Went to see it with two friends, while we were in the military. We all have fuck-you-dark humor. So we laughed quite a bit. One of my friends was autistic and sucked at reading social cues. So we sometimes had to keep him from laughing too much. Great movie on the whole, very dark, visceral, and clever. Still really difficult for many Germans to see, because Germans are really bad at dealing with our own history. So I wasn't surprised that it didn't do so well in Germany.
If I had found an officer's uniform, I would have put it on and lied low till the allies arrived. Officers get better treatment than other ranks when POW, especially with the class conscious british. And at that point in the war the choices were quite limited for the germans, die or surrender. I can see why the Waffen SS fought on, given that there was a chance that they would be shot anyway, but for a member of the Wehrmacht surrender was the best option.
Unless it was a SS uniform. Definitely don't get captured by the Russians, you will be sent to a gulag never to be seen again. The French didn't like the Germans.
@@brokenbridge6316 I know I would have, plus at the end of the war, I'm sure many wouldn't find it impossible for such a young person to be so high ranked. Considering most senior ranks would have obviously been deserters, PoW's, or most likely killed at that point. I know during the desperate ending months, weeks, days& hours, many regiments/company's would be filled with either extremely young, extremely old, or just the non-war-ready people's. They were desperate, and almost Stalin esque attempts of conscription. I also do know I would've personally advanced myself/group to any non-Soviet allies that were advancing, probably would've shot myself before being sent to die in march to the Gulags. When people are desperate & put into surrender(to allies), surrender(to soviets), flee(which would either starve, get me killed for desertion, or captured by Stalin forces) or simply die in battle, I'm lying, stealing, cheating, or *ANYTHING* that could even remotely get me a chance to be able to surrender to the non-Soviet allies, as that is the highest survival percentage out of the choices they were given. 😲
If anyone is wondering about the Polish troops mentioned at 9:05, it was the 1st Armoured Division commanded by Gen. Stanisław Maczek. After the war Emsland was for a time sort of an unofficial little Polish occupation zone. I think that would be an interesting topic for a video.
@@lizsurprise8332 Yes. It was centered in the town of Haren, from which inhabitants were temporarily expelled and it was renamed as "Maczków". It became the hub for not only the soldiers of the 1st Armoured Division and the Independent Parachute Brigade but also for the Polish DPs (Displaced Persons) from across Germany. They were the former POWs, concentration camps' inmates and slave laborers. Their situation was peculiar as Poland found itself under Soviet control and her borders were redrawn.
@@Artur_M. // 2nd try, first comment didn’t show up Yes, I come from the city. I'm probably not telling you anything new, but there's also a video about it on UA-cam (in German). ua-cam.com/video/vaicu2nIPM0/v-deo.html www.porta-polonica.de/pl/atlas-miejsc-pami%C4%99ci/maczkow-polska-enklawa-w-polnocnych-niemczech There is also an exhibition about it in the local museum: www.haren.de/downloads/datei/OTAwMDAwNDg1Oy07L3Vzci9sb2NhbC9odHRwZC92aHRkb2NzL2hhcmVuL2hhcmVuL21lZGllbi9kb2t1bWVudGUvaW5zZWxtdWVobGVfZmFsdGJsYXR0MjAyMV9wb2xuaXNjaC5wZGY%3D
@@lizsurprise8332 Thank you! I know from experience that UA-cam is sometimes wierd with links in comments. I didn't know about the museum, very interesting!
@@lizsurprise8332 The video also looks interesting, even more so. I'm actually trying to learn some German, so I'll definitely watch it later. Sadly, right know I kinda have a hard time thinking about something else than the war in Ukraine. Edit: I've watched it anyway. It's very good, as far as I can tell, with my terrible German skills.
I remember my Opa(grandpa) who was in the German army from age 16-18, from 1943-45, went back to his hometown in Austria where the soviets were. He was basically homeless and used a German officers coat he found to keep himself warm. He got a lot of suspicious looks from the soviets, but they let him be to my knowledge.
