Guillotine execution of a Nazi who massacred over 150 comrades with anti-aircraft gun – Willi Herold

Willi Herold was born on the 11th of September 1925 in the small town of Lunzenau, then part of the Weimar Republic, which was the name given to the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933. Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party came into power in January 1933. At the age of ten, Herold joined the Hitler Youth which was the Nazi-organized youth movement, which had been developed to introduce children and juveniles to Nazi ideology and policy, and to prepare Germany’s young people for war. Herold was expelled from the organization a year later for skipping service and attempting to form his own independent group of boys, which was against the Hitler Youth’s regulations. The Second World War started on the 1st of September 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. At the age of fourteen, Herold rejoined the Hitler Youth – and for a time enjoyed the benefits it offered, including long excursions into nature. After completing elementary education, he began an apprenticeship as a chimney sweep in the nearby village of Waldheim, but he soon ran away with a friend, hoping to emigrate to the United States. The attempt failed, and after being apprehended by the Gestapo, the Nazi secret police, Herold was returned to Lunzenau, where he completed his apprenticeship in 1943. Between June and September of the same year, Herold served with the Reich Labour Service on the Atlantic Wall in German-occupied France. Three weeks after his eighteenth birthday, he was conscripted into the Wehrmacht, the German armed forces, and sent for training in the town of Tangermünde. Thanks to his above-average physical fitness, Herold was selected for paratrooper training with the Luftwaffe, Germany’s air force, completing three months of infantry preparation and a sixteen-day parachute course.
Following his training, Herold was deployed to the Italian front, taking part in the battles of Nettuno and Monte Cassino in early 1944, where he was promoted. He claimed to have received several prestigious military decorations, although no official records of these awards have ever been found. As the war turned against Germany, Herold’s unit was transferred to the German-Dutch border area. In March 1945, amidst the chaos of retreat, Herold became separated from his comrades near the Dutch city of Arnhem and found himself alone on the road between Gronau and Bad Bentheim, two towns in northwestern Germany close to the Dutch border.

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April 1945, Nazi Germany. As the Third Reich 
collapses under the relentless advance of   Allied forces, the country descends into 
chaos. Military discipline disintegrates,   deserters flood the roads, and lawlessness spreads 
through the shattered remnants of Hitler’s empire.   Most soldiers attempt to disappear, discard 
their uniforms, or flee in the desperate hope of   escaping death or captivity. But one man chooses a 
different path. He puts on an abandoned officer’s   uniform, claims authority he does not possess, 
and embarks on a ruthless campaign of violence.   In the final, lawless days of the war, he orders 
mass executions, spreads fear among civilians and   soldiers alike, and leaves behind a trail of 
blood and terror. His name is Willi Herold. Willy Paul Herold was born on the 11th of 
September 1925 in the small town of Lunzenau,   then part of the Weimar Republic, which was the   name given to the government 
of Germany from 1918 to 1933. Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party 
came into power in January 1933. At the age of ten, Herold joined the Hitler Youth 
which was the Nazi-organized youth movement,   which had been developed to introduce children 
and juveniles to Nazi ideology and policy,   and to prepare Germany’s young people for war. 
Herold was expelled from the organization a year   later for skipping service and attempting 
to form his own independent group of boys,   which was against the Hitler Youth’s regulations. The Second World War started on the 1st of 
September 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. At the age of fourteen, Herold rejoined the 
Hitler Youth – and for a time enjoyed the benefits   it offered, including long excursions into 
nature. After completing elementary education,   he began an apprenticeship as a chimney 
sweep in the nearby village of Waldheim,   but he soon ran away with a friend, hoping to 
emigrate to the United States. The attempt failed,   and after being apprehended by the Gestapo, 
the Nazi secret police, Herold was returned to   Lunzenau, where he completed his apprenticeship in 
1943. Between June and September of the same year,   Herold served with the Reich Labour Service on 
the Atlantic Wall in German-occupied France.   Three weeks after his eighteenth birthday, he 
was conscripted into the Wehrmacht, the German   armed forces, and sent for training in the town of 
Tangermünde. Thanks to his above-average physical   fitness, Herold was selected for paratrooper 
training with the Luftwaffe, Germany’s air   force, completing three months of infantry 
preparation and a sixteen-day parachute course.  Following his training, Herold 
was deployed to the Italian front,   taking part in the battles of Nettuno and Monte 
Cassino in early 1944, where he was promoted. He   claimed to have received several prestigious 
military decorations, although no official   records of these awards have ever been found. As 
the war turned against Germany, Herold’s unit was   transferred to the German-Dutch border area. In 
March 1945, amidst the chaos of retreat, Herold   became separated from his comrades near the Dutch 
city of Arnhem and found himself alone on the road   between Gronau and Bad Bentheim, two towns in 
northwestern Germany close to the Dutch border. While travelling alone, Herold stumbled upon a 
damaged Wehrmacht vehicle abandoned in a ditch.   Inside, he discovered a Luftwaffe captain’s 
uniform along with several high military   decorations. Seizing the opportunity, he 
put on the uniform and assumed the false   identity of a paratrooper officer, calling himself 
“Captain Herold of the Sixth Parachute Division.”   With Germany in disarray and many soldiers and 
officers displaced, Herold quickly gathered a   group of men under his command. Although the size 
of his unit fluctuated, it usually consisted of   about twelve core members, including the German 
soldiers Heinz Hofmeister and Reinhard Freitag.   Roughly 60 more would occasionally join him 
and depart when it was convenient for them.  Relying on his confident demeanor 
to legitimize his assumed authority,   Herold managed to pass through several inspections 
with little more than casual questioning.   He even convinced a higher-ranking soldier at 
a checkpoint in the town of Ochtrup that he was   on a special mission from Adolf Hitler himself. 
