Dr. Waldschmidt - Interrogator Dulag Luft

Leslie here again
Would anyone out there have any information or remember being interrogated by a Major Waldschmidt at the Dulag Luft in Frankfurt am Main or Wetzlaar. He was apparently a Professor of Indiaology, very intelligent and a gentleman. I have communicated with Hanns-Claudius Schaarf, who has very little information on him. This was the man who interrogated my father for 3 or 4 days and sentenced him to be shot as a spy on two occasions before he was sent of the Stalag Luft III.

 

You have probalby already read this one , but there is a small reference to him on the Merkki site:

The Interrogators

Also have you tried getting in touch with Göttingen University? He was a teacher there before the war and they might have a file about him.

 

Thanks Skipper

I have forwarded the article on to my dad to see if he recognizes the picture.
Probably somewhat difficult after 63 years but maybe he will

Leslie

 

You're welcome, glad I could help.

 

Please, what is this question doing here in the New Members area?

Next time put a queston in it's proper place, or else someday I won't be able to find my socks in my wife's undewear drawer

 

Sorry about that. I'll get it right next time.

Leslie

 

Leslie? did your dad recognize his interrogator on the picture?

 

Good morning

Yes Skipper, he did. He said as soon as he saw the picture he recognized him. The thing he remembers most, were the pictures around his office which were of India and dad would start asking him questions about them. He said Waldschmidt would speak of the places he'd been with great passion which of course would allow my dad to have a whole cigarette and sometimes even two before he would be taken back to his cell.

Regards
Leslie

 

This is great news. I will try to find out more about this man. It is certain that he was a man of culture and taste and certainly loved the English langage and the culture of India. I assume he must have has a house near Göttingen because this is where he worked as a University teacher before the war. It wa spartly because of his knowledge of the Anglo-Saxon culture that the was appointed as an interrogator.

 

Hi Skipper

Here are a couple of sites that were given to me by Finn Bush at RAF Commands 1939-1945. Unfortunately they are written in German and I haven't quite figured out a way to translate them yet.

TITUS-Galeria: Waldschmidt
http://www.indologie.uni-goettingen.delgeschite.htm
Einführung in die Exegese: Kap 3: Textkritik und Textgeschichte

Kind regards

Leslie

 

I speak German , so that's not a problem.

but the second does not work I'm afraid.

The third link is about central asian linguistics and shows a bunch of Indian alphabets derived from sanscrit. Apparently Dr Waldschmitt translated documents which included Tibetian. It is purely linguistic and has no historical interest for you except that it shows that Waldschmitt returned to Göttingen University after the war and lived there until his death in 1985.

 

Sorry about that Skipper, typo on my part. The correct site is:

Seminar für Indologie und Tibetologie der Universität Göttingen

regards

Leslie

 

This is another link leading to his career as a linguist and and antropologist. I have tried to summarize it and make it easy to read.
He based a lot of his research on the "Turfan" find which allowed translations into several oriental langages. If I understand correctly, this is a sor of equivalent of the Rosette stone, that allowed to decypher Egyptian hieroglifs. He then specialised in Tocharisitics linguistics and Indology , but also wrote monographies about indian art, anthropology and philogy which was eventually displayed at the Waldschmitt Academy of Berlin as well as at the Anthropology museum at Göttingen. He settled at Göttingen permanently in 1957 and stayed on the campus at Hainbundstrasse 21. His works were inspired by Pischel and Lüders and one of his collaborators was his wife Rose Leonore. He also particpated at a catalogue of oriental languages and wrote a Sanskrit dictionnary.

 

Thank you so very much Skipper. I really appreciate your assistance on this. I'm afraid the the little amount of German I know would not have helped me in the translation of this article. I know my father will be quite interested in it as he has said many times he believed Waldschmidt to be a very intelligent man.

Leslie