@@oligultonn I think he stayed in a British prison camp for a while right when the war ended. He lost a whole lot of weight and learned to speak some English from a British officer. When he got back to his hometown the former nazi mayor and his son were standing outside of his family’s house. His family abandoned the house during the war and the mayor and son looted everything his family left behind. Everything was stacked up in front of the house and the son of the mayor guarded the stolen property with an axe. They weren’t letting him have any of his family’s property so he threatened to tell the Soviets that they were the nazi mayor and son, then left on his bike. I don’t remember if he got his family’s property back.
@@freppie_ I’m not sure, I remember a good bit of his stories, but that part isn’t as clear. I know my brother got a lot of his story on audio and saved it somewhere, which I really want to hear someday.
Der Hauptmann (2017) - very good movie definitely recommend watching it. Shows the real struggle of end war paranoia of hunting deserters, the desperate measures these deserters go to, and of course the civilian hardship. No Hollywood heroics here, just reality.
There is a film about this lad - "Der Hauptmann" or "The Captain" (in English). I watched with English subtitles, was made in 2017 but is filmed in black and white. Incredible story, could not believe it was true.
It states at the end that Herrold was executed but not how he was executed. He, along with five of his men, was guillotined by the Germans instead of being hanged by the British, even though he was tried by the British.
I believe it is because most of his victims are German deserters. There are other cases that after the WWII the Allied occupying forces allowed the German soldiers to trial and even execute their own criminals.
Kind of sad. Even though he was only a private impersonating an officer, it seems that in actual combat he performed well and led his men in the best tradition of an actual officer. If he hadn't stepped over the line and committed war crimes, he might have been recognized as a hero.
After hearing so many of these stories, Mark Twain really said it best: “Reality is often stranger than fiction, because fiction has to be true, reality does not.”
The ONLY person who could make a better Willie Herold video is Dr. Mark Felton. And thats saying alot. You made a FANTASTIC video thank you for covering this subject.
@@BesoffenerIslamist not gonna fight you because you dont have anything near the credentials nor the credibility to say ANYTHING negative about Dr. Felton. Hes WAY out of your league to even be offended by your troll comment 😂🤣
I'm pretty impressed that with German administration and resources under 1944-level stresses, and tolerance for domestic truculence declining fast, the villagers were able at all to confront Herold or find proof he hadn't won those medals. Imagine that some clerk at the Bendlerstrasse section on Luftwaffe decorations had to dig out those papers or not, as the case may be. That's some impressive bureaucracy.
Would more likely be a case of him not being able to back up his claims. Like me lying about being in Afghanistan, "where were you based?" "Oh, do you remember such and such or so and so?" ..gonna get busted.
About the same time the Wehrmacht invalided out my sick Father, he had malaria, and was said to be incurable. A bit later the U.S. Army captured this macroscopic healthy young man. But after only 2 or 3 days of captivity they had already investigated that he was really a civilian. So they released him--with the offer to join the U.S. Army now, they would have use of him. Eventually, he would be a civilian, and therefore bound to his German soldier's oath no longer. But how could the U.S. Army prove that? Had they asked the German Surgeon General? Or had they gotten his medical record? At least, by then the hospital that had invalided him was yet captured by the French Army *. . .*
He carried himself with an air of authority in a time and a place where frightening and potentially lethal chaos was the norm. In circumstances like that, desperate people can and will do desperate things, and everyone is grasping for hope, and safety and order, and anyone who appears to offer such has a very high probability of not only being believed, but being believed in, and followed, too. Which, of course, is precisely the set of circumstances that lead to the rise of Hitler in the first place just 20 short years before the disastrous events covered in this fine video. Thanks again.
The difference is that Hitler created most of the problems he pretended to solve. By 1930 the Weimar Republic was weak but he painted the picture of it being in the cusp of occupation by foreign powers and the minorities that he hated.
I was expecting him to rally the prisoner-deserters to him and form a larger force, like he did with the deserter/stragglers he met along his earlier journey. instead he friggin murdered the lot. imagine if he didn't do that? man...
