Discovering the Rommel Murder: The Life and Death of the Desert Fox

Shares information from interviews with the general's widow about his life, death, and career

The circumstances of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's suicide, forced on him by Adolf Hitler in October 1944 for his complicity in the attempt to assassinate the Fuhrer that previous July, are familiar. Less known are the details of how Marshall, then an intelligence officer in the U.S. Army, discovered and publicized that story after the war's end. His book is partly a conventional, sympathetic biography of Rommel; it is also an interesting and useful memoir of Marshall's techniques in persuading Rommel's family and associates to talk about the Third Reich at a time when most Germans kept silent about the war. Marshall helped to recover information of historical significance that would otherwise have been lost. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Marshall claims to have broken the news to the world in 1945 that Rommel had not died of wounds, as claimed by Nazi propaganda, but had been forced to commit suicide. Marshall was the G-2 intelligence officer who first interviewed Rommel's widow. He originally wrote manuscript in 1945-46, but it was lost until now. While probably significant in 1946, this book suffers from trying to pull together the recollections of a 40-year-old story. Because there are no notes or bibliography, the reader has to take Marshall's word for events and conversations that happened long ago. One unexpected bonus is the final few chapters, which give an interesting account of life in occupied Germany at the conclusion of the war. Libraries with strong World War II collections may wish to purchase this, but most would be better off with David Fraser's Knight's Cross: A Life of Field Marshall Erwin Rommel (HarperCollins, 1993).
Randall L. Schroeder, Augustana Coll. Lib., Rock Island, Ill.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.