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How Germany's 'Master Interrogator' relied on kindness and empathy during WWII

Hanns Scharff's methods were so effective they were adopted by the FBI.

Credit: Sony

Flattery really will get you everywhere.

Imagine it’s WWII. You’re an American fighter pilot (thank you for your service) and a prisoner of war (eek).

Your interrogator walks in, and instantly your mind begins to prepare you for the torture that lies ahead. Will you be kicked, whipped and beaten? Forced to stand for hours on end until you give the enemy crucial intel? The anticipation alone is excruciating.

Suddenly, your interrogator says, “What would you like for lunch?”

This would be your treatment if questioned under Hanns-Joachim Gottlob Scharff, “Master Interrogator” of Germany’s Luftwaffe branch, who’s unconventional techniques surprisingly reveal the power of kindness.

Scharff never sought out a military career, but a series of seemingly fated events led him to one nonetheless.

A businessman at the time, Scharff had been vacationing in Germany in 1939 when the war broke out and he was forcibly drafted into the army. His wife would help him avoid fighting on the front lines by vying for him to work as an interpreter.

It wouldn’t be long before Scharff would unintentionally move up the ranks. After two of his superiors died in a plane crash, he landed the position of lead interrogator.

Unlike his peers and predecessors, Scharff was opposed to obtaining information through physical or psychological abuse. Instead, he relied upon friendliness and empathy. He regularly took prisoners out to lunch and on luxurious nature walks, and he even offered them baked goods made by his wife. It was essentially more of a wooing than an interrogation.

In addition to the friendly approach, Scharff would also never press for information and perpetuated an illusion of knowing all the information already (which included acting unsurprised whenever a prisoner might reveal new intel). The last component of his strategy involved casually presenting a claim to see if the prisoner would confirm or deny it, otherwise known as the confirmation/disconfirmation tactic.

All these tricks proved incredibly effective. Not only was Scharrf highly successful at getting information (one prisoner famously remarked that he "could get a confession of infidelity from a nun”) he also managed to save the lives of multiple American pilots in the process. He even remained friends with one after the war.

His methods were so successful that following WWII, he was invited to give lectures in America, and he became a major influence on U.S. interrogation techniques.

One last fun fact: America is where Scharff would end up retiring, where he would take up creating mosaics—a passion he once had as a young boy. If you ever find yourself at Cinderella's Castle in Walt Disney World, you might find one of his works.

Cinderella, Disney World

Scharff clearly had many talents.

cdn1.parksmedia.wdprapps.disney.com

Not in Florida anytime soon? You can also find some of his work at the California State Capitol building, Los Angeles City Hall, and several American universities like Dixie College in Utah and the University of Southern California campus.

You know what they say—you catch more bees with honey than you do with vinegar. Getting the desired result from another person is often more easily achieved by being kind and understanding, both in times of war and in everyday life.

Frank Grasberger has been wishing he could meet Dashauna Priest for more than a decade. The 95-year-old WWII veteran from Strongsville, Ohio received a letter from Priest wrote when she was in the third grade 12 years ago, and he has kept it as a prized possession since then.

The letter was addressed, "Dear WWII Veteran," and read, "Thank you for saving us from Hitler. If it wasn't for you we would never have freedom. You made freedom for us. You sacrificed your life. I'm so happy you made sacrifices." It was signed, "Your friend, Dashauna Priest."

Grasberger's wife, Delores, told CBS News that he carries the letter everywhere. He said he sees it as a symbol of a life well-lived.


"I'm tickled to death that I have a letter like this," Grasberger told CBS. "I'd never be without it...it's something that somebody thought of me that much."

Delores added, "When he has that letter with him, he has a feeling of faith, and trust, and love."

Priest, now 21, told CBS News that she remembers writing the letter and was honored to do so because she so admired people in uniform. Now Priest has a uniform of her own as a member of the National Guard, and she wore it when she went to surprise Grasberger at the senior residence facility where he lives.

The Grasbergers had always wanted to find Priest but had never been able to. Knowing about his attachment to the letter and how much it meant to him, the staff at the residence facility tracked her down and arranged the surprise meeting for him.

Grasberger was overjoyed. Just watch:

WWII veteran meets woman who wrote him thank-you letter 12 years agowww.youtube.com

Priest told CBS that meeting Grasberger was the beginning of a friendship, then corrected herself. "Family, not friendship," she said.

What a beautiful story of gratitude, honor, sacrifice, and connection. You just never know the impact one small gesture will have on someone else's life.


75 years later, D-Day veteran meets long-lost French lovewww.youtube.com


There are millions of love stories in the world, but occasionally one stands out—like this one.

Falling in love is a universal human phenomenon without a universal definition. It can be a slow-building fire or a flash in the pan. It can happen over years, or over a single cup of coffee. Sometimes it fizzles and fades, and sometimes it lingers for a lifetime.


We all love a good love story. With so much pain and sadness in the world, stories of the enduring power of love lift us up and remind us of the beauty of real human connection.

We also love stories of people living well into old age and having significant experiences in their later years. Such stories give us hope and remind us that anything is possible.

