Editing Erwin Rommel (section)

=== Views on the conduct of war ===
==== Combat ====
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-785-0299-24A, Tobruk, Rommel, Bayerlein, englische Kriegsgefangene.2.jpg|thumb|Rommel walks past Allied prisoners taken at Tobruk, 1942]]

Many authors describe Rommel as having a reputation of being a chivalrous, humane, and professional officer, and that he earned the respect of both his own troops and his enemies.{{sfn|Coggins|1980|p=30}}{{sfn|Lewin|1998|pp=241–242}}<ref name="Moreman2010">{{cite book|first=Tim|last=Moreman|title=Bernard Montgomery: Leadership, Strategy, Conflict|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nrPP1kVXLEYC&pg=PA50|date=2010|publisher=Osprey Publishing|isbn=978-1-84908-143-6|page=50}}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>{{sfn|Beckett|2013|p=52}}<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wistrich|first1=Robert S.|title=Who's who in Nazi Germany|date=2001|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-26038-1|page=207|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PrYwT3eI3wcC&pg=RA1-PA107}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Williamson|first1=Gordon|title=German Commanders of World War II (1): Army|date=2012|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1-78200-020-4|page=2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mawXDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA7}}</ref><ref name="Barnett">{{cite book|last1=Barnett|first1=Correlli|title=Hitler's Generals|date=1989|publisher=Grove Press|isbn=0-8021-3994-9|page=293|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f0fclZ_UjwQC&pg=PA293}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Khanna|first1=K K|title=Art of Generalship|date=2015|publisher=Vij Books India Pvt Ltd|page=20|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uAmqCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA20|isbn=978-93-82652-93-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Stein|first1=Marcel|last2=Fairbank|first2=Gwyneth|title=Field Marshal Von Manstein: The Janushead – A Portrait|date=2007|publisher=Helion & Company Limited|isbn=978-1-906033-02-6|page=242|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qWuWOFS4o7AC&pg=PA242}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Chickering|first1=Roger|last2=Förster|first2=Stig|last3=Greiner|first3=Bernd|title=A World at Total War: Global Conflict and the Politics of Destruction, 1937–1945|date=2005|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-83432-2|pages=40–41|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=evVPoSwqrG4C&pg=PA40}}</ref>{{Excessive citations inline|date=April 2021}}
[[Gerhard Schreiber]] quotes Rommel's orders, issued together with Kesselring: "Sentimentality concerning the Badoglio following gangs ("Banden" in the original, indicating a mob-like crowd) in the uniforms of the former ally is misplaced. Whoever fights against the German soldier has lost any right to be treated well and shall experience toughness reserved for the rabble which betrays friends. Every member of the German troop has to adopt this stance."
Schreiber writes that this is exceptionally harsh and, according to him, "hate fuelled" order brutalised the war and was clearly aimed at Italian soldiers, not just partisans.<ref>Deutsche Kriegsverbrechen in Italien: Täter, Opfer, Strafverfolgung
By Gerhard Schreiber, p. 49, Beck, 1996</ref> [[Dennis Showalter]] writes that "Rommel was not involved in Italy's partisan war, though the orders he issued prescribing death for Italian soldiers taken in arms and Italian civilians sheltering escaped British prisoners do not suggest he would have behaved significantly different from his Wehrmacht counterparts."<ref>''Patton and Rommel: Men of War in the Twentieth Century'', by Dennis Showalter, 2006 p. 334 {{ISBN?}}</ref>