I still couldnt get over the fact the "captain" manage to convince his superior (or the major actually believing him) that he was sent for a secret mission from Hitler himself. How would Hitler, sitting among his generals in Berlin, planning tactics over Eastern Front then, suddenly giving missions to a low-level Luftwaffe (instead of SS, who were usually more relied on by Hitler) captain (who would be in charge of a company, or at most a battalion, around 100-400 men) who is stationed away in some countryside in the Western border. And that assigned "captain" was so bad he managed to "lost" all its men except himself. He likely got lucky that his superior wasnt thinking at that time and gave away his precious manpower, and he probably realized how absurd this excuse was and stop using it later on.
It cost them less than nothing at this point to just accept the bullshit whereas if it was actually true denying him support is a death sentence. It was basically an officer looking at the insanity of the end of the war and saying, "Whatever, I do not care, take the responsibility out of my hands."
The Germans are " papers " Fetishes. If you cannot produce your papers or "Soldbuch"( some sort of a passport like format) Where everything About you are written and the limitations of your travel...the special German police, assigned in every unit, will take you against the wall and...ratat..tat..tat..tat! The German soldiers feared ( and hated !!) these special German police more than anything!
I’ve watched this film a couple of times and what resonates most is that I learned if you speak or act with enough commitment and confidence you can become an authority in the eyes of others. What spooked me about the film was towards the end when he was parading through a modern street, it was quite surreal and highlighted his disgraceful behaviour.
If you put a high visibility vest, get another friend to wear one, you might as well throw in a dude in a tight suit with glasses and a hardhat. Believe me, you will get inside most places.
Wow! You learn something new every day. In all the books on WW2 books and films I have seen, I never heard of Willis Harold. He was obviously a sociopath and a narcissist. A con man willing to take risks, and probably pretty charismatic. People like that are everywhere, the prisons are full of them.
I'm 51 yrs.old & I never heard about this. It just goes to show one is never to old for knowledge P.S.during WW2 by putting on a Captain's uniform if you were NOT one than staying in yours what ever rank you were...Thank You very much for this vid.& to keep Up the Great work 👍
I think he pulled the deception off and people followed him for the same reason, because of his charisma, luck, belief in his lie, and the willingness for people to believe and blindly follow someone who looked like they had authority. If I found the in form, I'd wear it because it was dry and clean clothes and try to escape inconspicuously.
That he used that authority to do what he did, (instead of the rational thing of bringing "his" men safely thru the end of the war) means he was also a psychopath.
I don't understand why he was not challenged by other officers and older other ranks as he looked young, far too young, for example, to have served in Narvic and be a Captain as the Narvic medal ribbon was one of the medal ribbons on his uniform jacket.
Why did so many follow him? In the chaos at the end of the war, soldiers would follow anyone who they felt was competent to lead. Plus he was on a "secret mission for Hitler" - what officer was really going to question that?
An interesting fact is although it was a British court, technically the trial was under German law, so as a result, he wasn't executed by hanging, as he would have been under British law, instead he was guillotined, which was the German method of execution at the time
I'm equally amazed that the various authorities military and secret police both expected men to have papers at this stage and that any men at all could still produce them. Even more amazed that there was enough authority for various German officers to almost clue in and act against Herold, or for there to be any German Police [civil police, or field police?] operating to finally catch him.
Well, what else could be said, they were mostly germans, even if not they still lived in system run by *tZzE GeRRmns* 😁Seine dokumente bitte...Was?! Sie mussen die Papire haben!! You know, the grammar nazis ain't call like that for no reason 😁
One of the reasons why the Nazi Reich held together for as long as it did was because of the German culture's perchant for order and structure. The Nazis took advantage of this to harness it to their diabolical ends. It literally never broke down until Allied and Soviet troops rolled into their cities and towns.
I’ve been waiting for this information since I saw The Captain because it was truly unbelievable to see what that movie portrayed, thank you for the video.
I think he got away with it because everything had broken down into chaos by then, with Germany on its last legs. His uniform was also in good shape, not looking like he'd gotten it off a dead man, so the soldiers took it for granted he was genuine. His confidence had to have helped, too. Personally I would have surrendered to those British instead of fighting them, especially with no artillery. But it shows, if nothing else, how loyal he was to his nation.
Charisma. That dude had it. A waste....He should have rallied the men together to surrender to the Americans like the other German units did. I forget which but a few of the large German army remnants that survived the Soviets on the Eastern front fought their way to the Elbe (?) river to surrender to the Americans rather than taken prisoner by the Soviets.
