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The controversial monument to the nazi general Erwin Rommel , known as the “desert fox”, in his home town of Heidenheim (southern Germany), now with the addition of the silhouette of a victim of landmines casts its shadow on it.
The goal of the remodeling is to achieve a compromise between the supporters of booting the monument to the general who directed the campaign italo-German north Africa during the Second World War and those who wanted to preserve the block of limestone. Erected in 1961 at the behest of an association of veterans of the fighting in Africa, the monument has a plaque that qualifies the “desert fox” of “straight, chivalrous and brave until his death as a victim of the dictatorship”.
despite the fact that there is a myth that Rommel, who was forced to commit suicide after the failed attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944, was a member of the resistance against the nazi leader, the version is more widespread among historians today does not give you an active role in the conspiracy. In the last few decades there have been protests of activists requesting that they stop to pay homage to that considered a war criminal ; in several occasions the block woke up covered in graffiti and there have been several attempts to destroy hammer.
The grounds of the Hall
The City of Hildenheim is reluctant, however, to dismantle the monument on the grounds that the mayor qualifies for “non-ideological” , because he argues that the monolith is simply a fruit of its time and is part of a heritage .
however, from now on, in front of the block stands the figure of a person with crutches and an amputated leg, with the purpose to remind the victims who still today leave anti-personnel mines placed by the forces of Rommel at El Alamein (Egypt). “I wanted to confront the mass of the original monument with the fragility of the victims of the mines,” explained the sculptor Rainer Joos, author of silhouette , in declarations picked up by the local newspaper Südwest Presse.
The “desert fox” also gives its name to several streets and squares in various places, German , although in recent times there are initiatives that require the removal of the general street.
