Myth of 'humane' Nazi Erwin Rommel debunked

Erwin Rommel, probably the best-known German soldier of the Second World War, was considered to be a chivalrous and humane general, even by the Allied forces who fought him.p But a new exhibition in Stuttgart calls into question the true nature of the man known as the"Desert Fox".

"The Rommel Myth" strips away the legends that surround the man who faced off against Britain's Desert Rats in North Africa and who committed suicide after being implicated in a plot to kill Adolf Hitler, the Daily Mail reports.

A spokesman for the History House, the foundation which is staging the exhibition, said:"Rommel was a fabrication of Nazi propaganda."

He cited a diary entry by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels in 1941 that said:"I would strongly advise that now, as soon as the battle for North Africa has been decided, Rommel be elevated to a kind of popular hero."

Germans have traditionally been taught that Rommel was a good man, surrounded by evil.

But Gestapo documents in the exhibition paint a different picture.

They reveal that even as he was being led away by secret policeman he spoke of his devotion to Hitler.p"I loved the Fuhrer and I love him still. I am innocent of any involvement in the assassination attempt,' he said.