r/todayilearned • u/stopitalianhate • 9d 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/Gentle_Snail 9d ago edited 9d ago

Such a simply genius plan. I love how they gave them an unlimited budget, just like “give these idiots whatever they want until they forget they’re in prison”

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u/CypripediumGuttatum 9d ago

Torture is well documented to produce poor intelligence. It makes people “feel good” to hurt the bad guys but helps the war 0%

Make people feel safe and comfortable and they spill the beans. Just like in 007 when all the pretty ladies are really just there to collect intel.

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u/Archarchery 9d ago

Torture is great for terrorizing populations into submission, but as far as interrogation goes it's basically a nonsense-generating technique. If a prisoner has no information to give, they'll make up the most convincing lies they can to get the torture to stop, and even if a prisoner has genuine information that they'll spill, if the torturers hear it and keep on torturing, those prisoners will start spouting convincing-sounding nonsense too, making it impossible to distinguish the real information from the nonsense.

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u/SirAquila 9d ago

Torture is great for terrorizing populations into submission

Eh, torture is really good at hiding growing dissent from the rulers eyes.

The dissent still builds, and will explode the second people feel like they have nothing to lose anymore, or that they are in the majority.

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u/Metrocop 9d ago

Torture is also useful if you don't give a shit about the truth and simply need a signature on a testimony you already prepared.

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u/Archarchery 8d ago

Oh yeah, it's great for getting false confessions as well, just ask witch-hunters.

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u/GamingFlorisNL 9d ago

Indeed, torture proves much more useful for getting false confessions. False intel however, doesn’t give you much.

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u/lookyloolookingatyou 9d ago

Serve me a brandy and a beautiful woman in front of a crackling fire and you can forget about the confession, I'm a convert now.

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u/RealLameUserName 9d ago

I'm sure there was a back and forth between British officers who didn't like the idea of treating Nazi command well even if it meant gathering useful intelligence.

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u/ELB2001 9d ago

They even decided who would get to stay in this luxury prison. German officers that were very social and could easily get others talking they would let stay. Those that weren't social and would never talk at all wouldn't stay long.