Funny how when the Reich was falling, anything that might be a crazy idea just might have worked in a crazy time of desperation.. Even a private could put on a uniform of a Capitan and there were so many deserters and soldiers who were willing to follow this 20yr old no matter how crazy the orders were.. The movie The Captain was stunning to watch but it defiantly seemed normal in a abnormal time with so many desperate men and women who just wanted to survive the end of WWII. Worth the time to watch!
I think it's how he "carried himself" he must have been a good mimic..That's the trick.There was a thief before WWI that got a German Captains uniform at a used clothing store and seized a bank.The Kaiser was so amused he pardoned him and he became a minor celebrity..
Some people can pull off convincing cons. Many years ago in America, there was an impersonator, Ferdinand Waldo Demara, who impersonated a Trappist monk, a medical officer in the Royal Canadian Navy during the Korean War, an assistant prison warden, and God knows what else. The movie "The Great Impostor" starring Tony Curtis, is based on Demara's antics.
Its not hard. Soldiers are conditioned to react instinctively to authority. On one deployment as a Private I got a pair or shiney airline pilot wings and put them on my hat. I walked around as a joke and other soldiers would salute me.
It's weird for me to hear this guy talk about World War II because he also voices a channel that goes over facts about Star Wars and other things like that so it's kind of just funny to me
Just FYI, the photo at 4:25 is not a shot of German deserters being executed by other Germans. It is a photo of some of the German soldiers who wore American uniforms and tried to sow confusion and commit sabotage behind the American lines during the Battle of the Bulge (150 Panzer Brigade, Operation Grief) about to be executed by American soldiers.
I had been about to ask how he could be guilty of war crimes, and if the Hague and Geneva Conventions even covered crimes committed by a member of an army against his own people. I thought not, certainly not back then. But if he was tried under German law for being a German soldier committing crimes against Germans, then it would be a normal procedure. The British would carry out the trial since the Allies were in sovereign power over Germany, the only authorities able to apply German law in the absence of a German state. Then they would turn him over to the Germans to implement sentence. I understand some German deserters were handled this way- tried for ordinary military law crimes by the occupying power, then turned over to Germans for disposition. At least the allies applied a stricter Western standard of procedure and evidence than late war German courts.
Thank you for sharing that. I love constantly learning about history! I know one of the attorneys who represented the US at the Nuremberg trials...but I didn't know who could deal wth German law back then
You are right. There are other cases that the Allied occupying forces allowed the captured German prisoners to try and execute their own deserters and criminals.
Times and habits change, sometimes as a natural evolution, sometimes because authorities impose change for their own reasons. I do wish they'd come up with something less stupid than "Common Era" for an era that has nothing in common unless we restarted the clock circa 1900 or so. 1 is common to nothing except, more or less, Western Christianity.
@Lex Bright Ravensurely that is different, 2000 years ago, Julius Caesar named a month after himself (July) and then Caesers great nephew Augustus thought he'd do the same (August) which put all the months after August out by 2 months. In the Before Christ (BC) debate, some religiously neutral pedant attached E for Era/Epoch after it in the last 20 years. In 2002, an advisory panel for the religious education syllabus for England and Wales recommended introducing BCE/CE dates to schools,In the United States, the use of the BCE/CE notation in textbooks was reported in 2005 to be growing. I prefer BC, because the calenderr is religious, because for the Islamic world the year is 20 Rajab 1443. In the Jewish world the year is Hebrew Year 5782 - תשפ"ב The current year is 5782 - תשפ"ב. So it is unnecessry as all calenders are from religion, and no-one should be offended by their religion, unless its made illegal.
@Paddy le Blanc I see so because you were offended, everyone else has to be offended as well. Again for the people at the back who weren't paying attention, Nobody NEEDS to be offended by their religion. For most, religion is imposed on us from birth, and in adulthood you are also able to renounce such impositions.
Interesting, that in situations like WWII some men recognize opportunities before them and do good. Men like Oskar Schindler*, while others, such as the protagonist of this story do quite the opposite. *Ironically, had Heer Shindler been a good man from the start, he would not have the opportunity he got, to help people.