According to Maurice Remy, orders issued by Hitler during Rommel's stay in a hospital resulted in massacres in the course of [[Operation Achse]], disarming the Italian forces after the [[Armistice of Cassibile|armistice]] with the Allies in 1943. Remy also states that Rommel treated his Italian opponents with his usual fairness, requiring that the prisoners should be accorded the same conditions as German civilians. Remy opines that an order in which Rommel, in contrast to Hitler's directives, called for no "sentimental scruples" against "Badoglio-dependent bandits in uniforms of the once brothers-in-arms" should not be taken out of context.{{sfn|Remy|2002|pp=203–205}} [[Peter Lieb]] agrees that the order did not radicalise the war and that the disarmament in Rommel's area of responsibility happened without major bloodshed.{{sfn|Lieb|2014|pp=129–130}} Italian internees were sent to Germany for forced labour, but Rommel was unaware of this.{{sfn|Remy|2002|pp=203–205}}{{sfn|Lieb|2014|pp=129–130}} Klaus Schmider comments that the writings of Lieb and others succeed in vindicating Rommel "both with regards to his likely complicity in the July plot as well as his repeated refusal to carry out illegal orders."<ref>{{cite journal|last=Schmider|first=Klaus|title=German Military Tradition and the Expert Opinion on Werner Mölders: Opening a Dialogue among Scholars|journal=Global War Studies|volume=7|issue=1|pages=6–29|url=https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/gws/gws/2010/00000007/00000001/art00001?crawler=true&mimetype=application/pdf}}</ref>
Rommel withheld Hitler's [[Commando Order]] to execute captured commandos from his Army Group B, with his units reporting that they were treating commandos as regular POWs. It is likely that he had acted similarly in North Africa.{{sfn|Lieb|2014|p=130}} Historian [[Szymon Datner]] argues that Rommel may have been simply trying to conceal the atrocities of Nazi Germany from the Allies.<ref>Zbrodnie Wehrmachtu na jeńcach wojennych armii regularnych w II wojnie światowej
Szymon Datner Wydawn. Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej, 1964, p. 254. {{ISBN?}}</ref> Remy states that although Rommel had heard rumours about massacres while fighting in Africa, his personality, combined with special circumstances, meant that he was not fully confronted with the reality of atrocities before 1944.{{sfn|Remy|2002|pp=245, 361}} When Rommel learned about the atrocities that ''[[SS Division Leibstandarte]]'' committed in Italy in September 1943, he allegedly forbade his son from joining the [[Waffen-SS]].{{sfn|Lieb|2014|p=129}}

==== Attitude toward colonial troops ====
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-J16796, Rommel mit Soldaten der Legion "Freies Indien".jpg|thumb|right|General Field Marshal Erwin Rommel inspecting a unit of the German [[Free India Legion]] in France, February 1944]]

By the time of the Second World War, French colonial troops were portrayed as a symbol of French depravity in Nazi propaganda; Canadian historian Myron Echenberg writes that Rommel, just like Hitler, viewed black French soldiers with particular disdain.<ref>Encyclopedia of Race and Racism: Primary Sources, Index. S–Z. Vol. 3 John Hartwell Moore Thomson Gale, p. 33, 2008</ref> According to author Ward Rutherford, Rommel also held [[Racism|racist]] views towards British colonial troops from India; Rutherford in his ''The biography of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel'' writes: "Not even his most sycophantic apologists have been able to evade the conclusion, fully demonstrated by his later behaviour, that Rommel was a [[Racism|racist]] who, for example, thought it desperately unfair that the British should employ 'black'—by which he meant Indian—troops against a white adversary."<ref>''The biography of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel''. p. 30, Ward Rutherford – Greenwich, Bison Books, 1981 {{ISBN?}}</ref> Vaughn Raspberry writes that Rommel and other officers considered it an insult to fight against black Africans because they considered black people to be members of "inferior races".<ref>''Race and the Totalitarian Century: Geopolitics in the Black Literary Imagination'', Harvard University Press 2016, p. 34 {{ISBN?}}</ref>

