The GESTAPO in general believed that other methods of interrogation, such as playing off political factions against each other, were much more effective than third degree methods.

So Bush has more faith in torture than the Gestapo did. A reader writes:

I read with great interest your 19 May post about the Gestapo directive concerning "enhanced interrogation techniques". I gather that you found the document through a 1948 Norway trial. However, the same directive seems to have also been in evidence at Nuremberg (though there the Tribunal apparently translated the term as "the Third Degree"). At Nuremberg it was used as part of the case against the Gestapo in seeking to have the Gestapo declared to be a criminal organization by the Tribunal. Interestingly, a report was filed in the Nuremberg proceedings in which a Colonel Neave, acting under Commission from the Tribunal, reported the evidence of witnesses for the defense of the organizations. It is this report that draws the direct line back to the "ticking bomb exception". The passage that sets out the Gestapo's defense of the "Third Degree" measures and authorization is as follows (pp. 55-56):

"V. DEFENSE OF THE GESTAPO AGAINST CHARGES OF BRUTALITY AND THIRD DEGREE INTERROGATIONS]]>