The interrogator: The story of Hanns Scharff, Luftwaffe's master interrogator

The popular view of interrogation, particularly at the hands of the Axis powers during world war two, is that POW's were brutalised, beaten, and given frequent electric shocks of the gonads. While these things may have happened to some, and probably do happen in some countries today, it is also misleading. Raymond Toliver's work chronicles the wartime experiences of his friend, Hans Scharff, the Luftwaffe's so-called "master interrogator." In so doing, he exposes this popular view of interrogation as often mythical, and also gives a human face to the enemy many thought they knew. If this book is to be relied upon - and there are many positive accounts of Scharff from former POW's - then Scharff was a compassionate and civilised man fighting for his country and doing his best to ensure that POW's divulged their secrets without resorting to violence or abuse. Now, there are serious flaws to this book. The first is the appalling standard of proof reading, which points to a small run publisher. For example, some of the German was so badly spelled as to be literally incomprehensible, and I speak reasonable German. Similarly, every time the word "us" was present in the text, it appeared as "U.S." There are numerous similar faux pas. The other flaw, from a strict sense, is that the author was writing about someone whom he considered his friend, and this clearly colours some of the judgments, and impacts on the way the book was written. The book was actually taken from tape recordings of conversations between the author and his subject, but written after the latter's death. The way comments by Scharff are interspersed with the narrative should be compelling reading, but it is not. For the first half of the book, these comments are irritating, but eventually the reader is numbed into accepting them for what they are, and how they are presented. As for Scharff, the personal accounts given by former POW's could point to a mass occurrence of Stockholm syndrome, but I don't accept it. Germans in the second world war weren't all Nazis, and they weren't all evil. Many were decent folk fighting for their country, and trying to remain civilised notwithstanding all that was happening to them. Scharff was one of these men. In spite of the fact he was interrogating men accused by the Nazis of atrocities against women and children, he managed to treat his subjects with kindness and courtesy. In working their way through this book, the reader has many preconceptions challenged, not the least of which is how POW's are most effectively interrogated. It also asks the reader to consider as well, how humanity can survive in war. For this it is worth reading, but the book's presentation seriously lets it down.