Bruce Watson comments that whatever racism Rommel might have had in the beginning, it was washed away when he fought in the desert. When he saw that they were fighting well, he gave the members of the [[4th Indian Division|4th Division of the Indian Army]] high praise.{{sfn|Watson|1999|p=129}} Rommel and the Germans acknowledge the Gurkhas' fighting ability, although their style leaned more towards ferocity. Once he witnessed German soldiers with throats cut by a khukri knife.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Atul |first1=Aneja |title=now the Gurkha regiment, pillar of India's security for decades |url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/gurkha-regiments-military-bonding-beyond-borders/article31711750.ece |agency=Know the Gurkha regiment, pillar of India's security for decades |year=2020 |archive-date=8 December 2021 |access-date=31 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211208081808/https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/gurkha-regiments-military-bonding-beyond-borders/article31711750.ece |url-status=live }}</ref>{{sfn|Caddick-Adams|2012|p=271}} Originally, he did not want Chandra Bose's Indian formation (composed of the Allied Indian soldiers), captured by his own troops, to work under his command.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pelinka |first1=Anton |title=Democracy Indian Style: Subhas Chandra Bose and the Creation of India's |date=2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-351-52284-7 |page=17 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2hw3DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT17}}</ref> In Normandy though, when they had already become the [[Indian Legion#Transfer to the Waffen-SS|Indische Freiwilligen Legion der Waffen SS]], he visited them and praised them for their efforts (while they still suffered general disrespect within the Wehrmacht).<ref>{{cite book |last1=McCue |first1=Paul |year=2008 |title=Behind Enemy Lines with the SAS: The story of Amédée Maingard, SOE Agent |publisher=Pen and Sword |isbn=978-1-78159-464-3 |page=273 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_pDHDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT273}}</ref> A review on Rutherford's book by the ''Pakistan Army Journal'' says that the statement is one of many that Rutherford uses, which lack support in authority and analysis. Rommel saying that using the Indians was unfair should also be put in perspective, considering the disbandment{{Clarify|reason=The 4th Indian Division was in Italy and not disbanded until the end of the war|date=December 2021}} of the battle-hardened 4th Division by the Allies.<ref>{{cite book |title=Pakistan Army Journal, Volume 24, Issue 2 |date=1983 |publisher=Inspector General Training and Evaluation Branch, General Headquarters |page=176}} Rutherford makes many disputable statements, none of which is supported either on authority or analysis. He calls Rommel a racist because he is reported to have said that it was manifestly unfair to use black (Indian) troops against him.</ref> Rommel praised the colonial troops in the battle of France: "The (French) colonial troops fought with extraordinary determination. The anti-tank teams and tank crews performed with courage and caused serious losses," though that might be an example of generals honouring their opponents so that "their own victories appear the more impressive."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Schofield |first1=Hugh |title=The WW2 soldiers France has forgotten |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32956736 |publisher=BBC |year=2015 |archive-date=8 December 2021 |access-date=31 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211208081800/https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32956736 |url-status=live }}</ref> Reuth comments that Rommel ensured that he and his command would act decently (shown by his treatment of the Free French prisoners who were considered partisans by Hitler, the Jews and the coloured men), while he was distancing himself from Hitler's racist war in the East and deluding himself into believing that Hitler was good, only the Party big shots were evil.{{sfn|Reuth|2005|p=28}} The black South African soldiers recount that when they were held as POWs after they were captured by Rommel, they initially slept and queued for food away from the whites, until Rommel saw this and told them that brave soldiers should all queue together. Finding this strange coming from a man fighting for Hitler, they adopted this behaviour until they went back to the Union of South Africa, where they were separated again.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Honikman |first1=Marilyn |title=A good man |url=https://issuu.com/wild_magazine/docs/discover_heritage_1_2017 |access-date=1 June 2020 |agency=Discover Heritage |issue=1–2017 |publisher=National Heritage Trust |archive-date=31 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200731005032/https://issuu.com/wild_magazine/docs/discover_heritage_1_2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

There are reports that Rommel acknowledged the Maori soldiers' fighting skills, yet at the same time he complained about their methods which were unfair from the European perspective.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ilott |first1=J.M.A. |title=Meet my countrymen the Maoris |date=May 1946 |page=22 |publisher=The Rotarian May 1946 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=20MEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA22}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=The Advocate |title=Rommel resents Maori 'scalphunters' tactics |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/68783199 |publisher=Trove |date=5 October 1942 |archive-date=8 December 2021 |access-date=8 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211208081808/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/68783199 |url-status=live }}</ref> When he asked the commander of the New Zealand [[6th Infantry Brigade (New Zealand)|6th Infantry Brigade]] about his division's massacres of the wounded and POWs, the commander attributed these incidents to the Maoris in his unit. [[Hew Strachan]] notes that lapses in practising the warriors' code of war were usually attributed to ethnic groups which lived outside Europe with the implication that those ethnic groups which lived in Europe knew how to behave (although Strachan opines that such attributions were probably true).<ref name="Strachan">{{cite encyclopedia |last= Strachan  |first= Hew |contribution=Total war The conduct of war 1939–1945 |title=A World at Total War: Global Conflict and the Politics of Destruction, 1937–1945|page=41 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2005|isbn= 978-0-521-83432-2 }}</ref> Nevertheless, according to the website of the 28th Maori Battalion, Rommel always treated them fairly and he also showed understanding with regard to war crimes.<ref>{{cite web |title=What I Could Do With A Division Of NZ Maori.. |url=https://28maoribattalion.org.nz/photo/what-i-could-do-division-nz-maori |website=The 28th Māori Battalion website project |date=13 June 2010 |access-date=8 June 2020 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227230135/https://28maoribattalion.org.nz/photo/what-i-could-do-division-nz-maori |archivedate=27 February 2021}}</ref>

