Editing Erwin Rommel (section)

=== Executions of prisoners in France ===
In France, Rommel ordered the execution of one French officer who refused three times to cooperate when being taken prisoner; there are disputes as to whether this execution was justified.{{sfn|Pimlott|1994|p=48}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sebag-Montefiore |first1=Hugh |year=2007 |title=Dunkirk: Fight to the Last Man |publisher=Penguin UK |isbn=978-0-14-190616-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V7r-F7FxtrYC&pg=PR155}}</ref> Caddick-Adams comments that this would make Rommel a war criminal condemned by his own hand, and that other authors overlook this episode.{{sfn|Caddick-Adams|2012|pp=471–472}} Butler notes that the officer refused to surrender three times and thus died in a courageous but foolhardy way.{{sfn|Butler|2015|p=160}} French historian Petitfrère remarks that Rommel was in a hurry and had no time for useless palavers, although this act was still debatable.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Petitfrère|first1=Ray|title=La mystique de la croix gammée|date=1962|publisher=Éditions France-Empire|page=410|quote=<!-- Rommel, pressé, avait à son sens d'autres chats à fouetter que de perdre son temps en vaines palabres. La presse alliée, à tort ou à raison, lui reprocha cette exécution sommaire, qu'il narra lui-même... -->}}</ref> Telp remarks that, "he treated prisoners of war with consideration. On one occasion, he was forced to order the shooting of a French lieutenant-colonel for refusing to obey his captors."{{sfn|Beckett|2014|loc=Chapter 2 – Claus Telp, "Rommel and 1940", [https://books.google.com/books?id=Lc07BAAAQBAJ&dq=rommel+shot+colonel&pg=PA52]|p=52}} Scheck says, "Although there is no evidence incriminating Rommel himself, his unit did fight in areas where German massacres of black French prisoners of war were extremely common in June 1940."<ref name="Mythos Rommel (Raffael Scheck)">Scheck, 2010</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Scheck|first1=Raffael|title=Hitler's African Victims: The German Army Massacres of Black French Soldiers&nbsp;... |page=28|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k8g3X-mlZbYC&pg=PA28|year=2006|publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-85799-4}}</ref>{{sfn|Pimlott|2003|p=47}}<ref>''Les crimes nazis lors de la libération de la France (1944–1945)'' Dominique Lormier 2014.</ref>{{Excessive citations inline|date=April 2021}}

Historian David Stone notes that acts of shooting surrendered prisoners were carried out by Rommel's 7th Panzer Division and observes contradictory statements in Rommel's account of the events; Rommel initially wrote that "any enemy troops were wiped out or forced to withdraw" but also added that "many prisoners taken were hopelessly drunk."<ref>{{cite book |title=Hitler's Army: The men, machines and organisation 1939–1945 |quote=<!-- Similar acts had also been perpetrated by soldiers of Rommels 7th Division on 5 June against the defenders of Le Quesnoy. Rommel noted in his own account of the action that "any enemy troops were either wiped out or forced to withdraw"; at the same time he also provided the disparaging (but possibly somewhat contradictory in light of his first note) observation that "many of the prisoners taken were hopelessly drunk"--> |first=David |last=Stone |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |date=2014}}</ref> Stone attributes the massacres of soldiers from the ''53ème Regiment d'Infanterie Coloniale'' (N'Tchoréré's unit) on 7 June to the 5th Infantry Division.{{refn|group=N|"On 7 June, a number of soldiers of the 53ème Régiment d'Infanterie Coloniale were shot, probably by troops of the 5th Panzer."|{{sfn|Stone|2014|pp=229.340}}}} Historian Daniel Butler agrees that it was possible that the massacre at Le Quesnoy happened given the existence of Nazis, such as Hanke, in Rommel's division, while stating that in comparison with other German units, few sources regarding such actions of the men of the 7th Panzer exist. Butler believes that "it's almost impossible to imagine" Rommel authorising or countenancing such actions. He also writes that "Some accusers have twisted a remark in Rommel's own account of the action in the village of Le Quesnoy as proof that he at least tacitly condoned the executions—'any enemy troops were either wiped out or forced to withdraw'—but the words themselves as well as the context of the passage hardly support the contention."{{sfn|Butler|2015|pp=173–174}}