Nazis and kindness don’t tend to go hand in hand, which is why it might come as a surprise to hear that one Nazi interrogator actually made it his mission to treat downed World War II fighter pilots as pleasantly as possible.
Dubbed the ‘Master Interrogator’ of the Luftwaffe, Hanns Scharff would make often friendly conversation with those he was trying to extract information from, and even let one American soldier take a German plane for a test run.
What’s more, when WWII eventually drew to a close, Scharff shipped himself off to the States and snagged himself a job as a mosaic decorator for a pretty big company.
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Learn all about Scharff below:
As TikToker @historyfeels explains in an informative TikTok video: “Hanns Scharff was the top Nazi interrogator during WWII.
“He had one simple tactic: to be as nice as possible to the subject. Hans was fluent in English and because of this he was assigned as an interrogator for the German Luftwaffe.”
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They continued: “He was tasked with gaining information from crashed allied pilots. Now, having seen prisoner abuse from his time as an assistant, he vowed to never do the same.
“So he used kindness, friendliness and empathy so that the prisoners would let their guard down. He told stories, he took detainees on long walks, he even let a captured US pilot take a short flight on a German fighter plane. All the while he was extracting secrets without them even knowing it.”
The TikToker added: “His tactics are still being studied today by the FBI and it’s been found that not only do you get more information, but you get more accurate information by using his methods.
“Amazingly, after the war, he became a mosaic artist and moved to the United States and was even hired by Walt Disney.”
And it’s true, in 1948 Scharff did immigrate to the USA and found instant success as a mosaic artist.
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In the 70s, Scharff created one of his most famous works - the 15-foot mosaic lining Cinderella Castle at Walt Disney World in Florida.
Scharff also created the marble floor inside the California state capitol building and the eagle floor at the University of Southern California.
When creating the artwork for Cinderella Castle, Scharff enlisted the help of his daughter-in-law, Monika Scharff, who eventually became his business partner.
The pair formed 'Scharff and Scharff' and worked side-by-side until Scharff’s death in 1992, at which point Monika took over the company.
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Topics: World War 2, World News, TikTok