==== Politics ====
Some authors cite, among other cases, Rommel's naive reaction to events in Poland while he was there: he paid a visit to his wife's uncle, famous Polish priest and patriotic leader {{interlanguage link | vertical-align=sup |Edmund Roszczynialski|pl}}, who was murdered within days, but Rommel never understood this and, at his wife's urgings, kept writing letter after letter to Himmler's adjutants asking them to keep track and take care of their relative.{{sfn|Remy|2002|p=44}}{{sfn|Butler|2015|p=148}}<ref>{{cite book|last1=Łunecki|first1=Leszek|title=Ks. Edmund Roszczynialski|page=8|url=http://www.zscewice.pl/ftp_public/ks_Edmund_Roszczynialski.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160924161053/http://www.zscewice.pl/ftp_public/ks_Edmund_Roszczynialski.pdf|archive-date=24 September 2016}}</ref> Knopp and Mosier agree that he was naive politically, citing his request for a Jewish [[Gauleiter]] in 1943.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Knopp|first1=Guido|title=Hitlers Krieger|date=2013|publisher=C. Bertelsmann Verlag|isbn=978-3-641-11998-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lKFaCj-SeTkC&pg=PT54}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Mosier|first1=John|title=Cross of Iron: The Rise and Fall of the German War Machine, 1918–1945|date=2007|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=978-3-641-11998-0|page=41|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zrMt1_4KmAAC&pg=PA41}}</ref> Despite this, Lieb finds it hard to believe that a man in Rommel's position could have known nothing about atrocities, while accepting that locally he was separated from the places where these atrocities occurred.<ref name="kas.de"/> ''[[Der Spiegel]]'' comments that Rommel was simply in denial about what happened around him.{{sfn|Fleischhauer|Friedmann|2012}} Alaric Searle points out that it was the early diplomatic successes and bloodless expansion that blinded Rommel to the true nature of his beloved Führer, whom he then naively continued to support.{{sfn|Searle|2014|pp=25–26}} Scheck believes it may be forever unclear whether Rommel recognised the unprecedented depraved character of the regime.{{sfn|Scheck|2010}}

==== Civilians ====
Historian [[Richard J. Evans]] has stated that German soldiers in Tunisia raped Jewish women, and the success of Rommel's forces in capturing or securing Allied, Italian and Vichy French territory in North Africa led to many Jews in these areas being killed by other German institutions as part of the [[Holocaust]].{{sfn|Evans|2009|pp=150–151}} Anti-Jewish and Anti-Arab violence erupted in North Africa when Rommel and Ettore Bastico regained territory there in February 1941 and then again in April 1942. While committed by Italian forces, Patrick Bernhard writes "the Germans were aware of Italian reprisals behind the front lines. Yet, perhaps surprisingly, they seem to have exercised little control over events.

The German consul general in Tripoli consulted with Italian state and party officials about possible countermeasures against the natives, but this was the full extent of German involvement. Rommel did not directly intervene, though he advised the Italian authorities to do whatever was necessary to eliminate the danger of riots and espionage; for the German general, the rear areas were to be kept "quiet" at all costs. Thus, according to Bernhard, although he had no direct hand in the atrocities, Rommel made himself complicit in war crimes by failing to point out that international laws of war strictly prohibited certain forms of retaliation. By giving carte blanche to the Italians, Rommel implicitly condoned, and perhaps even encouraged, their war crimes".<ref name="auto">Bernhard, P. (2012). "Behind the Battle Lines: Italian Atrocities and the Persecution of Arabs, Berbers, and Jews in North Africa during World War II." ''Holocaust and Genocide Studies'', 26(3), 425–446</ref> Gershom reports that the recommendation came from officers "speaking for Rommel", and comments, "Perhaps Rommel did not know or care about the specifics; perhaps his motivation was not hate but dispassionate efficiency. The distinctions would have escaped the men hanging from hooks."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gorenberg |first1=Gershom |title=War of Shadows: Codebreakers, Spies, and the Secret Struggle to Drive the Nazis from the Middle East |date= 2021 |publisher=PublicAffairs |isbn=978-1-61039-628-8 |page=250 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VffNDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT250 |access-date=22 October 2022 |language=en |ref={{sfnref|Gershom|2021}} }}</ref>