@@tubarao1143 Ask those who did rape, murder and plunder on the east front, not alot of them but they still living. Maybe you want example. Do you think that world is fair? Many of those bastard didn't meet punishment. Do you want from me any respect for such scums?
Why did he do it? Because he could get away with it, and it kept him alive. And because it gave him power. Why did so many go along with him? The Authority Principle. We naturally tend to obey instructions given by an authority figure, regardless of how tenuous their claim to that authority may be.
That's wild and I might have put it on also... Naaa would have been to many headaches unless it had papers or even forged one. It's easy to say one way or the other without being there in those condition Enjoyed your video and I gave it a Thumbs Up as a support
During the finnish civil war in 1918 an german ex-POV and lance corporal Karl Müller appeared to the HQ of the white army and claimed to be senior liutenant of the imperial german army named Karl von Zedtwitz zu Hackenbach. He served as an field officer in the war leading battalion size unit at its best. When the regular german army units supporting white army arrived to Finland his true identity was revealed and the soldiers told Müller to disappear quietly.
My German American grandfather was a deserter in Britain for a while posing as a Canadian Major even though he was barely nineteen. He was welcomed back without much fuss. Unfortunately I don't know what his unit was, only that he emigrated to Germany after the war.
I had no knowledge of this untill now . With the way the Nazi's were about papers , I am shocked he got away with that !! The killing of the deserters in the camp is incredibly insane !! Then killing civilians !!! Guy was definitely a psychopath !!!
This reminds me of the story of Wilhelm Voigt also known as the "Captain From Kopenick" (I don't know how to get an umlaut over the O) after he masqueraded as a Prussian officer in 1906. Though Voigt wasn't a killer. There is a 1956 German comedy movie about the affair which is very similar to Danny Kaye's The Inspector General.
To get an Umlaut, on an Azerty keyboard press the shift key together with the ¨^[ key on the right side of the P key, at first nothing will happen but if you press the U or O key afterwards you will get an Ö or an Ü. The Hauptmann von Köpenick was with Heinz Rühmann as the hauptmann, there even is a disease called Hauptmann von Köpenick-Syndrom, where Willi Herold would fit right in.
In the 1940s and '50s, there was an impersonator by the name of Ferdinand Waldo Demara. He impersonated a Trappist monk, a medical officer in the Royal Canadian Navy during the Korean War, an assistant prison warden, and God knows what else. The movie "The Great Impostor" starring Tony Curtis, is based on Demara's antics.
@@mountainguyed67 - Amazing thing about Germans - they are good at following orders. An Allied Soldier said of the German POWs he was responsible for - if you look like you have authority and bark out orders in a clear and authoritative manner, the Germans are happy to follow them......
*sees description response* Both would suffice. The person who sees the uniform might be forced to wear it so to try to do things of their own authoritarian accord, no matter the legitimacy, while the uniform itself will be shaped by the wearer through thick and thin, up to the point that, if it survives, it becomes a part of museum history, famous or infamous.
One question , the allies had the authority to put in trail a german which kill germans He didn't kill captives or civilians from other nations , but from his I didn"t know that
Yes but interestingly he wasn't executed by the British but by the Germans. Him and five of his men were guillotined as per German practice and not hanged as per British practice.
A well off hotelier I once knew in Torquay deserted from the British army, and with similar types ahead of the advancing allies entered German towns . Upon being greeted by the mayor with a white flag he demanded access to the bank, which was then looted. He shot many a defenceless civilian. He was a nasty bastard.
"The Captain" is a great movie. Very dark, and not because it's filmed in black and white.
Der Hauptmann (2017) it is called in German, in case anyone can't find it.
Such a great and underrated movie.
I kind of came across it by accident, I was stunned by the story and the fact that it was true.
Went to see it with two friends, while we were in the military. We all have fuck-you-dark humor. So we laughed quite a bit.
One of my friends was autistic and sucked at reading social cues. So we sometimes had to keep him from laughing too much.
Great movie on the whole, very dark, visceral, and clever. Still really difficult for many Germans to see, because Germans are really bad at dealing with our own history. So I wasn't surprised that it didn't do so well in Germany.
