From a directive by the Gestapo chief, Muller, 1942:

1. The sharpened interrogation may only be applied if, on the strength or the preliminary interrogation, it has been ascertained that the prisoner can give information about important facts, connections or plans hostile to the start or the legal system, but does not want to reveal his knowledge, and the latter cannot be obtained by way of inquiries.
2. Under this circumstance, the sharpened interrogation may be applied only against Communists, Marxists, members of the Bible-researcher sect, saboteurs, terrorists, members of the resistance movement, parachute agents, ascocial persons, Polish or Soviet persons who refuse to work, or idlers.
3. The sharpened interrogation may no be applied in order to induce confessions about a prisoner's own criminal acts. Nor may this means be applied toward persons who have been temporarily delivered by justice for the purpose of fruther investigation.
4. The sharpening can consist of the following, among other things, according to circumstances:
   simplest rations (bread and water)
   hard bed
   dark cell
   deprivation of sleep
   exhaustion exercises,
   but also the resort to blows with a stick (in case of more than 20 blows, a doctor must be present).

Read all about it, here.

In addition to all the things the Nazis were doing in 1942, we've added others, including waterboarding which the explicitly Nazis forbade (at least initially). And these are the very things the Republican candidates tried to one-up each other on, during their last debate; Mitt Romney wished we could have two Guantanamos; Giuliani and Tancredo both said they'd support whatever methods interrogators could think of; Tancredo wants a "Jack Bauer", presumably to come and break as many fingers, knees and laws as it takes.

These men should be excluded from public office by the simple fact that no decent person would vote for someone advocating interrogation methods identical to those used by the Gestapo. But they aren't; instead, they are the leading lights of the Republican Party. They get thunderous applause as they shake their fists and demand harsher interrogations and more torture. Among their supporters, their advocacy for torture is a selling point, not a sign of mental illness.

America is a deeply disturbed country.

Update:

And why has America so quickly fallen in love with torture? I will blockquote myself:

Even though I normally hate me some mass-pop-psychology... my pet theory is that 9/11 simply gave people an excuse to indulge aspects of their personalities that they normally would've kept under wraps. All the latent authoritarian, sadistic impulses now have a chance to jump up and work out under cover of "patriotism" and "making them pay". It's every little macho coward's dream come true: a chance to do what's normally forbidden or taboo and come out of it looking like a Jack Bauer-esque hero.

By coincidence, Tim F., today, plucks the same note:

Future generations can argue whether 9/11 made a subset of Americans so loopy that they lost the moral compass altogether, or the terror attacks just offered a golden chance to let those ugly impulses hang out in the open. (my emph)