The Führer
In November 1942 Field Marshal Erwin Rommel knew that the end was near for Germany’s forces in North Africa. The British 8th Army had broken his line at El Alamein and was pushing relentlessly westward across Libya. A large American and British force had landed in Morocco and Algeria, and was advancing eastward toward Tunisia. Supplies of fuel and ammunition to his own army had been reduced to a trickle by Allied interdiction. Rommel returned to Germany for a meeting with Adolf Hitler on November 28. In a tense atmosphere the field marshal went over the details of the recent campaign. When he tried to point out the inevitable, he was astounded at the reaction:
Unfortunately, I then came too abruptly to the point and said that, since experience indicated that no improvement in the shipping situation could now be expected, the abandonment of the African theatre of war should be accepted as a long-term policy. If the army remained in North Africa, it would be destroyed… the mere mention of the strategic question worked like a spark in a powder barrel. The Fuehrer flew into a fury and directed a stream of completely unfounded attacks upon us.
There was no attempt at discussion. I began to realize that Adolf Hitler simply did not want to see the situation as it was, and that he reacted emotionally against what his intelligence must have told him was right.126
In many ways Adolf Hitler was a genius. He was a charismatic leader and master motivator. He had at his disposal one of the great military machines in history, led by a corps of supremely capable general officers. Fortunately for the Allies, he sometimes overruled these officers during his fits of rage. Anyone who becomes so obsessed with his own ego that he can’t listen to others is doomed to failure. This fatal flaw was a manifestation of evil in Adolf Hitler that played a large role in his and Germany’s eventual destruction.
They are free from the burdens common to man; they are not plagued by human ills. Therefore pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence. From their callous hearts comes iniquity; the evil conceits of their minds know no limits.
—Psalm 73:5–7