I guess you could call your comment dark humor?
@@erloriel you have autistic people in the military?
If I had found an officer's uniform, I would have put it on and lied low till the allies arrived. Officers get better treatment than other ranks when POW, especially with the class conscious british. And at that point in the war the choices were quite limited for the germans, die or surrender. I can see why the Waffen SS fought on, given that there was a chance that they would be shot anyway, but for a member of the Wehrmacht surrender was the best option.
In the 'Bridge Over the River Kwai' William Holden's character did exactly that knowing he would be captured.
I think many would've done that.
Unless it was a SS uniform. Definitely don't get captured by the Russians, you will be sent to a gulag never to be seen again. The French didn't like the Germans.
@@brokenbridge6316 I know I would have, plus at the end of the war, I'm sure many wouldn't find it impossible for such a young person to be so high ranked.
Considering most senior ranks would have obviously been deserters, PoW's, or most likely killed at that point.
I know during the desperate ending months, weeks, days& hours, many regiments/company's would be filled with either extremely young, extremely old, or just the non-war-ready people's.
They were desperate, and almost Stalin esque attempts of conscription.
I also do know I would've personally advanced myself/group to any non-Soviet allies that were advancing, probably would've shot myself before being sent to die in march to the Gulags.
When people are desperate & put into surrender(to allies), surrender(to soviets), flee(which would either starve, get me killed for desertion, or captured by Stalin forces) or simply die in battle, I'm lying, stealing, cheating, or *ANYTHING* that could even remotely get me a chance to be able to surrender to the non-Soviet allies, as that is the highest survival percentage out of the choices they were given. 😲
@@jonhall2274---I hear you there, friend.
I remember watching "the captain" a great German movie about this man. Definitely worth watching!😁
very good quite enjoyed that movie
bruh it's catch me if you can but german
@@hanskrebs2069lol fr
If anyone is wondering about the Polish troops mentioned at 9:05, it was the 1st Armoured Division commanded by Gen. Stanisław Maczek. After the war Emsland was for a time sort of an unofficial little Polish occupation zone. I think that would be an interesting topic for a video.
Not all of Emsland, only parts and the polish occupation zone was inside the British occupation zone.
@@lizsurprise8332 Yes. It was centered in the town of Haren, from which inhabitants were temporarily expelled and it was renamed as "Maczków". It became the hub for not only the soldiers of the 1st Armoured Division and the Independent Parachute Brigade but also for the Polish DPs (Displaced Persons) from across Germany. They were the former POWs, concentration camps' inmates and slave laborers. Their situation was peculiar as Poland found itself under Soviet control and her borders were redrawn.
@@Artur_M. // 2nd try, first comment didn’t show up
Yes, I come from the city. I'm probably not telling you anything new, but there's also a video about it on UA-cam (in German).
ua-cam.com/video/vaicu2nIPM0/v-deo.html
www.porta-polonica.de/pl/atlas-miejsc-pami%C4%99ci/maczkow-polska-enklawa-w-polnocnych-niemczech
There is also an exhibition about it in the local museum:
www.haren.de/downloads/datei/OTAwMDAwNDg1Oy07L3Vzci9sb2NhbC9odHRwZC92aHRkb2NzL2hhcmVuL2hhcmVuL21lZGllbi9kb2t1bWVudGUvaW5zZWxtdWVobGVfZmFsdGJsYXR0MjAyMV9wb2xuaXNjaC5wZGY%3D
@@lizsurprise8332 Thank you! I know from experience that UA-cam is sometimes wierd with links in comments.
I didn't know about the museum, very interesting!
@@lizsurprise8332 The video also looks interesting, even more so. I'm actually trying to learn some German, so I'll definitely watch it later. Sadly, right know I kinda have a hard time thinking about something else than the war in Ukraine.
Edit: I've watched it anyway. It's very good, as far as I can tell, with my terrible German skills.
I remember my Opa(grandpa) who was in the German army from age 16-18, from 1943-45, went back to his hometown in Austria where the soviets were. He was basically homeless and used a German officers coat he found to keep himself warm. He got a lot of suspicious looks from the soviets, but they let him be to my knowledge.
