![]() Through Buscher, the Gestapo granted Herold permission to execute the 30 escaped inmates. Thiel after a lengthy visit, Herold visited Nazi district leader Gerhard Buscher, who got the Gestapo involved. Having failed to obtain permission from Dr. Richard Thiel, the head of the central administration of the prison camps. Herold ordered five of the men to be shot, and was eventually stopped by the judicial official Friedrich Hansen, who asked Herold to obtain permission from Dr. There, he was asked by one of the camp supervisors, Karl Schütte, to judge a group of 30 inmates which had escaped during a forced march to Collinghorst and had been recaptured. On 11 April 1945, Herold's group arrived at the Aschendorfermoor II prison camp (containing mostly German inmates), one of the Emslandlager camps. Herold discovered a chance to address his personnel issue and made his way to the camp. He encountered local garrison commander Jann Budde in the Surwold village, who informed him that hundreds of former Wehrmacht soldiers were waiting for the war to conclude in the Penal Camp II Aschendorfermoor. Herold started to consider ways to recruit more soldiers as he grew frustrated that he lacked the men and equipment necessary to truly impact the enemy. However, this effort failed, and he ordered a retreat when he lost too many men to enemy tank fire. Herold was remarkably only required to provide identification twice despite claiming to be on a special mission from the Führer.Īlong with numerous scouting missions, Herold also made numerous attempts to engage the enemy, culminating in him and his men joining the unit stationed close to the village of Lathen, which was occupied by the Allies. Although he had a core group of twelve people, roughly sixty more would occasionally join him and depart when it was convenient for them. ![]() In a shot-up Wehrmacht car that was lying in a ditch on the side of the road, he found the uniform of a highly decorated Luftwaffe Captain and assumed the fictional identity of "Captain Herold of the Sixth Parachute Division." After convincing a Major he met at a control point in Ochtrup, he received four soldiers under his command. In the chaos of the retreating German army, Herold became separated from his unit in late March 1945, and he was left to travel by himself on the lengthy route between Gronau and Bad Bentheim. In March 1945, Herold's unit retreated from the Netherlands to Germany. Records of him ever receiving these medals have not been found so far. He claimed he was awarded the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd Class (for supposedly destroying two British tanks on the beaches of Salerno), the Silver Close Combat Clasp, the Silver Wound Badge, the Parachutist Badge and the Infantry Badge. ![]() He was promoted to Lance Corporal after participating in the battles of Nettuno and Monte Cassino in early 1944. His division was the last to undergo near-full paratrooper training, with three months of infantry training and a sixteen-day parachute course. He was trained as a paratrooper ( Fallschirmjäger) in Tangermünde because of his above-average physical fitness. On 30 September 1943, Herold entered military service. He served his Reich Labour Service on the Atlantic Wall in France from June to September 1943, and three weeks after turning eighteen, he joined the army and was deployed to Tangermünde. ![]() He was apprehended by the Gestapo and sent back to Lunzenau. He then joined the Hitler Youth at the age of fourteen, and for a time he was enthralled by them, thanks to the long nature excursions they took him on and the various benefits they provided.Īfter completing his elementary education, he began an apprenticeship as a chimney sweep at the age of fifteen in the neighboring village of Waldheim, from which he eventually ran away with a friend because he didn't feel like working and wanted to emigrate to America. He joined the Jungvolk when he was 10 years old in 1935, but was expelled the next year for skipping service and trying to organize his own "pack" of boys, both of which were against the regulations. Herold was born on September 11, 1925, in Lunzenau, a small village in Saxony, Germany. ![]()
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