A police report recently discovered debunks initial assumptions that surround the death of famed Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. The report of 1960 in Germany discloses the Nazi cover up of the forced suicide of ‘Desert Fox’ Field Marshal Rommel. Erwin Rommel was implicated in the failed murder of his master Adolf Hitler in East Prussia in July of 1944. About three months after, Rommel claimed his own life with cyanide in October 14 of that year.
In a paranoia, the Nazi state went on a furious retaliation after the failed attempt by bombing on the life of Hitler in his headquarters at the expense of the lives of thousands, including that of Rommel’s. Rommel was considered a hero in Germany. His heroic acts of valor during the daring fight against the British with the Afrika Korps earned him popularity and the love of the people. He proved to be a real hero choosing to end his life so that his family will be spared after the Nazis threatened him on suspicion of being involved in the failed plot to kill his master.
The state told the public that Rommel died of a heart attack after the strafing of his car by Allies. The regime even gave him a state funeral in Germany’s capital.
The report was found in the city archive recording the doctor’s testimony of how he was “threatened with pain of death” by an S.S. man to force him into falsifying Rommel’s death certificate. In the detailed report, Dr. Breiderhoff was reportedly the chief physician of a reserve military hospital at Ulm. He was called upon by two senior army officers to inspect a body in a car outside the hospital.
An excerpt of the police report based on the doctor’s testimony read: “It was Herr Rommel. His hat and his marshal’s baton were lying to the right of his upper body on the floor. “Then a man in civilian dress appeared and ordered me to begin resuscitation attempts and told me that I must not tell the staff that he was dead. “I made a direct cardiac injection and then attempts at resuscitation with heart massage and breathing exercises, as if the Field Marshal had drowned.
“I felt completely that Rommel was a dead man already. Then an S.S. man ordered me to remove the vomit from his mouth and I found an empty cyanide capsule in his throat covered with brown and yellow mucus. “I was then ordered that I had to put ‘heart attack’ on the death certificate on the express orders of the High Command of the Armed Forces. “An S.S. man told me to maintain confidentiality otherwise I must expect revenge against my family and other consequences.
“He pointed to a gun laying on a table as if to emphasize the point.” Rommel’s death certificate shows that the field marshal succumbed to “death as a result of a heart attack suffered while in service of the Reich in the west.” After four days of Rommel’s death, he was given a full state funeral in Berlin. The state claimed the hero deserved the honor of being called “The Fuhrer’s Gerneral” during his burial.
The police report found years after the death of Dr. Breiderhoff is said to strengthen the doctor’s original statement. The real cause of the death of Erwin Rommel was only publicized after the discovery of the police report.