Which Nazi general made his own coffin before his death during World War II?


 Maybe you might be thinking of Erwin Rommel who was a Field Marshal called the Desert Fox. He had not actually made a wooden box with tools, but he ordered his own coffin and arranged his own death so as to protect his family from the Nazis.

In 1944 Hitler believed that Rommel was involved in a conspiracy to kill him. Since Rommel was a great war hero, Hitler could not murder him openly or the people would be angry. So Hitler sent two generals to Rommel's house with a box of poison, and gave him a choice. They offered him the choice of going to a public trial for treason, which would send his wife and son to a concentration camp, or kil*lin-g himself immediately.


If Rommel chose po-i*son, Hitler promised the family would be safe and he a hero's funeral. Rommel did not wait to think about the choices Hitler gave. He went inside, and told his wife and his 15-year old son, Manfred, "I will be dead in fifteen minutes", and then, got in the car with the men that would kill him.


He spent his last hour making sure his death looked natural for the government to leave his family alone. He even put his favorite leather jacket on and put his baton in the car. It was a dark, planned move but it worked. The Nazis lied and said he had died from a heart attack. His son Manfred survived the war and became a very famous mayor in Germany.


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