In his article ''Im Rücken Rommels. Kriegsverbrechen, koloniale Massengewalt und Judenverfolgung in Nordafrika'', Bernhard writes that North African campaign was hardly "war without hate" as Rommel described it, and points out rapes of women, ill-treatment and executions of captured POWs, as well as racially motivated murders of Arabs, Berbers and Jews, in addition to the establishment of concentration camps.{{Citation needed|date=May 2021}} Bernhard again cites discussion among the German and Italian authorities about Rommel's position regarding countermeasures against local insurrection (according to them, Rommel wanted to eliminate the danger at all costs) to show that Rommel fundamentally approved of Italian policy in the matter. Bernhard opines that Rommel had informal power over the matter because his military success brought him influence on the Italian authorities.<ref>{{citation |first=Patrick |last=Bernhard |title=Im Rücken Rommels. Kriegsverbrechen, koloniale Massengewalt und Judenverfolgung in Nordafrika, 1940–1943 |trans-title=In Rommel’s Rear: War Crimes, Colonial Mass Violence and the Persecution of Jews in North Africa, 1940–1943 |journal= Zeitschrift für Genozidforschung |pages=83–122 |publisher= Institut für Diaspora- und Genozidforschung |volume=17 |date=2019 |issue=1–2 |doi=10.5771/1438-8332-2019-1-2-83 |quote="the North African Campaign was anything but war without hate. There were numerous intentional crimes and infringements of the rules of conduct, including the ill treatment and murder of captured enemy soldiers, the plunder of indigenous population, the rape of local woman, as well as exploitation, murder and mass detainment in concentration camps of Arabs, Berbers and Jews which was often motivated by racial and antisemitic hatred"}}</ref>

[[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]] describes relationship between Rommel and the proposed [[Einsatzgruppe Egypt|Einsatzgruppen Egypt]] as "problematic". The Museum states that this unit was to be tasked with murdering the Jewish population of North Africa, and Palestine, and it was to be attached directly to Rommel's Afrika Korps. According to the museum Rauff met with Rommel's staff in 1942 as part of preparations for this plan. The Museum states that Rommel was certainly aware that planning was taking place, even if his reaction to it isn't recorded, and while the main proposed Einsatzgruppen were never set in action, smaller units did murder Jews in North Africa.<ref>{{citation |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/erwin-rommel |title=Erwin Rommel |publisher= United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Holocaust |accessdate=16 July 2020}}</ref>

On the other hand, Christopher Gabel remarks that Richards Evans seems to attempt to prove that Rommel was a war criminal by association but fails to produce evidence that he had actual or constructive knowledge about said crimes.{{sfn|Gabel|2014|pp=202, 270, 271}} [[Ben H. Shepherd]] comments that Rommel showed insight and restraint when dealing with the nomadic Arabs, the only civilians who occasionally intervened in the war and thus risked reprisals as a result. Shepherd cites a request by Rommel to the Italian High Command, in which he complained about excesses against the Arabic population and noted that reprisals without identifying the real culprits were never expedient.{{sfn|Shepherd|2016|pp=238–239}}

The documentary ''Rommel's War'' (''Rommels Krieg''), made by Caron and Müllner with advice from Sönke Neitzel, states that even though it is not clear whether Rommel knew about the crimes (in Africa) or not, "his military success made possible forced labour, torture and robbery. Rommel's war is always part of Hitler's war of worldviews, whether Rommel wanted it or not."<ref name=RommelsKrieg>{{cite episode |last1= Müllner |first1=Jörg |last2=Caron |first2=Jean-Christoph |year=2011 |title=Rommels Krieg |series=Rommels Schatz |network=Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen(zdf)}} Minute 43: "Auch wenn unklar ist, ob Rommel selbst von den Verbrechen wußte—seine militärischen Erfolge machten Zwangsarbeit, Folter und Raub erst möglich. Rommels Krieg war immer auch ein Teil von Hitlers Weltanschauungskrieg—ob er es wollte oder nicht."</ref> More specifically, several German historians have revealed the existence of plans to exterminate Jews in Egypt and Palestine, if Rommel had succeeded in his goal of invading the Middle East during 1942 by SS unit embedded to Afrika Korps.{{sfn|Fleischhauer|Friedmann|2012}}

According to Mallmann and Cüppers, a post-war CIA report described Rommel as having met with [[Walther Rauff]], who was responsible for the unit, and been disgusted after learning about the plan from him and as having sent him on his way; but they conclude that such a meeting is hardly possible as Rauff was sent to report to Rommel at Tobruk on 20 July and Rommel was then 500&nbsp;km away conducting the First El Alamein.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mallmann|first1=Klaus-Michael|last2=Cüppers|first2=Martin |last3=Smith |first3=Krista |title=Nazi Palestine: The Plans for the Extermination of the Jews in Palestine|isbn=978-1-929631-93-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vjsLAqafdQ8C&pg=PT103|date= 2010|publisher=Enigma Books }}</ref> On 29 July, Rauff's unit was sent to Athens, expecting to enter Africa when Rommel crossed the Nile. However, in view of the Axis' deteriorating situation in Africa it returned to Germany in September.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wawrzyn|first1=Heidemarie|title=Nazis in the Holy Land 1933–1948|date=2013|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-030652-1|page=121|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cZ7oBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA120}}</ref>

