Symbolic of a regime founded on lies, murder, blackmail, torture, forgeries, broken treaties, and concentration camps, Goebbels informed the world that Rommel had succumbed to a heart attack while recovering from injuries suffered in an automobile accident in Normandy. The Fiihrer, with unconscionable hypocrisy, ordered a state funeral and sent the widow a telegraphed message of condolence. It read:
In your deep bereavement, which you have suffered through the death of your husband, accept my sincere condolences. The name of Field Marshal Rommel will always be associated with the heroic battles in North Africa.
Noteworthy is the frigid tone, the absence of any polite form of address, such as "most honored madam," customary in German expressions of condolence, and the lack of any reference to Rommel's leadership in France.
Among the batch of telegrams was one from Goering reading:
The message that your husband, Field Marshal Rommel, died a hero's death in spite of the hopes of all of us that he would live for the German people, deeply affected me. I send you, most honored Mrs. Rommel, the heartfelt sympathy of myself and the Luftwaffe. In deepest sorrow, yours, Goering, Reichsmarschall of Greater Germany.
Goebbel's read:
Most honored madam, for the great loss you have suffered with the death of your husband, my wife and I send you an expression of our most ardent sympathy. With Field Marshal General Rommel the German Wehrmacht loses one of its most successful Army leaders whose name will be forever linked with the two-year-long heroic struggle of the German Afrika Korps. We beg to assure you of our deepest regret in your time of mourning. Reichsminister Dr. Goebbels and Mrs. Goebbels.
From the 7th Panzer Division, which Rommel had commanded in France in 1940, came this:
"In proud mourning and most ardent sympathy, most honored madam, his old 7th Panzer Division thinks of its first and unforgettable commander, whose spirit still exists and will live on within the Division."
Foreign Minister Ribbentrop, chief of the Gestapo Heinrich Himmler, and other Nazi luminaries similarly voiced their regrets.
The Fiihrer ordered national mourning, and in Ulm the funeral was characterized by the pomp and ceremony so dear to the pageantry-loving Party. As the unsuspecting thousands of Swabians lined the streets to pay their last respects to their native son and hero, his casket, draped by a swastika flag, was removed from the gun carriage and borne into the town hall, bedecked on the outside with swastika banners three stories high. Inside, on the walls of a vast room normally used for civic entertainment, hung more banners displaying the swastika. Further enhancing the Nazi motif were eagles whose talons held circular laurels in whose center was, again, the everpresent swastika. Flowers abounded, and the biggest wreath was from the Fiihrer, so large it barely fit through the double doors.
To Rundstedt, as the Wehrmacht's senior marshal, fell the duty of representing the Fiihrer and delivering the army's eulogy. Appearing tottery and befuddled, he dwelled on Rommel's distinguished military service, and at the close of the oration, characterized by a stumbling delivery and the memorable phrase, "his heart belonged to the Fiihrer," the military band played the moving "I Had a Comrade." and the Fuhrer's wreath was placed at the foot of the coffin.
Hitler's telegram of condolence to Rommel's widow upon the death of her husband. "In your deep bereavement, which you have suffered through the death of your husband, accept my sincere condolences. The name of Field Marshal Rommel will always be associated with the heroic battles in North Africa." CourtesY of Mrs. Rommel.
"The Fuhrer's wreath! That was the calumny of calumnies!" remarked Mrs. Speidel, who had attended the funeral.
Following the state honors, the flag-draped casket was again placed on the gun carnage, pulled by a half-track, and borne through the streets of Ulm. At the approach to the crematorium, the procession halted and the casket was dismounted. To the beat of muffled drums a squad of army pallbearers, flanked by four generals with black armbands and proceeded by another carrying a display of Rommel's highest decorations on a cushion of velvet, carried The Great One past an honor company and into the building.
Conspicuous by his absence from the ceremonies was General Jodl, the High Command's operations officer. Also missing was the High Command's chief of staff, Field Marshal Keitel, to whom Hitler had given the operative word, as testimony at the Nuremberg trials later revealed, and who had farmed out the murder to Generals Burgdorf and Maisel.
