 
If Rommel didn't die, he would have probably lived a quiet life and some modicum of fame, but nothing more. Rommel became mythologized precisely because he was DEAD in the fight against Hitler (even if he was actually pretty lukewarm towards the conspirators) ;) and therefore a convenient martyr. A living Rommel would not be so convenient, so the anti-Soviet British and West German pols would find some other dead general to mythologize. In the meantime, what would happen to Rommel? Who knows. My gut feeling is that he gets blacklisted by the surviving German generals who got jobs in the new West German army and lives out the rest of his life in moderate fame, at least until his enemies start showing the world all the records that prove that Rommel was a Nazi and Hitler asskisser and thus the wrong man to idolize. :p
 
He'd probably be interned for a while but Guderian was a War Criminal and he got out in 1948 so expect Rommel to get out before or around the same time.

Do you think that some radical Isreales would try to kill him? or would his conduct in the war make him safe from there vengeance
 

CalBear

Moderator
Donor
Monthly Donor
Were you, perhaps, a member here before?

Screen name that Started with a "B"?
 
Rommel was helluva lucky to have died when he did. In fact, both he and Yamamoto were damn lucky to have croaked before the war ended. Yamamoto therefore avoided the hangman's noose and got sympathetic treatment that only conveniently dead enemy commanders get, and Rommel became more famous and loved than that gloryhound and Nazi could have ever imagined while he lived.
 
Why would Rommel go on trial? He's just a general, and as far as I know, had nothing to do with the politcal decisions within the Reich. He was certainly no butcher like some of the Japanese generals. Like it says above, he'd probably just retire.
 
Rommel was only a Nazi because everyone of note in Germany had to be at the time. He was generally well respected on both sides of the war. He might even do a Hindenburg and end up running W.Germany.

Unless the Soviets got him....
 
Rommel was helluva lucky to have died when he did. In fact, both he and Yamamoto were damn lucky to have croaked before the war ended. Yamamoto therefore avoided the hangman's noose and got sympathetic treatment that only conveniently dead enemy commanders get, and Rommel became more famous and loved than that gloryhound and Nazi could have ever imagined while he lived.


I don't know if Yamamoto would have been hung. I know that plenty of folks would have wanted his head for planning the attack on Pearl Harbor, but did he commit any crimes? Anyway, he would have gone down on the bridge of his flagship in one of the later battles of the war had he not been shot down. Even if he had the chance to escape, I doubt he would. Going down with his ship would be his Seppuku.
 
Rommel was only a Nazi because everyone of note in Germany had to be at the time. He was generally well respected on both sides of the war. He might even do a Hindenburg and end up running W.Germany.

Unless the Soviets got him....

No. There's now ample documentary evidence that he was a committed Nazi, at least in terms of being proactive Nazi. As far as whether he was a true believer, we still do not know and won't know until his diary somehow turns up. As generals went, he pretty much went overboard in his Nazi ra ra ra. That was just one reason why the other generals disliked him, some even hated him. Another reason the general disliked him was that he was a ruthless intriguer who kissed Hitler's butt at every chance he got, often bypassing his superiors to go directly to Hitler to get things his way-- damn the generals. If he survived the war and tried for political office, it's very possible that his enemies would drag up his records, which were fairly public, and out him as a committed Nazi. (His Nazi records were fairly public and were actually buried by the Allies and West German government when they decided to make Rommel their poster child and rehabilitate the reputation of the German army. This involved, among other things, in whitewashing the wehrmacht of all war crimes and blaming everything on the SS.)
 
its hard to judge rommel since he didn't write his own papers. bayerlin and the other biographers had 20 years distance from his actions when they wrote their stories. the west had idolized them and it would seem they wrote what they wanted to hear ie rommel wasn't a committed nazi rommel was against hitler blah blah blah

but the truth for rommel propably falls in with a lot of career officers in germany... guderian, manstein and rommel all loved hindenburg and saw him as a father figure to the entire country and especially the armed forces. those three supported hitler in the sense that they were all conservative and supported the massive rearming program that hitler put foward that offered rapid promotion and a chance to restore germany's honor.

rommel was selected to command hitler's personal escort company in the polish campaign and then given a panzer division above the objections of the general staff... he was then given the africa corps above the objections of the general staff. hitler also told rommel he wanted him to command the post war german army so its safe to assume he was a favorite of the hitler court if there was one.

