Discovering the Rommel Murder: The Life and Death of the Desert Fox

The circumstances of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's suicide, forced on him by Adolf Hitler in October 1944 for his complicity in the attempt to assassinate the Fuhrer that previous July, are familiar. Less known are the details of how Marshall, then an intelligence officer in the U.S. Army, discovered and publicized that story after the war's end. His book is partly a conventional, sympathetic biography of Rommel; it is also an interesting and useful memoir of Marshall's techniques in persuading Rommel's family and associates to talk about the Third Reich at a time when most Germans kept silent about the war. Marshall helped to recover information of historical significance that would otherwise have been lost. Photos not seen by PW. (Oct.)