# Torture doesn't work **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 30, 2016, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-doesnt-work/750656 "2016-03-30T17:53:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2016, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-doesnt-work/750656/181 "2016-04-04T18:56:32Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > Yes. But unless the torturer already knows the codeword, he doesn’t know that what you’re saying is true. And he knew that you would certainly say something, so the fact that you did say something isn’t, in itself, significant at all. > > All of which means that the knowledge that you said “rainforest” is pretty low-grade intelligence. Verification of information is not entirely worthless. If they didn’t tell the interrogators what the code word was, they could interrogate the next few guys and see if they all came up with the same codeword. That’s the thing about ANY interrogation, you can never tell if any of it is true without verification. that’s why verification is not actually worthless. Tips about who to follow and keep track of is not worthless, it might tie up resources but in these cases, you make the source convince YOU of its truth before you commit resources. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2016, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-doesnt-work/750656/182 "2016-04-04T19:03:06Z")
> [@Scylla](#): > > 1. Torture is simply deliberately inflicting pain on another. So, as long as the other can feel some form of pain, I would say it works. > > 2. Torturing for a purpose, like coercion. You can twist somebody’s arm and make them say “uncle.” Even pretty tough MMA fighter will tap out pretty consistently rather than having a joint snapped once the pain becomes excruciating, so yeah, I’d say that works too. > > 3. Torturing somebody to get information that is immediately testable. You are strapped down in a chair, somebody has your iPhone, and wants the passcode. They torture you for it. I’d say that if they have any commitment to torture, they are going to get your passcode no matter how hard you try to resist. Your only hope is that they are an unusually stupid and incompetent torturer. I think most people agree with everything up to here but some people will claim that these scenarios are as rare as unicorns in the interests of national security. > [@](#): > > 1. Torturing somebody to get information that is not easily testable. “When is the next terrorist attack”. “Who are your associates?” I dunno, maybe it could work. I guess it depends upon how good the torturer is and how committed the torturee is. In “Get the Truth,” written by former CIA interrogators, the authors seem to think that torture is a poor way of doing this, and that there are lots better ways to get someone to tell you something they don’t want to tell. Torture is not a panacea. Its a tool, a very blunt instrument that you use when you are out of options, its a bit like drilling out a stripped screw, it might work, it might not but you probably want to use every other technique before you drill out the screw. In some cases its like trying to screw in a toggle bolt with a chainsaw, just not an appropriate tool for the job you need to get done. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2016, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-doesnt-work/750656/183 "2016-04-04T19:25:05Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > Cite? Perhaps you could read the thread in which at least three cites have been given on this. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2016, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-doesnt-work/750656/184 "2016-04-04T19:27:06Z")
> [@Scylla](#): > > 1. Torturing somebody to get information that is immediately testable. You are strapped down in a chair, somebody has your iPhone, and wants the passcode. They torture you for it. I’d say that if they have any commitment to torture, they are going to get your passcode no matter how hard you try to resist. Your only hope is that they are an unusually stupid and incompetent torturer… **If** you don’t lie enough times to lock up the phone. \*\*If \*\*you can remember the passcode, which as shown, is highly doubtful. So, even in the case of 3, it’s of very doubtful use. