Heritage Auctions at their Historical Manuscripts Grand Format Auction #6149 in New York on November 4 – 5th, among many interesting items, will be offering several lots associated with WWII German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel:
Lot 49179: An never-sent autograph letter, written two weeks before Rommel’s death by forced suicide, dated October 1, 1944, to Hitler justifying reverses at Allied hands in Normandy and attempting to defend his Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Hans Speidel (arrested three weeks earlier for participation in the plot to kill Hitler).
Lot 49180: A typed letter to Captain Helmuth Lang,his aide-de-camp, dated September 18, 1944, thanking that officer for his letter and commenting on Rommel’s recovery from an Allied air attack two months earlier.
Lot 49181: Four Photograph Albums compiled by Hellmuth Lang containing 750 photographs, a presentation copy of Cornelius Ryan’s Book The Longest Day, and an original copy of Rommel’s Death Announcement.
Lot 49182: A signed photograph of Erwin Rommel (see above) formerly the property of his aide Helmuth Lang.
Heritage Auctions’ Thoughts on Rommel’s Last Days.
GoneWithTheWind
My physics prof was assigned to Rommel right after he graduated with his PhD in physics in WW II. He was a civilian scientists attache to the general. He was captured in Africa and spent the rest of the war as a POW in the U.S. Not in prison however he was assigned to/in the custody of another PhD prof in NY City. An interesting arrangement. He had good stories about Rommel but took some encouragement to get him to talk about it.
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