The Interrogator: The Story of Hanns Joachim Scharff: Master Interrogator of the Luftwaffe (Schiffer Military History) [Hardcover]

Raymond T. Toliver (Author), Hanns Joachim Scharff (Author)

Book Description

Series: Schiffer Military History | Publication Date: December 1, 1997

This is the story of Hanns Scharff the master interrogator of the Luftwaffe who questioned captured American fighter pilots of the USAAF Eighth and Ninth Air Forces in World War II. This Intelligence Officer gained the reputation as the man who could magi

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.; Rev Upd edition (December 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764302612
• ISBN-13: 978-0764302619
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.7 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #375,844 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interrogation Techniques Used on American Airmen During WWII, February 23, 2001

By 

Sam Flynn (Elfers, Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Interrogator: The Story of Hanns Joachim Scharff: Master Interrogator of the Luftwaffe (Schiffer Military History) (Hardcover)

Having researched the history of the post that was formerly Dulag Luft as it is known. "Auswerstelle West" as it should have been referred to after 1941. I found this book to be extremely helpful. As children we always think of torture when it came to interrogations- the common tv perception. It was refreshing to find that the techniques used were not that much different than those employed by today's law enforcement- no not the TV cops with the physical abuse. I grew up on the post, later a US Army post, and the rumors were rampant.I also find it refreshing to see that the Author, Raymond Toliver, a true historian, who has a passion for the subject, addressed the issues of how prisoners were treated by the allies after the war. This book is a must read for anyone who is serious about researching how allied pilots were treated. It would also serve those who are serving today to see the trickery- craft- used by the interrogors.It was also amazing to learn the types of intelligence collected and how it was collated. 5 stars a must read.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "must-read" book for interrogation techniques!, July 9, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Interrogator: The Story of Hanns Joachim Scharff: Master Interrogator of the Luftwaffe (Schiffer Military History) (Hardcover)

This book is a fast reader and proves that one doesn't need to beat, hit, scream at, or torture people (as is portrayed in the movies) to get information from them. If you're interested in interrogation techniques and some mind games employed by the Nazi's and the extensive database that they maintained on Allied pilots, this book is definitely for you.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not the Nazi torturer of movies, but a real Interrogator!, June 9, 1998

By 

John E. Mclaughlin (Brigham City, UT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Interrogator: The Story of Hanns Joachim Scharff: Master Interrogator of the Luftwaffe (Schiffer Military History) (Hardcover)

We've seen him many times shining a bright white light in the face of his battered, starved, and barely conscious prisoners, this stereotype of the wicked Nazi interrogator. But this is a fiction for propoganda purposes. Hans Scharff was the real thing, no torture, no bright lights, only treating his prisoners with the utmost respect and humanity. In fact, when he emigrated from Germany to the United States, it was his former prisoners who sponsored his entry into the U.S. and subsequent citizenship. Yet this respect for the enemy is precisely the key which also made him one of the most successful of German interrogators. He gives details of information which he got from prisoners who firmly claimed that they never told him anything. One photo in the book shows Scharff standing talking to Gen. James Doolittle, leader of the first raid on Tokyo and the Eighth Air Force's strategic bombing of Germany, and Gen. Curtis LeMay, father of the Strategic Air Command, at a reception. This photo shows the respect with which Scharff is held since the publication of the first edition of this book in the 1970s, especially when Scharff was only the equivalent of a Private First Class in the Luftwaffe! When the first edition of this book was published, it became the unofficial textbook for the Army Interrogation school at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. He is arguably the brightest star in the heaven of prisoner-of-war interrogators.

This book also has a dark side, however, starkly contrasted with the shining career of Scharff. It includes a stereotype-shattering expose of how the U.S. and British Armies mistreated German prisoners after the surrender, literally allowing thousands of them to die of starvation and exposure by not declaring them to be prisoners of war and thus not subject to Geneva Convention standards of care. Because of this misuse of the Geneva Conventions, the U.S. and British Armies didn't have to feed them or give them shelter. They wouldn't even allow the disarmed Germans to go home, opting to hold them instead for months in open-air enclosures that became death camps. While Axis POWs in the U.S. were treated well, the postwar treatment of the Germans in Europe ranks with Andersonville, Georgia, and Alton, Illinois, as black stains on U.S. history. Scharff somehow survived this nightmare treatment and his story is one of the triumph of human dignity in the face of astonishing organized evil.

This book is a must for anyone interested in military intelligence or the treatment of prisoners of war in general.