This story of an American man and a French woman who met during the WWII is both, and it will make you believe in the mystery of love and the enduring power it can have.

K.T. Robbins and Jeannine Ganaye fell in love when Robbins was stationed in France 75 years ago, but their relationship would be short-lived.

He was 24. She was 18. He was serving in the U.S. army, stationed in her village in northeastern France. They were both caught up in the trials of war and the triumphs of new-found love.

According to TODAY, when Robbins was transferred to the Eastern Front, he had to say a quick goodbye to Ganaye. They talked of the possibility of him coming back for her. He took a photograph of her with him.

They wouldn't see one another again after that.

Robbins was sent back to America after the war, where he eventually got married and started a hardware store. Ganaye moved on, too, marrying and having five kids of her own in France.

They'd both left WWII with thoughts of reunion. Ganaye had even started to learn English in the hopes that Robbins would return. But life happened, and those hopes had to be abandoned. "You know, when you get married, after that you can't do it anymore,'' Robbins said.

Neither forgot about the other, however. And neither could have predicted that they'd get another chance 75 years later.

Robbins and Ganeye—now Pierson—recently reunited for the first time since the war, and it's seriously the sweetest thing.

He is 97. She is 92. His wife of 70 years has passed way, and her husband has passed as well.

Robbins was interviewed by French a television station for a D-Day anniversary segment, and he shared the photo he still had of Pierson.

He thought maybe they could track down his former sweetheart's family, never imagining that she would still be alive herself—or that she would live within 40 miles of the village of Briey, where they had met more than seven decades before.

In a video shared by France 24, a reporter informs Robbins that Pierson is alive and well, and that she is waiting for him to meet with her. His surprise and joy is palpable as he laughs and kisses the reporter on the forehead.

The video then cuts to the former couple's reunion, and their chemistry is instantaneous. "Jeanine Ganaye," Robbins says, as he walks up to her. The two embrace, and she kisses his face over and over. There are smiles and tears as they sit side by side, holding onto one another's hands.

"I always loved you," Robbins tells her. "You never got out of my heart."

Pierson told the television station, "I always thought about him, thinking maybe he was out there, that maybe he'd come." The two spent several hours together before they had to part once again—but this time with plans for another meeting.

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A viral video from the 1940s is eerily relevant today.

"In this country, we have no ‘other people.’ We are American people."

The internet's latest viral video is actually more than 70 years old — and as relevant as ever.

In 1947, the U.S. War Department (which later became the Department of Defense) released this 17-minute short film, "Don't Be a Sucker," into theaters around the country. Still reeling from the recent end of  World War II, the military put together a video with a strong message about fighting the spread of fascism in America.

The film found a new, modern audience when Michael Oman-Reagan tweeted a portion of it to his nearly 25,000 followers after a crowd of torch-wielding white supremacists marched on Charlottesville, Virginia.


The film parallels our current political reality in an eerie way, highlighting the dangers of letting the loudest voices divide us.

The clip starts with a man atop a soapbox, shouting, "I see Negros holding jobs that belong to me and you! Now I ask you, if we allow this thing to go on, what’s going to happen to us real Americans?"

[rebelmouse-image 19531674 dam="1" original_size="400x299" caption="GIFs from "Don't Be a Sucker"/Internet Archive." expand=1]GIFs from "Don't Be a Sucker"/Internet Archive.

"I tell you, friends, we'll never be able to call this country our own until it’s a country without ... Negros, without alien foreigners, without Catholics, without Freemasons."

Up to that point, a man standing in the crowd was nodding along to the soapbox bellower, even remarking, "This fella seems to know what he's talking about." But once he realizes that he falls into one of the man's banned categories (he notes that he's a Freemason), he quickly changes his tune.

From there, another man, a Hungarian-born professor, steps in to deliver the story's moral.

"I have seen what this kind of talk can do. I saw it in Berlin," he remarks. "I heard the same words we have heard today."

"But I was a fool then," he says before delivering the kicker: "I thought Nazis were crazy people, stupid fanatics. Unfortunately it was not so. They knew they were not strong enough to conquer a unified country, so they split Germany into small groups. They used prejudice as a practical weapon to cripple the nation."

Extremist groups rise to power by taking aim at different demographics. It's happening today, but we can fight back.

Whether you're a Democrat, Republican, or Independent, if you don't stand on the side of white supremacists, neo-Nazis, or the so-called "alt-right," you have something very important in common. It's in no one's long-term interest for these groups to succeed in setting us against one another and continuing their rise to power — no one's except their own.

Maybe you voted for Donald Trump in November, or maybe you didn't. Maybe you agree with the policies he's laid out, or maybe you're involved in the resistance. In the end, however, we probably all share a number of goals, even if we disagree on how to achieve them. Those goals are almost certainly not shared by white supremacists, and that's why it's important that we all take a stand against this hate.

Just because you or I aren't their targets now doesn't mean the same will be true a year from now, 10 years from now. There are people who need our support right now, and it's for the sake of the country as we know it.

You can watch the full video below or at the Internet Archive.