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General Patton and Further Interrogations

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Were you General Patton's personal interpreter?

No, I told last time that we were a team of twelve different interrogators, who each had a different specialty. General Patton relied on the information that he got from us. I told you that we had an editing section that produced a program. I can show you a program there. That’s what I have in the Album.

How did he choose you?

How he chose me I don't know. I told you last time that the Belgians wanted me to broadcast. I applied for transfer and they refused me, and I was very upset. I went there and I asked, "Why do you do that, and don't let me go where I want to go?" And they said, "Well you were chosen for General Patton and he has priority." So I knew already in England that I was going to be the interpreter among the other interpreters. The other interpreters were teams—language teams.

What was your specialty?

My specialty was the 17th SS Brigade. That was one of the German master units that they had. Whenever there was a prisoner that belonged to that outfit, he came to me.

Did Patton's confidence help to remove fear or being scared?

Scared? No. We were very happy to be part of his organization. It was a great honor to be part of Third Army headquarters you know. It was really a very soft job. Although we were not allowed—I lost all of my hair because we had to wear steel helmets and liner in the offices—in the over heated offices. So all the people in my outfit lost their hair because we were forced to make it look as if it was front line—that’s what Patton wanted.

Did Patton ever come to you personally to discuss a report you had given him?

No, that was not his style. He would probably read the reports and make his decisions on where to attack on the reports that we gave him. We told him how many men were opposite him, and what units were opposite. They put the whole picture together and then they made the decision with the general staff. We had nothing to do with that. We just gave him the elements, the rest he had to figure out himself.

So there wasn't a great deal of clarification between Patton and your staff?

Well the editing section was very good and they knew how to present it in such a way that he didn't need to have us. I don't remember that he ever asked for clarification. We were clear enough I think. Many of these details that we got helped him to make the decision.

Any examples of your information being false?

False? No. We didn't have false information. We really didn't. You know, the Germans are very strange people. They don't do that. They were not tricky. They were rather naive. A whole country can go up in flames like that from one day to the next. You have to follow orders. They were very good at that. That made them feel they weren't responsible. Not much was left to their own invention. They do things because it was told to them that they have to do it. And that’s how they conduct themselves until today.

If you look at what happens right now in Germany, they don't do what we wanted them to do. We didn't expect that they would go with the Russians and the French and give us a slap in the face in Iraq. We thought that they would be grateful for what we have done for them and that they would embrace our thoughts. Well, they didn't do so, and I am not surprised. Our government is very surprised—Mr. Bush is very surprised—because Mr. Bush doesn't know much. He didn't foresee what could happen.

None of them foresaw why Saddam Hussein sent away the inspectors. They all thought he was hiding something. What he was hiding was that he had nothing. And until now they haven't understood—they still speak about the weapons of mass destruction. They were supposed to think that they had weapons of mass destruction. If it wasn't for the Israelis who bombed the generator that the French had sold Iraq, that was really the reason why there are no weapons of mass destruction. And he never paid the French for this generator. Mr. Chirac is still running after the money. Bush has not understood that it was up to him to say, "Mr. Chirac, I will pay for it. When we are taking helpers we will pay you." That was what he should have said. Then the Frenchmen would have gladly come along. Mr. Chirac probably already cashed in his share, and he didn't want to give it back, and Saddam never paid anybody. So the Germans, the Russians, and the French, were looking for their money. America came along and said it is all ours and Bechtel will take care of things. Well they didn’t want that. They wanted to help us to take care and we should have given them their share. We should have promised them that they would get their money back. Then that would have not been what happened. It is because Bush doesn't know, and the people around him didn't know, and don't know now. That that was the trick—not to show that they had nothing. That is why Saddam sent away the inspectors. It was interpreted that he was hiding. No, he was hiding that he didn't have them.

Do you have any more stories of interrogating soldiers?

There was one foolish prisoner. Sayn-Wittgenstein was a family of princes. One of them had a Jewish mother and he had to run away and he was in the army with us in Camp Richie. We captured his cousin. First he cut himself in the finger and asked me whether I would like to see blue blood. Then he said to me, "I got into this war, and my family lives here very close by, and you would do me a great favor if you would go there and tell them that I am here as a prisoner, alive, because my grandmother and my mother don't know that." This was about five minutes away, and I thought "Gee that’s nice, I'm going to go and see what the German prince is doing right now. So I went to see the family and I told them that their nephew, the one in Camp Ritchie, had lost his title, because when you became an American citizen you lose your title of prince or baron, whatever you are. His name was Sayn-Wittgenstein. The other one that we captured, I told him that he sends regards. They were very grateful to me for having come to tell them. They became great friends of America because nobody would ever do such a thing in the German army.