I’m asking because I stated that Rommel was a bonafide nazi and committed war crimes in France and Italy and received this response.
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I’m no expert on Rommel but Rommel is anything but a Nazi. In fact, early on he starts to harbor "serious reservations" about the Nazi regime. (Blumenson, 297.) This information is also direct from the Jewish Virtual library. I’d say he was more an opportunist that took advantage of the political situation in the 1930s and made buddy buddy with the Nazis to advance his career. I mean the man straight up tore up orders to execute Senegalese POWs during the French campaign. In my opinion I don’t believe he was this uber amazing general many make him out to be but he was still pretty decent.
If Rommel really was a war criminal or die hard Nazi, historians would’ve made that fact more well known. Even now in the age of pop history, someone like Rommel is certain to pop up and no new information about him in that light has surfaced. Plus many Jewish .org sites either make no mention or directly say he didn’t do such things.
Now many people try to say he was against the Nazis directly because of the July 20th plot but that’s simply false. His role in that plot was so minor one can wonder why he’s even worth mentioning. Like I said before, I think he was more an opportunist who didn’t really like the Nazis but also didn’t really do anything to stop the Nazis either.
On another note Proske is a total clown. No real historian would ever take his claims seriously. Historians Christian Schweizer and Peter Lieb note that: "Over the last few years, even though the social science teacher Wolfgang Proske has sought to participate in the discussion [on Rommel] with very strong opinions, his biased submissions are not scientifically received."
There is of course lots of room for discussion on this topic, but u/commiespaceinvader answered a similar question a year ago.