WI: Rommel Fakes Suicide

Let's say that some how, some way, Rommel fakes his suicide, and then gives himself up to American & British forces after escaping Germany. (This all happens at the same time Rommel committed suicide OTL)

He convinces the Allies to keep him alive and keep it a secret that he is their prisoner until after Germany and the rest of the axis powers officially surrender (for the sake of his family).

What would become the fate of the person that some consider to be the greatest General of WWII?

Will he be later executed by Allied forces as a German War Criminal?

Or will he have some part in the new West Germany?

I hope this isn't something that has been done before, but it probably is.

Your thoughts, good people of AH.com.
 
Well, wasn't von Mantstein a Senior Advisor for the army in West Germany? So, Rommel being a part of West Germany is, I'd say, most plausible.
 
No execution for Rommel. Admittedly, having lived, he might well face awkward questions after the war, so his myth will not survive quite as unchallenged. But he#d strill be considered a 'good guy' (no involvement with the eastern Front, no taint of the final solution, no major war crimes to his name and a surviving Stauffenberg conspirator). He may well never be tried (I don't think the Soviets would care). His future is book deals and maybe a role in the Bundeswehr, or in postwar politics (though in that case, not a major one).
 
No execution for Rommel. Admittedly, having lived, he might well face awkward questions after the war, so his myth will not survive quite as unchallenged. But he#d strill be considered a 'good guy' (no involvement with the eastern Front, no taint of the final solution, no major war crimes to his name and a surviving Stauffenberg conspirator). He may well never be tried (I don't think the Soviets would care). His future is book deals and maybe a role in the Bundeswehr, or in postwar politics (though in that case, not a major one).

Rommel escaping would be no easy thing. The SS was watching him very closely and he was uber paranoid that he had been implicated (not unlike Kluge later)

The more likely POD to get this kind of outcome would be for his wounding to be less serious so that he doesn't have to leave the front or turn over command... then have him get taken prisoner at Falaise.

If he was just a strait pow his family would be left alone and he would be regarded like arnim as having surrendered due to circumstance.

There would be no trial... he was widely admired in the west and treated POW's with dignity... Montgomery and other generals would speak on his behalf if the western governments started considering it

That said 100% his memoirs would be worldwide best sellers. He would be a popular lecturer at foriegn military schools perhaps even touring with Montgommery and or Patton for PR purposes (Swabians do love their money after all)

If he had the choice between a position in NATO/Bundswer or politics he would choose to stay in the army... although if there was a place for him to represent Wurtemberg later he might be talked into it and be a voice for "decent" Germans caught up in the horrors of Hitler's machine
 
Top