The Nazi Interrogator Who Killed Them with Kindness

Hitler. Himmler. Goering. Goebbels. Even the most casual student of history knows this roster of infamous Nazis that were responsible for some of the greatest evils the world has ever known. Of the millions that were killed by German hands during World War II, countless thousands were prisoners of war. Often massive numbers of prisoners were killed at a time in acts of retaliation for the killing of German soldiers. POWs and even civilians were routinely turned over to the Gestapo for interrogation, never to be seen again, whether or not they divulged any useful information or not. POWs would do most anything to avoid ending up in Gestapo hands. Hogan’s Heroes provided a less-than-realistic depiction of life in a POW camp. There were few bumbling, indifferent Germans like Sergeant Schultz keeping guard in the Stalag prison system.

Over the decades, the image of the sadistic Nazi interrogator has become commonplace. A bright light in the prisoner’s eye while he’s sitting in a lone chair in the middle of a stark room – the threat or even meting out of torture always just a second away. However, violent means of Nazi interrogation were often unsuccessful. Many prisoners would endure sickening treatment but still only state basic information like name, rank and serial number, or give bogus information to their captors.

But one notable German man, who one prisoner would note could get a confession of infidelity from a nun, employed very different means of interrogation, often with much more success than with the point of a bayonet- killing them with kindness. His name was Hanns Scharff – the kind-hearted Nazi interrogator.