Next day the masquerade continued according to the script. Rommel's ashes were brought to Herrlingen for burial in the local churchyard and, amid more pomp and ceremony, the huge military flags with their iron cross, in the center of which was imposed the swastika, were lowered in final tribute as the urn was placed in its grave.
None of the trappings of a Nazi state funeral were missing.
This theatrical performance was later characterized to me, several times, by Hans Speidel, soldier, scholar, philosopher, and friend of Rommel, as "a political desecration of the dead without precedent in history."
"Yet it was a third-rate state funeral," said Rudolf Weckler, a sergeant in Rommel's battalion in the First World War and his friend of many years. "Not one of the leading political figures attended. Not Hitler, not Himmler, not Goering or Goebbels. It was our first inkling that he perhaps had not died a natural death."
Himmler, in fact, considered the murder to have been a big blunder. He hastily dispatched a deputy to the funeral who whispered to the widow assurances that "the Reichsfuehrer SS is in no way responsible for this and is deeply grieved."
Five months later, in March, with Germany being bludgeoned into submission, and perhaps foreseeing his own end and in his own mind making amends, the Fi hrer directed the national architect to send the widow some sketches for her consideration for a proposed huge marble monument to be erected over the marshal's grave. One of them depicted a dying lion, another a roaring lion, and one a lion rampant. In Hitler's mind the gesture may have been meant as an atonement for the murder, as an admission that had he taken Rommel's advice the Fatherland would not now be in its death throes.
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel lying in state at home. Photos from Mrs. Rommel.
In interviews I conducted after the war with Mrs. Rommel and her son Manfred, I was to get the story of Rommel's death in detail. After saying his farewell to his wife, he told Manfred what was about to happen to him and why. The young son and the aide Aldinger, after being dissuaded from attempting armed resistance, helped him into his leathercoat and walked with him through the garden gate, where the two generals were waiting and saluted him, and out to the car. The generals followed and, with an SS driver at the wheel, the car drove off. In the vehicle, on a hill in a clearing a few hundred yards from the house, Rommel took the cyanide capsule that ended his life. The car then sped off at full speed to the hospital where the generals went through their histrionics of the sudden heart attack.
The cyanide capsule, because of its fast action, was a favorite way of committing suicide among the German brass, particularly among the generals fighting on the Russian front when capture appeared imminent. It was used by Hermann Goering at Nuremberg to thwart his hanging. Allied agents operating in occupied countries also carried it in case of capture. To them it was known as the "L" pill.
As l was writing the Rommel murder story, I was looking forward to seeing it spread across the front page of the Beachhead News. When the Army Headquarters censors withheld their approval for four days while they sought clearance, I was absolutely certain we had a great story.
And then it happened, something that might have caused a professional journalist to consider slitting his throat: The scoop was overshadowed by a bigger story. The radio announced Hitler's death!
In the morning of May 2 the Corps paper was delivered with a headline in massive type:
NAZIS PROCLAIM HITLER'S DEATH
Then, two-thirds of the way down, across the page, the story on Rommel:
Exclusive! - - - HOW HITLER MURDERED RO
MMEL!
Two of the artists' sketches for the Fiihrer's proposed monument for Rommel's grave. They were sent to his widow by the national architect five months after her husband's death, possibly indicative of Hitler's having second thoughts about his general's end. Photos of sketches br author.
When next I saw the editor, Major William Grimes, I assumed a hurt expression. "Bill," I said, "I thought I'd sure get top billing."
Grimes grinned. "Look at it this way, Charlie. Hitler died to top you!" In visits with Mrs. Rommel a year after the war's end, in the living room of her home in Herrlingen, she enlarged on the killing of her husband. After Field Marshal Keitel's phone call of October 13 to say that two generals would be coming to Herrlingen the next day to discuss Rommel's new assignment, the marshal and his aide had speculated at length as to what the new assignment could be but could come to no satisfactory conclusion.
Promptly at noon on October 14 General Burgdorf arrived. He was accompanied by General Maisel, also of the Fuhrer's headquarters, and Maisel's aide, Major Anton Ehrnsperger. Rommel's wife joined in welcoming the officers, as did their son Manfred, who was home on a two-day furlough. Then mother and son left the room. The major immediately suggested a stroll in the garden to Aldinger, which, Aldinger remarked to me, struck him as odd. Ordinarily aides are expected to take notes at a conference. But witnesses obviously were not wanted.
