Tag #148501 - Interview #78035 (marina sineokaya)

The first captive I was to interrogate happened to be a German pilot, whose plane was brought down in the suburbs of Leningrad. He was a tall broad-shouldered, handsome blue-eyed blond. He was aware that he was in captivity and it cooled his pride. But when he saw that there was a frightened and embarrassed girl in front of him, he decided to use another tactic, which worked very well. He started to talk about his family, showed the letters from his wife with the imprints from her lipstick.

At the beginning of the interrogation he said that he began to fight in Italy and only recently he was sent to Leningrad. He said that he hadn’t participated in the bombing, and that he wasn’t able to release even a single bomb and that his plane had been brought down. His story made me feel sympathetic towards him, as I thought he was suffering for no purpose. I jotted down all his answers. Usually the interrogated were sent to the camp, but that one was sent to the headquarters for some reason. During the cross-examination in the headquarters it was found out that he was a double-dyed German officer, who took part in the siege of Leningrad from the first day as well as in constant bombings of the city. When I got to know that I got so frustrated that I told the headquarters commander that I was ready to do any other job - to type, wash the floors, but not to cross-examine the captives.