Historian Jean-Christoph Caron opines that there is no evidence that Rommel knew or would have supported Rauff's mission; he also believes Rommel bore no direct responsibility regarding the SS's looting of gold in Tunisia.<ref name=Caron2007>{{cite news|last1=Caron|first1=Jean-Christoph|title=Erwin Rommel: Auf der Jagd nach dem Schatz des "Wüstenfuchses"|page=2|url=http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/erwin-rommel-auf-der-jagd-nach-dem-schatz-des-wuestenfuchses-a-522484-2.html|year=2007|archive-date=3 January 2017|access-date=1 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170103192235/http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/erwin-rommel-auf-der-jagd-nach-dem-schatz-des-wuestenfuchses-a-522484-2.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Historian Haim Saadon, Director of the Center of Research on North African Jewry in WWII, goes further, stating that there was no extermination plan: Rauff's documents show that his foremost concern was helping the Wehrmacht to win, and he came up with the idea of forced labour camps in the process.{{sfn|Benishay|2016}}{{sfn|Cohen|2015}} By the time these labour camps were in operation, according to Ben H. Shepherd, Rommel had already been retreating and there is no proof of his contact with the Einsatzkommando.{{sfn|Shepherd|2016|p=357}}

''Haaretz'' comments that the CIA report is most likely correct regarding both the interaction between Rommel and Rauff and Rommel's objections to the plan: Rauff's assistant Theodor Saevecke, and declassified information from Rauff's file, both report the same story. ''Haaretz'' also remarks that Rommel's influence probably softened the Nazi authorities' attitude to the Jews and to the civilian population generally in North Africa.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Elam |first1=Shraga |last2=Whitehead |first2=Dennis |title=Rauff vs. the Yishuv |url=https://www.haaretz.com/1.4813744 |agency=Haaretz Daily Newspaper |date=29 March 2007 |archive-date=8 December 2021 |access-date=16 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211208092837/https://www.haaretz.com/1.4813744 |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Rolf-Dieter Müller]] comments that the war in North Africa, while as bloody as any other war, differed considerably from the war of annihilation in eastern Europe, because it was limited to a narrow coastline and hardly affected the population.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Müller |first1=Rolf-Dieter |title=Hitler's Wehrmacht, 1935–1945 |date=2016 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=978-0-8131-6804-3 |page=171 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VKmZDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA171}}</ref>

Showalter writes that: 
{{blockquote|From the desert campaign’s beginning, both sides consciously sought to wage a "clean" war—war without hate, as Rommel put it in his reflections. Explanations include the absence of civilians and the relative absence of Nazis; the nature of the environment, which conveyed a "moral simplicity and transparency"; and the control of command on both sides by prewar professionals, producing a British tendency to depict war in the imagery of a game, and the corresponding German pattern of seeing it as a test of skill and a proof of virtue. The nature of the fighting as well diminished the last-ditch, close-quarter actions that are primary nurturers of mutual bitterness. A battalion overrun by tanks usually had its resistance broken so completely that nothing was to be gained by a broken-backed final stand.{{sfn|Showalter|2006|p=227}}}}

