Thumbscrews
Thumbscrews
![[Image courtesy of Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes]](thumb.jpg)
Thumbscrews were applied to prisoners as a means of obtaining confessions. In Austria, anyone accused of any misdeed who was unwilling to confess freely had to be put to the peinliche Fragen, or the painful/embarassing questions. This comprised of " the extortion of confessions by means of a graduated series of torments that were described and illustrated with precision and scientific rationalism, down to the finest details, including the thicknesses of cords, the number of knots in a fetter, the lengths of nails and screws, the degrees of permanent mutilation permissible for various degrees of accusations" (Torture Instruments).
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![[Torture]](../tortbut.gif){kind=small}
Punishment, Torture, and Ordeal copyrighted 1996-1998 to Shantell Powell.