University accidentally uses Nazi quote in motivational message

Advice from Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
included in email to students

One-Minute Read

The email, sent out to students and staff by the university’s
careers advice service, quoted Field Marshal Erwin Rommel: “One
cannot permit unique opportunities to slip by for the sake of
trifles.”

Exeter said the quote was “randomly” generated from a website by
a member of staff who wanted to include a motivational message.
Unfortunately, the staff member did not recognise the general’s
name. 

A spokesperson explained: “This was a genuine error and in no
way intentional. However, we apologise unreservedly for any offence
it may have caused, and have put additional processes in place to
ensure this doesn’t happen again.”

This is not the first time that Exeter University has made
headlines recently. 

Earlier this year, students from a law society at the
institution shared “extremely racist and sexist messages in a
WhatsApp group, leading to multiple investigations and expulsions”,
says regional news site DevonLive. The row followed an outcry last
year following the discovery of a swastika carving and a
“rights for whites” sign on the university campus. 

The National Union of Students (NUS) says Jewish students in
Britain are feeling “increasingly unsafe” and often avoid applying
to certain campuses amid “fears of anti-Semitism”, the BBC reports.

“Exeter must take appropriate action to rectify the damage
caused and provide sufficient reassurances that something like this
will never happen again,” the NUS said in a statement.

Rommel, who was known as the Desert Fox, became a national hero
in Germany after commanding the Afrika Korps during the Second
World War.

However, his loyalty to the Nazi war machine has been the source
of much debate. After being implicated in a failed assassination
attempt on Adolf Hitler, Rommel was given the options of facing a
trial that would result in his execution, or commiting suicide.
Rommel chose the latter option, taking his own life in October 1944
at the age of 52.