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2016, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-doesnt-work/750656/185 "2016-04-04T19:40:55Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > [Panama Papers reveal 1983 Brink's Mat heist's stolen £26m 'channelled offshore' | Daily Mail Online](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3522369/26million-stolen-1983-Brink-s-Mat-heist-channelled-offshore-Panama-law-firm.html) > > This article seems to imply that they got into the safe to find the gold rather than just find it lying around. > > "the gang tied up the guards and poured petrol over them, threatening to light it if they didn’t comply. > > Thanks to Black, they were able to identify the two most senior guards who, between them, held the keys and combination numbers for the vault where three safes were located. > > Inside was more than three tonnes of gold bullion" The documentary I saw was here: They interviewed the guards and recreated the safe setup with computers, there were really 3 safes inside a big safe room that had a safe door. The crooks got the keys and combinations for the main room, but once inside the crooks did not know about the location of the gold so they expected it to be inside one of the 3 safes in the room. It was there that the guard forgot the combination and it was looking hairy for the guards, until the crooks found that the gold was outside the internal 3 safes. AFAIK the crooks did not know about the gold, as the guards explained that the values that they dealt with changed from day to day and based on the effort the crooks got into later they did not expect to find that gold but other valuables. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2016, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-doesnt-work/750656/186 "2016-04-04T20:11:14Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Why not? Hackers do it all the time (in regards to the passwords). 1. Time. Cracking a code is time-consuming. 2. Expertise. Hacking requires much skill, many people don’t have it. 3. The torturer sees the time and effort it takes to crack the code, over days, vs. the time and effort to sweat it out from a subject sitting right there. To use the example someone else gave: Why would bank robbers spend hours trying to break into a safe with equipment when there are bank employees standing right there who know the combination? ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2016, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-doesnt-work/750656/187 "2016-04-04T20:18:54Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > **If** you don’t lie enough times to lock up the phone. > > \*\*If \*\*you can remember the passcode, which as shown, is highly doubtful. > > So, even in the case of 3, it’s of very doubtful use. Do you really think you would forget your passcode? I find that difficult to believe. i think if you thought the torture would not not stop until the phone was open, and that if the phone got permanently locked it would never end that would be pretty compelling. Also, if the guy was so distressed that he couldn’t remember his passcode, one could always give him a minute or two to gather his wits and find a balance between terror and remembrance. I think it would work pretty well in this scenario… But let’s not test it. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2016, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-doesnt-work/750656/188 "2016-04-04T21:00:19Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > To use the example someone else gave: Why would bank robbers spend hours trying to break into a safe with equipment when there are bank employees standing right there who know the combination? > [@Scylla](#): > > Do you really think you would forget your passcode? I find that difficult to believe. You never worked in IT and you never had a boss or coworkers. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2016, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-doesnt-work/750656/189 "2016-04-04T21:08:55Z")
> [@Scylla](#): > > i think if you thought the torture would not not stop until the phone was open, and that if the phone got permanently locked it would never end that would be pretty compelling. > . Sure, but what happens when the phone is unlocked? Let us say it then reveals the location of your wife and kids, who the torturer will then proceed to dismember in horrible ways. Then, you’d lie 10 times, right? But if all they are getting is the shot of your naked ass at Cancun and the $84.38 in your bank account, then sure. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2016, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-doesnt-work/750656/190 "2016-04-04T23:22:15Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Perhaps you could read the thread in which at least three cites have been given on this. AFAICT, there are as many credible sources saying that torture works as there are that say it doesn’t and frankly there is little to no incentive to saying torture works when it doesn’t while there is plenty of incentive to say torture doesn’t work even when it does. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2016, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-doesnt-work/750656/191 "2016-04-05T01:38:21Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > AFAICT, there are as many credible sources saying that torture works as there are that say it doesn’t and frankly there is little to no incentive to saying torture works when it doesn’t while there is plenty of incentive to say torture doesn’t work even when it does. Not a single cite that sez torture works in intelligence. ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2016, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-doesnt-work/750656/192 "2016-04-05T01:54:26Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Sure, but what happens when the phone is unlocked? Let us say it then reveals the location of your wife and kids, who the torturer will then proceed to dismember in horrible ways. > > Then, you’d lie 10 times, right? > > But if all they are getting is the shot of your naked ass at Cancun and the $84.38 in your bank account, then sure. That’s a really good point. I’d say that if you knew the phone would lock after so many attempts you might have a chance of holding out. If you didn’t set the phone to lock before you got tortured and there were unlimited attempts, I’d say you’d be pretty much doomed. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2016, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-doesnt-work/750656/193 "2016-04-05T02:27:09Z")
> [@Scylla](#): > > That’s a really good point. I’d say that if you knew the phone would lock after so many attempts you might have a chance of holding out. If you didn’t set the phone to lock before you got tortured and there were unlimited attempts, I’d say you’d be pretty much doomed. If the phone is locked you can probably expect the torturers to get enraged and torture you even more as retaliation over being out-foxed. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2016, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-doesnt-work/750656/194 "2016-04-05T17:24:31Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > If the phone is locked you can probably expect the torturers to get enraged and torture you even more as retaliation over being out-foxed. Sure, but if it means saving your family… ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-doesnt-work/750656/195 "2016-04-07T22:02:07Z")
I somehow doubt the following conversation happened very often in Nazi-occupied France: “Marie! I just saw Francois get arrested by the Gestapo!” “Oh, mon dieu, he knows all of our names and all of our plans!” “And then drove him away to Gestapo headquarters… everyone knows that you can hear the screams from their basement at all hours” “Oh, well, then, we’re perfectly safe… because all they’ll do there is torture him, and of course torture doesn’t work.” “You’re right… no need for us or our families to go into hiding, or for any of our plans to change or anything” “Thanks god those Nazis are so dumb” “Agreed” Seriously, if you were part of some secretive group struggling against an evil group (say you’re part of a team of undercover agents infiltrating organized crime), and one of your team, who could expose you, gets caught, and you’re fairly sure he’s being tortured, what would you do? Are you so confident that torture doesn’t work that you’d feel safe just continuing as before? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-doesnt-work/750656/196 "2016-04-07T22:46:19Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > I somehow doubt the following conversation happened very often in Nazi-occupied France: > > “Marie! I just saw Francois get arrested by the Gestapo!” > “Oh, mon dieu, he knows all of our names and all of our plans!” > “And then drove him away to Gestapo headquarters… everyone knows that you can hear the screams from their basement at all hours” > “Oh, well, then, we’re perfectly safe… because all they’ll do there is torture him, and of course torture doesn’t work.” > “You’re right… no need for us or our families to go into hiding, or for any of our plans to change or anything” > “Thanks god those Nazis are so dumb” > “Agreed” > Seriously, if you were part of some secretive group struggling against an evil group (say you’re part of a team of undercover agents infiltrating organized crime), and one of your team, who could expose you, gets caught, and you’re fairly sure he’s being tortured, what would you do? Are you so confident that torture doesn’t work that you’d feel safe just continuing as before? Oh, no, he’d give them up… and Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel and Pierre Laval and Carl Oberg and Maurice Papon and everyone else… ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-doesnt-work/750656/197 "2016-04-07T23:21:04Z")