Joachim Käppner writes that while the conflict in North Africa was not as bloody as in Eastern Europe, the Afrika Korps committed some war crimes.<ref>''Der Weg des Afrikakorps nach El Alamein war trotz mancher Kriegsverbrechen nicht wie jener der 6. Armee nach Stalingrad mit Leichen von Zivilisten übersät''. 1941: Der Angriff auf die ganze Welt Joachim Käppner, 2016</ref> Historian [[Martin Kitchen]] states that the reputation of the Afrika Korps was preserved by circumstances: The sparsely populated desert areas did not lend themselves to ethnic cleansing; the German forces never reached the large Jewish populations in Egypt and Palestine; and in the urban areas of Tunisia and Tripolitania the Italian government constrained the German efforts to discriminate against or eliminate Jews who were Italian citizens.{{sfn|Kitchen|2009|p=10}} Despite this, the North African Jews themselves believed that it was Rommel who prevented the "Final Solution" from being carried out against them when Germany might dominate North Africa from Egypt to Morocco.<ref>{{cite news|title=Rommel's Son Honoured|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1309&dat=19870616&id=isVUAAAAIBAJ&pg=4429,3282080|work=New Straits Times|issue=16 June 1987|archive-date=8 December 2021|access-date=12 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211208215915/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1309&dat=19870616&id=isVUAAAAIBAJ&pg=4429,3282080|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title= Jerusalem Medal to Stuttgart Mayor, Son of General Rommel |url= http://www.jta.org/1987/06/17/archive/jerusalem-medal-to-stuttgart-mayor-son-of-general-rommel |access-date= 3 August 2016 |publisher= Jewish Telegraphic Agency |date= 17 June 1987 |archive-date= 1 July 2016 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160701005755/http://www.jta.org/1987/06/17/archive/jerusalem-medal-to-stuttgart-mayor-son-of-general-rommel |url-status= live }}</ref> According to Curtis and Remy, 120,000 Jews lived in Algeria, 200,000 in Morocco, about 80,000 in Tunisia. Remy writes that this number was unchanged following the German invasion of Tunisia in 1942 while Curtis notes that 5000 of these Jews would be sent to forced labour camps.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Curtis|first1=Michael|title=Verdict on Vichy: Power and Prejudice in the Vichy France Regime|date=2003|isbn=978-1-62872-436-3|page=117|publisher=Arcade |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LPV14lGhF8gC&pg=PA117}}</ref> and 26,000 in Libya.{{sfn|Remy|2002|p=96}}

Hein Klemann writes that the confiscations in the "foraging zone" of Afrika Korps threatened the survival chances of local civilians, just as plunder enacted by the Wehrmacht in the Soviet Union.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Economics of the Second World War: Seventy-Five Years On |editor-first1=  Stephen |editor-last1=Broadberry and |editor-first2= Mark |editor-last2=Harrison |contribution=Exploitation and destruction in Nazi-occupied Europe |first=Hein |last=Klemann |page=75 |publisher=Centre for Economic Policy Research|date= 2020}}</ref>

In North Africa, Rommel's troops laid down landmines, which in decades to come killed and maimed thousands of civilians. Since statistics started in the 1980s, 3,300 people have lost their lives, and 7,500 maimed<ref>[https://www.welt.de/geschichte/zweiter-weltkrieg/article212092805/Denkmal-fuer-Erwin-Rommel-Der-Wuestenfuchs-und-seine-Minenfelder.html] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211208215913/https://www.welt.de/geschichte/zweiter-weltkrieg/article212092805/Denkmal-fuer-Erwin-Rommel-Der-Wuestenfuchs-und-seine-Minenfelder.html|date=8 December 2021}} Die Welt ''Der Wüstenfuchs und seine tödlichen Minenfelder'' 23 July 2020</ref> There are disputed whether the landmines in El Alamein, which constitute the most notable portion of landmines left over from World War II, were left by the Afrika Korps or the British Army led by Field Marshal Montgomery. Egypt has not joined the Mine Ban Treaty until this day.<ref>{{cite web |title=Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor |url=http://archives.the-monitor.org/index.php/publications/display?url=lm/1999/egypt.html |website=archives.the-monitor.org |access-date=3 January 2022 |archive-date=6 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240506011747/http://archives.the-monitor.org/index.php/publications/display?url=lm/1999/egypt.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Rommel sharply protested the Jewish policies and other immoralities and was an opponent of the Gestapo{{citation needed|date=September 2021}} He also refused to comply with Hitler's order to execute Jewish POWs.{{sfn|Perry|2012|p=165}}{{refn|Mitcham's Life and Death of the Afrika Korps: "OKW sent an order&nbsp;... spoke of numerous German "political refugees" (that is, Jews)&nbsp;... |{{sfn|Mitcham|2014|p=71}}|group=N}} Controversial author [[Bryan Mark Rigg]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Whitley |first=Glenna |title=In the Wolf's Mouth |url=https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/in-the-wolfs-mouth-6386054 |access-date=2024-05-15 |website=Dallas Observer |language=en |archive-date=15 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240515152319/https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/in-the-wolfs-mouth-6386054 |url-status=live }}</ref> writes: "The only place in the army where one might find a place of refuge was in the Deutsches Afrika-Korps (DAK) under the leadership of the 'Desert Fox,' Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. According to this study's files, his half-Jews were not as affected by the racial laws as most others serving on the European continent." He notes, though, that "Perhaps Rommel failed to enforce the order to discharge half-Jews because he was unaware of it".

