If I understand right, when you read on Rommel, you tend to find much information epitomizing him as a true gentleman.
From his treatment of POW's to his approach on leadership, there are tales where he supposedly believed that one should remain civilized when engaging in an activity as barbaric as War can be (such as providing an overextended American Triage Center supplies so they could tend the wounded).
How true is this? I once read somewhere that his wife had a part in his biography and, although it may not necessarily be the case, his reputation lends itself for possible historical revisionism.
Thanks in advance.
Rommel has many biographies. The first one was written (with an adoring tone, not surprisingly) by one of his former enemies, Brigadier Desmond Young.
The one written by himself (not a biography really, just his diaries and letters composed together by one of his admirers, again from the other side, Liddel Hart, named “The Rommel Papers”) talks mostly about military affairs. But you did get a glimpse of what kind of man he was. A glimpse, because as you read more you will see that he often acted instinctively and forgot non-professional things real quick. I recommend you to read extensively (not just the old or the modern things) and draw the conclusion for yourself, don’t just take everything you read on Reddit or any online forum (where you will just get the fast food answer, because it’s so hard to write a complete answer to questions that still get historians to write 10 biographies every year. Yes I am not kidding, and that is when you look at biographies written in major languages alone). And take a note that even now, he is still a highly politicized figure that the left and the right both try to use and abuse. In Germany it’s like they still have a dark tortured love with the man or something, which a politician of immigrant background found out at a harsh price: when Omid Nouripour, Speaker of The Greens, mentioned renaming Germany’s two Rommel barracks, blood did boil and so did the not so nicer parts of the German soul. I see he tries not to remember the whole thing now. Many German document films and articles seem to try their best to list all the negative things about Rommel first, and yet in most cases, don’t even take that too seriously, but look deeper. A modern bio which is generally accepted as fair minded is Mythos Rommel by Maurice Remy, too bad it doesn’t have an English version yet. My opinion is that, yes, he is the epitome of the Knight, with all the good and bad things about it. For the good things you can read his former enemies Desmond Young, Charles Marshall etc (I think there are even legitimate PDFs on the internet as well). The bad side was that he was easily influenced by some aspects of Nazi ideology (never a party member himself, and always made a point out of that) like leader cults and the deification of the German “Volk” (never an anti-Semite or racist himself, at least not to the point it became uncommon in that era), and was foolishly loyal and blind to Hitler’s dark side. People wonder how chivalry can go together with devotion to Hitler. But it was exactly that. Knights need an object of adoration. Their naturally idealistic sides enhanced each other, including beliefs about “Triumph of the Will” et al.
Rommel definitely had a savior complex somewhere himself. In their early tests of personality, Hitler performed admirably and even (manipulatively, maybe in a subconscious fashion) played a “damsel in distress” so Rommel could save him out of danger many times!
<<I am the one who persuaded Hitler to drive right on to Hradschin Castle under my personal protection. I told him: “My Fuhrer, you had no real choice but to take right into the heart of the land, their very capital." I almost forced him to come with me. He put himself in my hands, and he never forgot me for giving him that excellent advice.>> (after driving in an open top car into the newly conquered Prague, just the two of them together. Himmler and co were terrified seeing them do it.)
<<He seems to like the fires… I have to try very hard to protect him>>
<<he is sent to us by God>>
<<he speaks like a prophet>> (the utopia apparently wasn’t about any ethnic cleansing anyway, because Rommel asked Hitler, in 1943, to install a Jewish Gauleiter to clear foreigners’ misunderstanding)
<<I once loved the Fuhrer, and I still love him>> (shortly before swallowing cyanide pills and after going past the point of turning against Hitler politically and militaristically) Hitler returned the “love” as well. These people were strange creatures. Even in 1945, he and Bormann tried to build a monument for Rommel, while Himmler sent a messenger to tell Rommel’s wife that he and Hitler did not know anything about the murder, blaming “a higher purpose”, and Keitel and Jodl. Hitler’s valet Heinz Linge said that Hitler did not know anything and it was Bormann’s crime alone. Apparently everyone saw a tragedy in them betraying each other and even Rommel's enemies and murderers wanted to appear clean in his eyes, even after they had killed him and millions of people before him.