Or they might just interrogate > **[Jean Moulin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Moulin)** > > Jean Pierre Moulin (French: \[ʒɑ̃ mu.lɛ̃\]; 20 June 1899 – 8 July 1943) was a French civil servant and resistant who served as the first President of the National Council of the Resistance during World War II from 27 May 1943 until his death less than two months later. > A prefect in Aveyron (1937–1939) and Eure-et-Loir (1939–1940), he is remembered today as one of the main heroes of the French Resistance and for his efforts to unify it under Charles de Gaulle. He was tortured by German officer Kl... _Interrogated extensively on a daily basis in Lyon by Klaus Barbie, head of the Gestapo there, and later more briefly in Paris, Moulin never revealed anything to his captors and died near Metz on a train headed for Germany[4] from injuries sustained either during torture or in a suicide attempt. Moulin’s ability not to provide information to the Gestapo was extraordinary given the ferocity of the torture he was subjected to, which reportedly included hot needles being put under his fingernails, doors being closed on his hands until his knuckles broke, the use of screw-levered handcuffs to cut into his wrists and whipping and beatings.[5]_ or [http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/Holocaust/barbie.html](http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/Holocaust/barbie.html) \*Lise Lesevre, frail and upright despite her 86 years, described the defendant as “Barbie the savage,” saying she recognized him decades later because of his “pale eyes, extraordinarily mobile, like those of an animal in a cage.” Lesevre, who belonged to a resistance group, said the Gestapo arrested her on March 13, 1944, while she was carrying a letter intended for a Resistance leader code-named Didier. She said Barbie spent almost three weeks trying to learn if Lesevre was Didier, and if not, who was. She was interrogated for 19 days, she said, and tortured on nine of them. First she was hung up by hand cuffs with spikes inside them and beaten with a rubber bar by Barbie and his men. “Who is Didier, where is Didier?” were Barbie’s main questions, she said. Next was the bathtub torture. She said she was ordered to strip naked and get into a tub filled with freezing water. Her legs were tied to a bar across the tub and Barbie yanked a chain attached to the bar to pull her underwater. "During the bathtub torture, in the presence of Barbie, I wanted to drink to drown myself quickly. But I wasn’t able to do it. I didn’t say anything. “After 19 days of interrogation, they put me in a cell. They would carry by the bodies of tortured people. With the point of a boot, Barbie would turn their heads to look at their faces, and if he saw someone he believed to be a Jew, he would crush it with his heel,” she said. “It was a beast, not a man,” she said. “It was terror. He took pleasure in it.” During her last interrogation, she said, Barbie ordered her to lie flat on a chair and struck her on the back with a spiked ball attached to a chain. It broke a vertebrae, and she still suffers. “He told me, ‘I admire you, but in the end everybody talks.’” But she never did, and she heard Barbie say finally, “Liquidate her. I don’t want to see her anymore.”\* or Noor Khan > **[Does Torture Work? Ask the Nazis Who Interrogated Noor Khan](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/does-torture-work-ask-the_b_191404)** > > The martyrdom of Noor Inayat Khan demonstrates that torture is only effective when all understanding of the concept of liberty is lost to a nation. then there’s this: > **[Torture and Democracy](https://books.google.com/books?id=-L8GtJY_J00C&pg=PA496&lpg=PA496&dq=gestapo%2Bfrench%2Bresistance%2Btorture&source=bl&ots=uex62OyM2W&sig=eUvEsJuqKg1VXJ7o45KPt4Rud6c&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwju3_Ky0v3LAhVHqQ4KHQ4RDQkQ6AEIVTAJ#v=onepage&q=gestapo%20french%20resistance%20torture&f=false)** > > This is the most comprehensive, and most comprehensively chilling, study of modern torture yet written. Darius Rejali, one of the world's leading experts on torture, takes the reader from the late nineteenth century to the aftermath of Abu Ghraib,... \*“What is surprising is how difficult is to find specific cases where torture produced information that was not known by other means.” “These interrogations’ were not especially productive. Even under the most brutal treatment, few prisoners revealed information not already known to the Gestapo’.” \* In other words, even when you are as brutal as _the fucking Gestapo,_ torture doesn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-doesnt-work/750656/198 "2016-04-07T23:21:32Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > Are you so confident that torture doesn’t work that you’d feel safe just continuing as before? Again, “Torture doesn’t work” isn’t meant universally - it’s meant specifically in the context of gathering data that’s both accurate and precise. If you’re the Nazi regime, and you don’t care how many innocent Frenchmen you kill in your sweep of potential resistance members, then torture away - it’s a great tool for you. You’ll get lots of French Resistance members - and even more random French people who are just going about their lives. But if you’re a Nazi, you’re not really concerned about killing a bunch of innocent people. On the other hand, if you not punishing innocent people is something you’re actually concerned about, then torture does not - wait for it - work at all. Because if you’re using torture as an intelligence gathering tool, you are absolutely going to grab up a bunch of people who have never done anything wrong, but were implicated by your victim because he would say anything - absolutely anything - to make the torture stop. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-doesnt-work/750656/199 "2016-04-07T23:28:16Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Or they might just interrogate > [Jean Moulin - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Moulin) > _Interrogated extensively on a daily basis in Lyon by Klaus Barbie, head of the Gestapo there, and later more briefly in Paris, Moulin never revealed anything to his captors and died near Metz on a train headed for Germany[4] from injuries sustained either during torture or in a suicide attempt. Moulin’s ability not to provide information to the Gestapo was extraordinary given the ferocity of the torture he was subjected to, which reportedly included hot needles being put under his fingernails, doors being closed on his hands until his knuckles broke, the use of screw-levered handcuffs to cut into his wrists and whipping and beatings.[5]_ > > or > [Klaus Barbie: women testify of torture at his hands](http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/Holocaust/barbie.html) > \*Lise Lesevre, frail and upright despite her 86 years, described the defendant as “Barbie the savage,” saying she recognized him decades later because of his “pale eyes, extraordinarily mobile, like those of an animal in a cage.” > > Lesevre, who belonged to a resistance group, said the Gestapo arrested her on March 13, 1944, while she was carrying a letter intended for a Resistance leader code-named Didier. > > She said Barbie spent almost three weeks trying to learn if Lesevre was Didier, and if not, who was. She was interrogated for 19 days, she said, and tortured on nine of them. > > First she was hung up by hand cuffs with spikes inside them and beaten with a rubber bar by Barbie and his men. “Who is Didier, where is Didier?” were Barbie’s main questions, she said. > > Next was the bathtub torture. She said she was ordered to strip naked and get into a tub filled with freezing water. Her legs were tied to a bar across the tub and Barbie yanked a chain attached to the bar to pull her underwater. > > "During the bathtub torture, in the presence of Barbie, I wanted to drink to drown myself quickly. But I wasn’t able to do it. I didn’t say anything. > > “After 19 days of interrogation, they put me in a cell. They would carry by the bodies of tortured people. With the point of a boot, Barbie would turn their heads to look at their faces, and if he saw someone he believed to be a Jew, he would crush it with his heel,” she said. > > “It was a beast, not a man,” she said. “It was terror. He took pleasure in it.” > > During her last interrogation, she said, Barbie ordered her to lie flat on a chair and struck her on the back with a spiked ball attached to a chain. It broke a vertebrae, and she still suffers. > > “He told me, ‘I admire you, but in the end everybody talks.’” But she never did, and she heard Barbie say finally, “Liquidate her. I don’t want to see her anymore.”\* > > or Noor Khan > > [Does Torture Work? Ask the Nazis Who Interrogated Noor Khan | HuffPost The World Post](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sheldon-filger/does-torture-work-ask-the_b_191404.html) > > then there’s this: > [Torture and Democracy - Darius Rejali - Google Books](https://books.google.com/books?id=-L8GtJY_J00C&pg=PA496&lpg=PA496&dq=gestapo+french+resistance+torture&source=bl&ots=uex62OyM2W&sig=eUvEsJuqKg1VXJ7o45KPt4Rud6c&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwju3_Ky0v3LAhVHqQ4KHQ4RDQkQ6AEIVTAJ#v=onepage&q=gestapo%20french%20resistance%20torture&f=false) > > \*“What is surprising is how difficult is to find specific cases where torture produced information that was not known by other means.” “These interrogations’ were not especially productive. Even under the most brutal treatment, few prisoners revealed information not already known to the Gestapo’.” \* > > In other words, even when you are as brutal as _the fucking Gestapo,_ torture doesn’t work. People who can hold out under extensive torture are probably the exception, not the rule. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-doesnt-work/750656/200 "2016-04-07T23:33:21Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > People who can hold out under extensive torture are probably the exception, not the rule. They only found one person who gave out info to the gestapo under torture. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-doesnt-work/750656.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-doesnt-work/750656.md?page=11)