Captain Horst van Oppenfeld (a staff officer to Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg and a quarter-Jew) says that Rommel did not concern himself with the racial decrees and he had never experienced any trouble caused by his ancestry during his time in the DAK even if Rommel never personally interfered on his behalf.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Rigg|first1=Bryan Mark|title=Hitler's Jewish Soldiers: The Untold Story of Nazi Racial Laws and Men of Jewish Descent in the German Military|date=2002|publisher=University Press of Kansas|isbn=978-0-7006-1178-2|pages=131–132}}</ref> Another quarter-Jew, Fritz Bayerlein, became a famous general and Rommel's chief-of-staff, despite also being a bisexual, which made his situation even more precarious.{{sfn|Rigg|2002|p=7}}

Building the Atlantic Wall was officially the responsibility of the [[Organisation Todt]],<ref>{{cite book|last1=Harwood|first1=Jeremy|title=World War II From Above: An Aerial View of the Global Conflict|date=2014|publisher=Voyageur Press|isbn=978-0-7603-4573-3|page=161|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TEwgBQAAQBAJ&q=Todt+Organization+%22Rommel%22++responsibility}}</ref> which was not under Rommel's command, but he enthusiastically joined the task,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Jeanne Manning|first1=Jeanne|title=A Time to Speak|date=1999|publisher=Turner Publishing Company|isbn=978-1-56311-560-8|page=377|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tR63XIlcC7wC&pg=PA377}}</ref>{{sfn|Rice|2009|p=88}} protesting slave labour and suggesting that they should recruit French civilians and pay them good wages.{{sfn|Holderfield|Varhola|2009|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=xJs6WStOP2oC&pg=PA36 36]}} Despite this, French civilians and Italian prisoners of war held by the Germans were forced by officials under the Vichy government,<ref name=Schofield2011>{{cite news|last1=Schofield|first1=Hugh|title=Hitler's Atlantic Wall: Should France preserve it?|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-10632543|work=BBC News|year=2011|archive-date=9 December 2021|access-date=21 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211209193119/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-10632543|url-status=live}}</ref> the Todt Organization and the SS forces<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lepage |first1=Jean-Denis G.G. |title=Hitler's Armed Forces Auxiliaries: An Illustrated History of the Wehrmachtsgefolge, 1933–1945 |date= 2015 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-9745-4 |page=36 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AMv-CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA36}}</ref>{{sfn|Holderfield|Varhola|2009|p=34}} to work on building some of the defences Rommel requested, in appalling conditions according to historian Will Fowler. Although they got basic wages, the workers complained because it was too little and there was no heavy equipment.<ref name=Schofield2011/><ref>{{cite book|last1=Ambrose|first1=Stephen E.|title=D-Day: June 6, 1944 – The Climactic Battle of WWII|date=1994|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-0-671-67334-5|page=100|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DgG0Y-YyHBwC&pg=PA100}}</ref><ref name="Construction work was also undertaken by local labour hired by the Germans and paid well for their work.">{{cite book|last1=Fowler |first1=Will |year=2006 |title=D-Day: the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944 |publisher=Barnes & Noble |isbn= 978-0-7607-8003-9 |page=16 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=o3rjiMnmWBIC}}</ref>{{sfn|Beevor|2009|p=37}} {{Excessive citations inline|date=April 2021}}

German troops worked almost round-the-clock under very harsh conditions, with Rommel's rewards being [[accordion]]s.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Anderson |first1=Richard C. Jr.|title=Cracking Hitler's Atlantic Wall: The 1st Assault Brigade Royal Engineers on D-Day|year=2009|publisher=Stackpole Books|isbn=978-0-8117-4271-9|page=66|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sN1-w9qXgX4C&pg=PA66}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Williams|first1=Paul|title=Hitler's Atlantic Wall: Pas de Calais|year=2013|publisher=Casemate Publishers|isbn=978-1-84884-817-7|page=36|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rRm8bePTFqYC&pg=PA36}}</ref>

Rommel was one of the commanders who protested the [[Oradour-sur-Glane massacre]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Meyer |first1=Ahlrich |title=Die deutsche Besatzung in Frankreich 1940–1944: Widerstandsbekämpfung und Judenverfolgung |date=2000 |publisher=Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft |isbn=978-3-534-14966-7 |page=160 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QjhnAAAAMAAJ |access-date=3 January 2022 |language=de}}</ref>