rommel like so many general's lost his faith in hitler in 1942 after stalingrad and his own defeat at alemain. there are numerous reports from his staff officers at that time that he thought the war was lost and hitler was a mad man for ordering him to stand on a static line in africa (not just bayerlin's book which has to be taken with a grain of salt)

it would seem a lot of the senior german officers manstein, guderian, rommel, runstead etc didnt enjoy the nazis being in control anymore after 1942 but this wasn't because of politics (that was peripheral as best the army was very apolitical throughout its history) but because the war effort was failing.

rommel would fall into that same category as many other senior officers about the july 20th plot... he himself would not mutiny but would be friendly towards a new regime that would give him a free hand at the front and end the war

theres a great quote about him in patton and rommel men of war in the 20th century
"he stood above his peers not apart from them"

if he survived the initial purge following the july 20th plot i would bet he would be removed from command in much the same manner as runstead was for being defeatist and not driving the allies into the sea. kluge or model would still take over and rommel would go home. he might be recalled for some last minute assignment but he would probably be out of the war alltogether.

either way he would still be a favorite of historians like manstein or guderian and admired by the press... up to his defence of france he hadnt committed any notable war crimes and would probably have been witness for the defence at nuremburg and out of custody by 1948
 
Seeing as he was so 'admired' by the 'west' - and in comparison with many his hands were not 'dirty' from war crimes:

1 - if he survivedinto a post-war world - would he have become a significant figure in the new West German Army?

2 - same as above - but if the July Plot had succeeded ?
 
he would probably be a senior advisor like manstein/guderian or maybe the first commander of nato instead of spedel. he was the youngest of his crowd so he would probably travel and speak widely

if july 20th plot succeeded he would surrender to the western allies. he had allready sounded out sepp deitrich about the ss not stopping him from letting monty through.
 

CalBear

Moderator
Donor
Monthly Donor
One thing that has not been mentioned is that Rommel, as the officer responsible for oversight of the construction of the Atlantic Wall, WAS, by definition, guilty of War Crimes.

The fortifications, tank traps, beach obstacles and other features that comprised the Reich defenses were constructed by Organization Todt. Well over 90% of the labor used in the construction projects was drawn from Soviet POW camps, imported slave workers from the East and (albeit in a fairly small percentage of the 1.4 million total workers) Jews from the Camps. These non-German workers were treated poorly, fed insufficiently, and died with horrific regularity. As Officer Commanding, Rommel has the responsibility for the varied War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity committed by Organization Todt in his AO.

While Rommel was not a Nazi, and conducted himself as well as any Heer officer toward Allied POWs in the West, he was also never placed into a position where his reaction to something like the "Commissar Order" was tested. Whether his clean reputation toward enemy troops is due to deep personal commitment or is simply thanks to being assigned to the "civilized" theater of the Reich's war is uncertain. What is not uncertain, although not regularly discussed, is the close relationship he shared with Hitler, dating back to his assignment as commander of Hitler's military escort in 1936, a post he maintained, with increases in both rank and access to Hitler until 1939. He was promoted to General in late summer of 1939 at Hitler's direct instruction. This connection would have weighed heavily in any decision regarding his being brought up on charges after the war.

It is possible, even likely, that Rommel would have escaped the gallows for his involvement in the offenses committed under his authority, but that he would have been brought to trial is a virtual certainty. In all likelihood his fate would have closely tracked that of Admiral Karl Donitz, a prison sentence followed by an honored retirement in Germany as his positive characteristics were those remembered.

As far as his reputation in the West as a whole, the best thing that could have happened for it (although not for the man or his family) was his association, as late and tenuous as it was, with the July 20 Bomb Plot. Being forced to do "the honorable thing" by the Nazis, allowed his legacy to end as a heroic officer, with all the unpleasant facts left as mere footnotes to his justly earned fame as "The Desert Fox".
 
Actually, I'm fairly certain Rommel wasn't even a member of the Nazi Party, despite his friendship with Goebells and popularity with the state.

But yeah, his case would be along the lines of Guderian and others. I suspect he'd be tried, and aquitted or lightly sentenced.
 
Top