Willi Herold, the Emsland Executioner - Part II: THE CAPTAIN

What did Willi Herold do exactly in that fateful month of April 1945? The answer might surprise you. By piecing together his unexpected journey through Emsland, day by day, sometimes hour by hour, I tried to uncover the reasons behind one of the darkest events in the history of the Emsland prison camps: the Aschendorfermoor massacre. There was a fascinating geometry of misfortune at play in those events, a series of coincidences which would be considered unrealistic in a film, but (incredibly) did really happen. And at the center of it all was the charming, volatile and dangerous figure of a masterful nineteen year old imposter whose supreme confidence, audacity and almost supernatural luck fooled Nazi local leaders, Judicial Officials and Wehrmacht officers alike. 00:00 Introduction 01:15 Finding the uniform 03:23 Meeting Freitag 06:18 Heading to Lingen, slipping through the checkpoint 07:13 The charade continues in Meppen 09:42 Arrested in Haren; reconaissance missions