While the marshal and the generals were closeted, Mrs. Rommel's anxiety was aroused by telephone calls from residents of the village telling her that cars with SS men were parked in the neighborhood of the house and on the roads leading out of town. In the garden the aide's suspicions were further aroused when, at the conclusion of the meeting, the generals came out of the house unaccompanied by Rommel, who never allowed an officer to leave his house without taking him to the door.
"When the meeting ended," said Mrs. Rommel, "my husband came to see me in the bedroom. It is impossible for me to describe what I saw in his face. 'What's the matter?' I asked. 'In fifteen minutes I'll be dead,' he said absentmindedly. The Fi hrer has given me the choice of taking poison or going on trial before the People's Court."'
Hitler's surrogate murderers had brought along a poison that they assured Rommel would bring death in three seconds.
"He was suspected of taking a leading part in the July 20 affair," went on the widow. "General Stuelpnagel, General Speidel, and Lieutenant Colonel Hofacker all were supposed to have made incriminating statements against him. In addition, he was supposed to have been on Goerdeler's list as proposed Reich president. My husband told the generals that he did not believe any such statements had been made against him, and, if so, they could have been elicited only by Gestapo torture. He chose to take the poison, he told me, because he was sure he would not reach the People's Court alive."
Mrs. Rommel wiped her eyes. "At this discussion," she continued bitterly, "the program for the expiration of my husband's life was described to him down to the minutest detail, including his burial. It was to be a state funeral. Every bit of the ceremony had been arranged, even the placing of Hitler's wreath at the foot of the casket. Imagine! The murderer's wreath! And to think that I once prayed for the welfare of that man and taught my son to love him!"
Front page of the Beachhead News on May 2, 1945, containing the author's article "How Hitler Murdered Rommel!"
When the widow could resume her story, she told how Manfred had entered the room unconcernedly and how the father had taken heartbreaking leave of him. "Both left my bedroom," she said. "The last fifteen minutes were over. I stayed behind as though paralyzed. My husband called Captain Aldinger."
Rommel told his aide the gist of the meeting and added, "if I take my own life, I will be given a state funeral and my family will be provided for. If I don't, I forfeit these compensations. I have chosen the poison because I am certain that the People's Court would be no more than a formality, even if I reached it alive. The generals will give me a poison that kills instantly. They will give it to me in the car while we drive on a secondary road to Ulm. They will deliver me at the Wagnerschule Hospital."
The aide, deeply moved, suggested flight or a defense. The only men in the house were themselves, Manfred, and an elderly guard recovering from wounds. The marshal cut him short. "Any attempt would be futile. All streets leading out of town are guarded. All telephone lines are monitored. I have no alternative!"
Reaching into his pocket, he removed his wallet. "Maybe I should leave this here." he said. "It has 150 marks in it." Then, deciding against it, he replaced the wallet. After a quick last leave of his wife, the Desert Fox, dressed in his Afrika Korps uniform and carrying his marshal's baton and accompanied by his son and his aide, left the house. In the garden Burgdorf and Maisel were waiting. The car stood before the garden door, an SS man at the wheel.
"Heil Hitler!" saluted the generals.
Shaking hands with son and aide again, Rommel climbed into the car. The Fi hrer's emissaries followed with their poison. As the car started to move away, Rommel reached into his pocket and handed the house keys to his son.
Twenty minutes later the car pulled up at a hospital in Ulm and the limp body was carried in. While Maisel stood by impassively with a folder full of completed forms concerning arrangements for the funeral, Burgdorf ordered the doctor to administer a heart injection in an effort to revive the lifeless form. "One look at the man," said Dr. Meyer, "and it was obvious he had not died a natural death."
The major went in search of a telephone. He deeply regretted to inform Mrs. Rommel, he said when he was connected, that the field marshal had suddenly collapsed, apparently as the result of a blood clot in the heart. He was rushed to the Wagnerschule Hospital but died immediately.
