Rommel's Son

SINOPSIS

Narrated by General David Petraeus. The film focuses on an interview conducted by the World War II Foundation with the son of the famed German World War II Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. Manfred Rommel, who passed away in 2013, was the general's only child and was a teenager at home in Herrlingen, Germany when he witnessed the phone call alerting his father that the Normandy invasion was underway. Erwin Rommel had taken a trip from his headquarters in Normandy, France to be with his wife and Manfred's mother, on her 50th birthday, which was June 6, 1944. Rommel was responsible for the defense of Western France from an Allied invasion. Later, young Manfred Rommel also witnessed his father being escorted away from his home by German soldiers, the end result being his father's forced suicide for his alleged role in the July 20, 1944 assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler. Manfred Rommel went on to become the long-serving mayor of Stuttgart, Germany. The documentary tells the story of what it was like to be the son of German's most famous WWII soldier. Manfred Rommel also shares his own personal memories of his father, D-Day's impact on the general and the day his father was forced to take his own life.