Editing Georg Elser (section)

===Torture, drugs and hypnosis===
The basement cells of the Berlin Gestapo Headquarters were notorious for the inhumane treatment of prisoners. It was rumoured Elser was kept imprisoned on the top floor until January or February 1941.

[[Arthur Nebe]] told [[Hans Gisevius]] of Elser's frayed state during this period. Gisevius wrote later,

{{Blockquote|...&nbsp;Elser was just a shell of his former self because they (the Gestapo) had tried to squeeze information out of him by feeding him very salty herring and exposing him to heat, and then depriving him of liquids&nbsp;... They wanted him to confess to some kind of connection, however vague, to Otto Strasser. The artisan remained steadfast. Almost like an innocent child or the kind of person one sometimes finds among sect members, he told Nebe of his torment, not begging mercy, not even complaining&nbsp;— it was more like an outburst of joy at seeing once again the person (Nebe) who had treated him humanely since his arrest.<ref name="Hellmut G 2013"/>}}

[[Walter Schellenberg]] wrote of a conversation with [[Heinrich Müller (Gestapo)|Heinrich Müller]], who told him,

{{Blockquote|So far I've always been able to break every one of these types that I've taken on. If this guy had been treated to my beatings earlier on, he never would have thought up this nonsense. In a subsequent discussion, Hitler issued an order to Heydrich: 'I would like to know what kind of man this Elser is. We must be able to classify him somehow. Report back to me on this. And furthermore, use all means to get this criminal to talk. Have him hypnotized, give him drugs; make use of everything of this nature our scientists have tried. I want to know who the instigators are. I want to know who is behind this.'<ref name="Hellmut G 2013"/>}}

Three days later, Schellenberg heard from Müller that three doctors had worked on Elser for twenty-four hours, injecting him with "sizable quantities of [[Methamphetamine|Pervitin]]", but he continued to say the same thing. Four hypnotists were summoned. Only one could put Elser into a trance, but the prisoner stuck to the same story. The psychologist wrote in his report that Elser was a "fanatic" and had a pathological desire for recognition. He concluded by saying pointedly: Elser had the "drive to achieve fame by eliminating Hitler and simultaneously liberating Germany from the evil of Hitler.'"<ref name="Hellmut G 2013"/>