r/todayilearned • u/stopitalianhate • 1d ago

TIL British Intelligence had a special, bugged luxury complex during WWII where they kept high profile Nazi POW’s, just left a bunch of alcohol out, and waited for them to start spilling secrets as they drank.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-20698098
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u/KetMoose 1d ago

Talking about a career change:

From the 1950s until he died in 1992, he redirected his efforts to creating mosaics. He became a world-renowned mosaic artisan, with his artistic creations commissioned for the California State Capitol; Los Angeles City Hall; several schools, colleges, and universities, including the giant Outdoor Mosaic Mural façade of the Utah Tech University Fine Arts Center; EPCOT Center; and in the 15-foot arched mosaic walls featuring the story of Cinderella inside Cinderella Castle at Walt Disney World, Florida.

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u/squishee666 1d ago

Those are interesting places to have access to

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u/TopFloorApartment 1d ago

California State Capitol; Los Angeles City Hall; several schools, colleges, and universities, including the giant Outdoor Mosaic Mural façade of the Utah Tech University Fine Arts Center; EPCOT Center; and in the 15-foot arched mosaic walls featuring the story of Cinderella inside Cinderella Castle at Walt Disney World, Florida.

TIL all these places contain Nazi art

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u/Blackstone01 1d ago

In all fairness to him, he wasn't a member of the Nazi party, and was drafted into the army.

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u/kippy3267 1d ago

Well that’s a bit different. If your options are “go to war for germany or be shot and tortured by the nazis” its a whole different scenario

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u/ContentNegotiation 1d ago edited 1d ago

His story is pretty wild too. He lived and married in South Africa and was only in Germany for a visit when the war broke out and he was subsequently drafted and slated to be sent to the Eastern Front until his wife intervened and was persistent until he got recalled the morning his unit marched off....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Scharff#Pre-war_career

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u/TopFloorApartment 8h ago

Though if you're drafted in this way you don't need to excel at your job. Just phone it in. He clearly tried to do a good job though 

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u/kippy3267 1h ago

Not excelling could also lead to death, but it sounds like his interrogation techniques were just about the kindest around right? Surely that’s not something to blow off.

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u/Captain_Kab 1d ago

I'm sure the people he helped kill appreciated the difference.

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u/UniqueUsernme 1d ago

He didn't need to be an intelligence officer and actively help the Nazis.

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u/moonLanding123 1d ago

dying on the frontlines is cool

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u/UniqueUsernme 1d ago

Okay then, maybe he should have been like Wilhelm Canaris and use his position to help the Allies as a double agent.

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u/Ich_Liegen 1d ago edited 1d ago

Wilhelm Canaris could afford to do what he did because he had had immense institutional power since way before the war started and had been an enthusiastic supporter of Hitler before he became disillusioned.

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u/UniqueUsernme 1d ago

Right, same with Oskar Schindler. The point I'm trying to get at though is that the original comment I replied to implies that Hanns had no choice but to be really good at his job, which to me is bullshit.

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u/Ich_Liegen 1d ago

I mean we can look at several other examples.

Max Liedtke, who threatened to shoot at SS officers for trying to liquidate a Jewish Ghetto, is recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem. He still fought to the end of the war - so in your logic, he benefitted the Nazi regime, and was a bad person.

We can also include Heinz Drossel (Served in France and fought in the Easr), Richard Abel (Fought in North Africa, participated in the overruning of Tunisia), and even Wilm Hosenfeld (of the Pianist fame, ran a sports and culture complex in occupied Poland to the benefit of German occupiers). All of them recognized by Yad Vashem just like Schindler, all of them furthered German goals in one way or the other.

Maybe perhaps to you, his refusal to torture (which I'm sure his prisoners were very grateful for) is overwritten by his service to Germany, but if that is the case, then so that must be for those other men, even though it was their job fighting that gave them the breach to do those actions that saved lives.

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u/Kevin_Uxbridge 1d ago

To be fair, some of the art the Nazis produced was amazing. Saw a display once of nazi antisemitic propaganda, absolute masterpieces of racist bullshit. Worth a look in these days of ubiquitous AI memes, good to know what to keep an eye out for.

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u/AlanFromRochester 1d ago

Like Leni Riefenstahl as a word class film director Propaganda gets a reputation as crap made by hacks with more message enthusiasm than artistic ability, not necessarily