According to Aldinger, Burgdorf, told by the doctor that Rommel was dead and that there was no hope of resuscitation, drove to Ulm Wehrmacht Headquarters and telephoned the Fiihrer. "Burgdorf," he said softly. "Auftrag erledigt!" ("Mission accomplished!")
The suggestion of an autopsy by Dr. Meyer, the hospital's chief doctor, who thought the marshal just might have suffered an internal hemorrhage, was icily received. "Don't touch the body," he was ordered. "Everything is being handled from Berlin."
The order not to touch the body, that arrangements had already been made in Berlin, even before the marshal had been certified as dead, carried ominous implications. To the doctors, who already suspected this was not a natural death, the order was the giveaway of foul play.
Actually, the murder had even been planned to include a rumor, carefully circulated, almost before his body was cold, that Rommel during his convalescence had been picking mushrooms in the woods and the continuous stooping had brought on a stroke. At the Nuremberg trials Keitel testified that Hitler gave this explanation to his closest associates and never deviated from it. That evening when Mrs. Rommel went to the hospital to see her dead husband, Maisel was there. "Would you believe," asked the widow, as tears welled in her eyes, "that he had the gall to offer me his hand?"
Asked why she had the body cremated, Mrs. Rommel replied that she did not want the body disturbed after the truth was out.
Burgdorf delivered to the Fi hrer's headquarters the cap Rommel was wearing and the baton he was carrying when he left the house with the two generals. Not until a month after his death were they returned to the widow, and then only after numerous and insistent demands for them were made by Aldinger on her behalf.
"For a long time I worried about Captain Aldinger," said Mrs. Rommel. "Aside from my son and me, he was the only one who knew how my husband had died. I feared he might be arrested and done away with."
General Burgdorf, despised in the higher officer circles as a brutal oaf, was apparently deeply impressed by the swift effect of the poison on Rommel. Six months later, after helping Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun celebrate their bizarre marriage in the chancellory bunker as Russian shells hammered overhead, he took poison with Goebbels and his family. The second of Hider' s lackeys, General Maisel,
was a prisoner of war in a camp near Munich at the time of my departure from Germany in June 1946. He was ill, his illness probably aggravated by the refusal of the other prisoners to associate with him. Maisel's story was that as personnel chief of the High Command he accompanied Burgdorf to Herrlingen, where Burgdorf accused Rommel of cooperating in the plot to eliminate Hitler and of having agreed to taking over supreme command after the Fiihrer's death. Rommel, he said, seemed surprised but did not protest.
During one of my visits to Hesse, the German historian, he asked me to forward two letters. One was to Colonel Smith [the prewar American military attache in Berlin] and the other to a Countess Rosie Waldeck, who had settled in the United States in 1931. In the latter letter he had obviously written about my ongoing research, for a few weeks later I received a lengthy letter from the countess, a feisty woman. Some of her letter:
Dear Captain Marshall:
Thank you so much for sending me Colonel Hesse's letter. I shall be looking forward to your work on Rommel. I wish you could also have consulted my friend General Hans von Ravenstein, who was Rommel's second [in command] in the beginning of the North African campaign before he was captured by the British in December of '41....
I myself have always felt that a military figure who has captured the imagination of friend and foe to the degree Rommel has captured it, must have something. Nichts kommt von nichts. [Proverb equivalent to "Where there's smoke, there must be fire."]
His end, as it was reported in various reports here, is absolutely fantastic and to my mind indicates the incredible German lack of personal initiative and political instinct, or rather: Of any natural human reaction, the moment they find themselves confronted with the "Law" and the Staatsgewalt [state authority]. If the story Frau Rommel and young Rommel told is true, then it is indeed beyond any comprehension that in a house where there are guns (six as I counted them) the family just sits and twiddles their thumbs when Papa, afield marshal in uniform with baton and all, is being led to the slaughter by a couple of generals. How can one expect the Germans to get excited over Jews being starved in a concentration camp if wife, sons, adjutant, orderlies let Papa depart without moving a finger and wait for the telephone call that he is dead!!!
Discovering the Rommel Murder Page 23
