Willi Herold

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Willi Herold , also known as "the executioner of the Emsland " (born September 11, 1925 in Lunzenau , Amtshauptmannschaft Rochlitz , Saxony ; † November 14, 1946 in the Wolfenbüttel execution site ), was a German war criminal . The 19-year-old private pretended to be a captain in the last days of the Second World War and killed around 170 people together with his accomplices. The acts are counted among the so-called end- phase crimes .

Life

Willi Herold attended elementary school and the technical school in Chemnitz , where he began training as a chimney sweep. In 1936 Herold was expelled from the German Young People because he did not want to take part in the necessary exercises. He was then appointed to the Reich Labor Service . On September 30, 1943 was chimney sweep apprentice Herold for military service confiscated. After basic training with the parachute troops in Tangermünde , he was deployed to Nettuno and Monte Cassino in Italy , where he was promoted to private .

His unit was relocated to Germany at the end of the war . Herold was separated from his comrades on April 3, 1945 and found an officers' box with the uniform of a captain of the Luftwaffe between the towns of Gronau and Bad Bentheim . In this uniform he pretended to be an officer of the paratroopers and gathered a dozen soldiers who had also been dispersed, including Private Reinhard Freitag, a driver who had lost his unit. On April 11, 1945, the group arrived at Camp II of the Emslandlager , the Aschendorfermoor prisoner camp . With the words "The Fuehrer personally gave me unlimited powers" Herold took command there and set up a regiment of terror. Prisoners who had tried to escape shortly before were shot immediately . Within the next eight days, Herold had over 100 inmates murdered, some of which he killed himself. A 2 cm anti-aircraft gun and hand grenades were also used for the murder.

Memorial plaque at the nearby Herbrum / Aschendorf cemetery

On April 18 and 19, 1945, the British Air Force shelled the camp with incendiary bombs. Another 50 people lost their lives and the camp was destroyed. After the heavy air raid, most of the surviving inmates managed to escape. Herold's unit also withdrew from the advancing front and committed the last of war crimes: Herold's people hanged the farmer Spark, who had hoisted a white flag , in Aschendorf near Papenburg and, on April 25, 1945, after a ten-minute trial , murdered five Dutchmen who were im Police station in Leer in East Frisia for alleged espionage . The Dutch came from Groningen, which had already been captured by the Allies, and wanted to free Dutch slave laborers.

Herold's deception was discovered before the end of the war, but a military tribunal under site commandant Otto Huebner in Aurich released Herold at the instigation of SS-Untersturmführer Urbanek. He came to Wilhelmshaven and was arrested on May 23, 1945 by the British Royal Navy for stealing a loaf of bread. After an investigation and interviewing witnesses, Herold was identified as a wanted war criminal by the British military government . On August 13, 1946, the trial of Herold and 13 other defendants began before the military court in Oldenburg under Colonel H. Brown. You were blamed for killing 125 people. Herold and the six co-defendants Karl Hagewald, Bernhard Meyer (security guard), Karl Schütte (leader of the guard unit of Camp II), Josef Euler, Hermann Brandt and Otto Peller were sentenced to death , five others were acquitted. On November 14, 1946, six of the sentences were in prison Wolfenbüttel of executioner Friedrich Hehr with the guillotine enforced . Only Peller's petition for clemency was granted because the evidence against him appeared contradictory.

Movies

The story of Willi Herold was filmed:

  • The Captain of Muffrica - A murderous Köpenickade . Documentation, directors: Paul Meyer, Rudolf Kersting, Germany 1998, 70 minutes ( film rating : particularly valuable ).
  • The captain . Period film, director: Robert Schwentke , Germany / France / Poland 2017, 119 minutes (film rating: particularly valuable ).

literature

  • Kurt Buck: In search of the moor soldiers. Emslandlager 1933–1945 and the historical places today. 6th, expanded edition. Documentation and Information Center Emslandlager, Papenburg 2008, ISBN 978-3926277169 .
  • TXH Pantcheff: The executioner from Emsland. Willi Herold, 19 years old. A German lesson. Bund-Verlag, Cologne 1987, ISBN 3-7663-3061-6 . (2nd edition as: Der Henker vom Emsland. Documentation of barbarism at the end of the war in 1945. Schuster, Leer 1995, ISBN 3-7963-0324-2 ).
  • Heinrich and Inge Peters: stalemate blood. Approaching to die - in a line of 5 limbs. The “Herold” massacre in Emslandlager II Aschendorfermoor in April 1945. Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2014, ISBN 978-3-7357-6297-9 .

Web links

Commons : Willi Herold  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Doro Wiese: The Aschendorfermoor massacre. In: Die Tageszeitung , April 11, 2005.
  2. ↑ Daniel Noglik, Hans-Christian Wöste: Bloody foray of a false officer. In: Ostfriesen-Zeitung , April 26, 2014, p. 17.
  3. ↑ Thomas Waltenbacher: Central execution sites . The execution of the death penalty in Germany from 1937–1945. Executioner in the Third Reich. Zwilling-Berlin, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-00-024265-6 , p. 129.
  4. ^ Heinrich and Inge Peters: Pattjackenblut. Approaching to die - in a line of 5 limbs. The “Herold” massacre in Emslandlager II Aschendorfermoor in April 1945. Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2014, ISBN 978-3-7357-6297-9 , p. 247. Peters cite as a footnote: TXH Pantcheff: Der Henker vom Emsland . Documentation of barbarism at the end of the war in 1945. Schuster, Leer 1995, ISBN 3-7963-0324-2 ), S 220/221.
  5. ↑ Reception and background: Karsten Krogmann: Desperately wanted: My father, inmate No. 914/43. In: Nordwest-Zeitung , November 13, 2014, accessed on April 13, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Herald, Willi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Executioner from Emsland
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German war criminal
DATE OF BIRTH September 11, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Lunzenau , Rochlitz District Authority , Saxony
DATE OF DEATH November 14, 1946
Place of death Wolfenbüttel