 "Ten great pages..." | 2007-04-26 |
| - Reviewed By richmonte |
| ... but the rest was boring. The book is more about the interrogator himself (his experiences, who he interrogated, his life before and after the war) than about his interrogation techniques. Those techniques, while interesting, could have been covered in a 15 page magazine article. Additonally, the editing was *horrible*: the 'U.S.' instead of 'us' error (as in 'the three of U.S. went to the park') was especially grating. |
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 "Personal interest" | 2007-01-12 |
| - Reviewed By User: ASV7KQEQV5Y97 |
I am German and inhabitant of the german town Oberursel, where Ray Toliver's Story mainly happens. I reside just a few miles away from the former "Interrogator Camp", which was later (after World War II) run from the U.S. Military Forces for more than 25 years. The time when american soldiers lived "next door", was my youth, and so I had a lot of contacts to all the american people I met there, and today I have a lot of fine memories. The story and the description of the whole terrain of the later "Camp King" was a good opportunity to complete my knowledge about this place.
Good stuff also for all americans which are interested in the U.S.-German relationship after WW II! |
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 "INTRIGUING" | 2006-03-10 |
| - Reviewed By ericrachut |
According to the author, the key to his success was to break down the prisoner's resistance by surprising him with unexpected, inside knowledge - for example, from a photograph inadvertently shot by an airplane's gun camera or gleaned from
the prisoner's personal effects. The book also describes an error made in the identifying photograph included with the false papers provided downed pilots for the purpose of evading capture in France - a German could immediately spot this as fake ID and the escapee would be picked up at leisure. A good companion book is Spycatcher, by Oresto Pinto (interrogated refugees entering Britain during WW II, in order to detect German spies). |
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| "Interrogation Techniques Used on American Airmen During WWII" | 2001-02-24 |
| - Reviewed By sw157 |
| 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. |
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| "A "must-read" book for interrogation techniques!" | 2000-07-09 |
| - Reviewed By Anonymous |
| 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. |
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| "A Great Book about Great Tactics" | 2000-04-27 |
| - Reviewed By Anonymous |
| This book focuses on the interrogation tactics used by Hans J. Scharff on allied airmen that had been captured. Although the airmen were highly trained in resistance, he still managed to complete his task of obtaining information. The Author did an excellent job of telling the story. Also, on a personal note, I found it interesting to see what happened on a post where I grew up so many years before I lived there. |
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| "Intriguing and factual, a career worth reading about." | 1998-10-21 |
| - Reviewed By Anonymous |
| Scharff's career as an interrogator was phenomonial, and this book exposes some of his tricks of the trade in working information out of the cream of the crop: Allied airmen. As someone who knew and interviewed dozens of airmen and pilots who fell into his hands, as well as having worked with Ray Toliver on other endeavors, this book is perhaps the only factual, unabridged expose on German intelligence gathering that destroys the wartime and post-war propaganda. Scharff was, of course, one of a kind. However, his method set the standard for Cold War interrogation policy. An important book for all students of intelligence history and operations. I am proud to have an autographed copy in my collection. |
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| "Not the Nazi torturer of movies, but a real Interrogator!" | 1998-06-10 |
| - Reviewed By nuwi_taivottsi |
| 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. |
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 "Did you guys even read this book?" | |
| - Reviewed By Anonymous |
| Sure, this book has some facts in it, but so does the encyclopedia. I'm not urging anyone to go out and buy a set of those either. This book was very dry reading. I think reading can labels is far more interesting than this book. I'm sure the other readers of this book enjoyed it for the fascination with the facts -- as I am. But to give this book good stars just because he threw in some facts would be an outrage. |
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| "A "must-read" book for interrogation techniques!" | |
| - Reviewed By Anonymous |
| 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. |
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