Interview with a former Luftwaffe Pilot-need some help

[Rolf D.]

For one of my history classes, a project I will be doing is an interview. The person that I would like to interview is a former Luftwaffe pilot who was shot down over Russia and survived and later moved to the States.

What I am having difficulty with is developing a set of questions to ask him.

I'm trying to avoid the "tell me about your life..." spiel and to actually get good hard information from him.

He was a member of the HJ prior to his service in the Luftwaffe.

This is a really neat situation and hopefully I can do the man some justice with a good interview and by having a well prepared set of questions.

Maybe if you have a specific question you'd like me to ask?

Thanks for your help!

[Hank C.]

Rolf -
Is there a particular angle to your history class? What exactly do you want to take away from the interview? His HJ time? His Luftwaffe time? His thoughts on why he served? You have to attempt to find a focus, a main theme...not - as you say - his whole life.

For instance, you might do something like "How life in a P.o.W. camp affected the post war experience of a man". You would maybe ask circumstances leading up to capture, time spent in camp, and then how it caused him to live and view his life afterwards.

Hope that helps.

best
Hank

[PlaceOfBayonets]

I was going to also suggest you ask about his POW experience.

Wilhelm

[Biber]

Please tell us it's NOT Gottfried Dulias!

B

[Jean-Loup]

Hi

I do interviews quite often, so am getting used to it.

I would advise you to prepare some questions, but DO NOT ask all the questions one after an other stupidly like a machine. Do the following:
Ask the most basic question. At this moment, most people then start a long monologue going anyhwere from 5 minutes to several hours. The key is not to interupt him at this moment, as he will say almost all he has to say naturaly.
Once he has said all the stuff he wanted to say on his own, many of your questions will be answered already, and many new ones will have come up.
Now that he is finnished the monologue, you can start asking questions. Ask the questions in a logical order, to get maximum response.

I learned in psychology class that interviews can be:
-Free. (he says what he wants)
-Semi directive
-directive. (Questions- answer, etc, like a cop)

Going from free to directive is easy. Going from directive to free is very difficult.
So let the free part happen without interupting.

JL

PS: please record the interview unless the man specificaly refuses.

[Rolf D.]

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

The class is called "Oral History". Obviously the professor thinks we should interview someone with local history, but I find the Native Americans less exciting than a former Luftwaffe Pilot.

I'm not entirely sure if he was a P.o.W. but it is a good bet he was, so that will be something I will address.

He is not Gottfried Dulias. Why do you ask?

In the class, we've been given some good examples of how to open up the interview and not make it too narrow to begin with.

The interview is supposed to be an hour long, but I am of the opinion if someone has the desire to speak about their life experiences, give them all the time they need. The assignment is to transcribe an hour, but the interview can be longer-I plan on getting his entire story, so it might take longer than 5, 10, 15 hours as I want to cover his prewar (growing up with a WWI vet father and how that affected his outlook to post-war when he ended up being a professor at my University.).

Don't worry Jean, I will be recording the interview. I might film it too and if everything works out, maybe put it on YouTube or something.

Thanks for the advice so far. If you had the opportunity to ask him one question that only a former Luftwaffe pilot would know, what would it be?

[Biber]

He is not Gottfried Dulias. Why do you ask?

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...ghlight=dulias

[Jean-Loup]

" I might film it too and if everything works out, maybe put it on YouTube or something."

Exelent idea. I have been doing that myself a bit lately, but in french:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AUfbQ-xP0w

[Rolf D.]

Bad news, as of right now, he doesn't want to be interviewed. I will talk with some of his former colleagues to see if they could put in a good word, but I'm not holding out too much.
Thanks for your suggestions though. I will try to interview a P38 pilot who lives here in town.

[JägerMartin]

Can you get us any other info beforehand?
ie what he flew, which unit etc?

I'd be very interested in which unit, who he served with, victories if any?
Weapons used, famous ppl he may have served with.
How was his aircraft shot down, where, was he or crew injured?
How long and where was he imprisoned, a description of the camp life in siberia.
Did he fly post war? what he did post war and into retirement.

look fwd to hearing how you went

[TMurray]

What ever happened with Gottfried Dulias? Did anyone find any proof either way that he was 'Experten' or fraud?

[Michael Fay]

Bad news, as of right now, he doesn't want to be interviewed. I will talk with some of his former colleagues to see if they could put in a good word, but I'm not holding out too much.
Thanks for your suggestions though. I will try to interview a P38 pilot who lives here in town.

Too bad he got cold feet. But we can all understand why one in his position might get cold feet.
One of his relatives may have told him not to bring negative attention to their family.

But whoever you interview, always allow them to bring up other things from their past or add somthing on their own if they want to...sometimes it turns out to be the best part.