His group initially moved on foot, then switched   to bicycles, and eventually became motorized by 
commandeering vehicles, including a field kitchen   wagon onto which they mounted a 2 centimeter 
anti-aircraft gun taken from a naval boat.  On the 11th of April 1945, Herold and his 
men arrived at Aschendorfermoor 2, a part   of the Emslandlager camp complex. This penal camp, 
designed for about one thousand prisoners, was now   overcrowded with between 2,500 and 3,000 inmates, 
most of them Wehrmacht deserters and individuals   accused of undermining the military effort. 
Sensing an opportunity to cement his authority,   the nineteen-year-old Herold declared that he had 
been given unlimited powers by Hitler himself and   assumed control of the camp. At the first roll 
call, he ordered random selections of prisoners to   be executed on the spot, reinforcing his brutal 
image among the camp staff and inmates alike.  Seeking official backing, Herold approached 
Gerhard Buscher, the local Nazi district leader,   who after consulting with higher authorities 
and the Gestapo, offered no objections to   Herold’s actions. The atmosphere of fear and 
the chaotic situation as Allied forces advanced,   further emboldened Herold. On the 12th 
of April 1945, Herold oversaw a mass   execution in which ninety-seven prisoners, 
many of whom had attempted to escape,   were forced to dig their own graves before being 
shot. Grenades and the mounted anti-aircraft gun   were also used during the massacre. That evening, 
Herold celebrated with a party for his men.  The killing continued over the following days. On 
the 13th and 14th of April, camp guards and local   militias recaptured escaped prisoners, eight of 
whom were taken to a nearby inn and immediately   executed under Herold’s orders. Other prisoners 
were selected at random, some merely for coming   from Herold’s home region, and shot without 
trial. Between the 11th and 19th of April 1945,   Herold orchestrated the murder of between 150 
and 172 inmates, killing many of them personally.  In an effort to maintain some semblance of order 
and legitimacy, Herold reorganized the camp’s   structure between the 15th and 18th of April. 
Some inmates were forcibly conscripted into   the Wehrmacht, or into units he variously named 
“Battle Group Herold”, “Court Martial Herold”,   or “Special Court Herold”. Despite doubts from 
some camp officials about Herold’s true authority,   the situation was too chaotic to 
allow for verification with Berlin.  On the 18th and 19th of April, British 
air raids targeted anti-aircraft positions   near Aschendorfermoor, and several bombs 
struck the camp, completely destroying it   and killing around fifty more people. In 
the aftermath, surviving prisoners fled,   and Herold’s group also dispersed as Allied forces 
approached. Following the destruction of the camp,   nearly 200 scattered bodies were later 
recovered and reburied at a newly established   war cemetery near the former camp site, 
colloquially known as the “Herold Cemetery.” Herold recruited 12 prisoners and converted 
them into his bodyguards. They traveled   through northwestern Germany, terrifying 
the populace as they went from town to town.   The band executed five Dutchmen accused of 
espionage after removing them from a nearby   prison, making them dig their own graves. They 
also hanged a farmer who had flown a white flag.  On the 30th of April 1945, only hours before 
Adolf Hitler’s suicide, Herold was arrested   by the German military police while staying in 
a hotel in a town about 50 km from the Dutch   border. Initially, he was put on trial by German 
authorities on the 3rd of May, but the proceedings   were interrupted, and he was temporarily released 
thanks to the intervention of the Kriegsmarine   Chief Justice for the East Frisian region Horst 
Franke, and Admiral Kurt Weyher. The Kriegsmarine   was the navy of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945.
Assigned to a special unit, Herold quickly   deserted under cover of darkness 
and made his way to Wilhelmshaven,   a port city in northern Germany. There, using his 
real name, he assembled new documents and resumed   work as a chimney sweep, attempting to blend back 
into civilian life as the war came to its end. Herold managed to live under 
his true name for several weeks,   but on the 23rd of May 1945 he was arrested by 
British Royal Navy personnel for the theft of a   loaf of bread and was sent to the Civil Internment 
Camp Esterwegen. During the summer of 1945,   British investigators began uncovering the extent 
of Herold’s crimes, at first under the mistaken   belief that many of his victims had been citizens 
of Allied countries. On the 1st of February 1946,   Herold and fifty other inmates from Esterwegen 
were ordered by the British authorities to   exhume the bodies of those murdered 
at the Aschendorfermoor 2 penal camp,   with a total of 195 corpses being recovered.
In August 1946, Herold and twelve others stood   trial before a British military court in the city 
of Oldenburg, overseen by Colonel Herbert Bown.   Throughout the proceedings, Herold displayed 
a notably relaxed demeanor and showed little   remorse for his actions. During his 
initial interrogation, he remarked:  “Why I actually shot those people 
in the camp, I cannot really say.”  On the 29th of August, he and six co-defendants 
were sentenced to death, with Herold being held   responsible for the murder of 111 individuals.
Willi Herold was twenty-one years old when,   on the 14th of November 1946, he was executed 
by guillotine at Wolfenbüttel prison in Germany. thanks for watching the World History 
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