# How many of Hitler's Officers commited suicide? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 24, 2006, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-hitlers-officers-commited-suicide/381688 "2006-11-24T22:21:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![diggleblop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@diggleblop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diggleblop)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-hitlers-officers-commited-suicide/381688/1 "2006-11-24T22:21:06Z")
I’m talking about near the end when the Russians finally broke through? Have any studies ever been done on the amount of Nazi officers who “off’d” themselves instead of being taken by the Russians or even any other country? ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-hitlers-officers-commited-suicide/381688/2 "2006-11-24T23:40:44Z")
Yes. But they did it for a variety of reasons, in a variety of scenarios. I recommend a good history (slanted or not) that focuses on the last six months of the Third Reich. (Shirer’s _Rise and Fall of the Third Reich_ is somewhat slanted but thorough in its coverage.) Examples: Rommel did it as a choice between that and disgrace (he wanted to overthrow Hitler). Goebbels did it out of loyalty to Hitler. Himmler did it when it dawned on him that surrender to the Allies meant he would be a criminal POW. Goering waited until being convicted at the Nuremburg Trials. At least a couple of field marshals did it out of a sense of honor. No single explanation of who did or didn’t suicide is adequate. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2006, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-hitlers-officers-commited-suicide/381688/3 "2006-11-26T06:12:41Z")
[QUOTE=Polycarp] \* Examples: Rommel did it as a choice between that and disgrace (he wanted to overthrow Hitler). . At least a couple of field marshals did it out of a sense of honor. No single explanation of who did or didn’t suicide is adequate. [/QUOTE] Rommel wasn’t actually that noble,he was asked to join the plot against Hitler but hedged his bets by refusing to join the conspiracy but not informing the security services of what he knew ;instead waiting to see who came out on top. His intransigence did him no good ,after the plot had failed and his lack of action to prevent it became known to Hitler he was given the choice of committing suicide within a very short period (and given the means to do so) or of being executed by the agonising method of having a butchers hook stabbed into him and then lifted into the air to die slowly,the fate suffered by the other guilty senior officers. He was informed also that if he was executed his family would be aswell. Hitlers reason for giving him the choice was that he didn’t want the general public to know that such a well known figure had comitted treachery so it was put out that Rommel had died of wounds suffered during an air attack on his car. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2006, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-hitlers-officers-commited-suicide/381688/4 "2006-11-26T14:21:46Z")
[QUOTE=Lust4Life] Rommel wasn’t actually that noble,he was asked to join the plot against Hitler but hedged his bets by refusing to join the conspiracy but not informing the security services of what he knew ;instead waiting to see who came out on top. [quote] In his defence, I believe he had serious doubts about the conspiritors, and thought they were about as bright as a burned-out light bulb. ---
**Author:** ![jimmmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@jimmmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimmmy)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2006, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-hitlers-officers-commited-suicide/381688/5 "2006-11-26T15:02:23Z")
German Field Marshals who died [1944-1946](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_German_Field_Marshals) : Suicide to escape Allied capture Walther Model Robert Ritter von Greim Executed by the Allies Wilhelm Keitel Suicide to escape Allied Execution Herman Goring Captured by the Allies but died in Custody awaiting Trial/disposition Walther von Brauchitsch Ernst Busch Conspirators against Hitler Von Klug Rommel Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg Erwin von Witzleben Died in Battle Von Bock ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2006, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-hitlers-officers-commited-suicide/381688/6 "2006-11-26T15:42:42Z")
And for what it’s worth, Goering (though he probably didn’t deserve it) was Germany’s only _Reichsmarschal_, outranking every _Feldmarschal_, the equivalent of a six-star rank (cf. America’s “General of the Armies” rank – itself subject to some debate).