The teenagers who survived early post war Germany, Poland, Belarus and other eastern european nations are true survivors.
@@oligultonn I think he stayed in a British prison camp for a while right when the war ended. He lost a whole lot of weight and learned to speak some English from a British officer. When he got back to his hometown the former nazi mayor and his son were standing outside of his family’s house. His family abandoned the house during the war and the mayor and son looted everything his family left behind. Everything was stacked up in front of the house and the son of the mayor guarded the stolen property with an axe. They weren’t letting him have any of his family’s property so he threatened to tell the Soviets that they were the nazi mayor and son, then left on his bike. I don’t remember if he got his family’s property back.
@@darknice10 well if he didn't get his property, someone else became a pow i think
@@freppie_ I’m not sure, I remember a good bit of his stories, but that part isn’t as clear. I know my brother got a lot of his story on audio and saved it somewhere, which I really want to hear someday.
PROOF PLEASE. YOU GOT SOCIAL MEDIA OR SOMETHING?!! I REALLY WANNA SEE PIX OR JOURNALS OR SOMETHING PLEASE!!!
Der Hauptmann (2017) - very good movie definitely recommend watching it. Shows the real struggle of end war paranoia of hunting deserters, the desperate measures these deserters go to, and of course the civilian hardship. No Hollywood heroics here, just reality.
There is a film about this lad - "Der Hauptmann" or "The Captain" (in English). I watched with English subtitles, was made in 2017 but is filmed in black and white. Incredible story, could not believe it was true.
It states at the end that Herrold was executed but not how he was executed. He, along with five of his men, was guillotined by the Germans instead of being hanged by the British, even though he was tried by the British.
Dead is dead. The moral of the story is liquor and guns don't mix.
good, he deserved it
i mean he killed german prisoners so....
@@georgemacdonell2341 true, but it’s an interesting piece of information, particularly that the Germans did it.
I believe it is because most of his victims are German deserters. There are other cases that after the WWII the Allied occupying forces allowed the German soldiers to trial and even execute their own criminals.
Kind of sad. Even though he was only a private impersonating an officer, it seems that in actual combat he performed well and led his men in the best tradition of an actual officer. If he hadn't stepped over the line and committed war crimes, he might have been recognized as a hero.
Gefreiter was equivalent to corporal, not private.
Yes sad for his victims. Even those who are bottom of the moral compass can be great leaders
@@ronstreet6706 Real Corporal or Lance Corporal/Specialist 4?
@@samobispo1527 I'm British, so I don't have a clue what you mean by specialist 4. It is corporal, not lance corporal
wow, the boss of a group of criminals could have been a skilled soldier. interesting....not
After hearing so many of these stories, Mark Twain really said it best: “Reality is often stranger than fiction, because fiction has to be true, reality does not.”
i think its the opposite, fiction doesnt have to be ture, reality does
The ONLY person who could make a better Willie Herold video is Dr. Mark Felton. And thats saying alot. You made a FANTASTIC video thank you for covering this subject.
That's quite the compliment coming from a Long-time Feltonite
@@tsar389 Feltonites rise up
Felton is actually pretty overrated.
Fight me, Fanboys!
@@BesoffenerIslamist not gonna fight you because you dont have anything near the credentials nor the credibility to say ANYTHING negative about Dr. Felton. Hes WAY out of your league to even be offended by your troll comment 😂🤣
@@KAMiKAZE-T.V. He pumps out videos with shoddy research, basically just reading wikipedia for many.
I'm pretty impressed that with German administration and resources under 1944-level stresses, and tolerance for domestic truculence declining fast, the villagers were able at all to confront Herold or find proof he hadn't won those medals. Imagine that some clerk at the Bendlerstrasse section on Luftwaffe decorations had to dig out those papers or not, as the case may be. That's some impressive bureaucracy.
Would more likely be a case of him not being able to back up his claims.
Like me lying about being in Afghanistan, "where were you based?"
"Oh, do you remember such and such or so and so?" ..gonna get busted.
About the same time the Wehrmacht invalided out my sick Father, he had malaria, and was said to be incurable. A bit later the U.S. Army captured this macroscopic healthy young man. But after only 2 or 3 days of captivity they had already investigated that he was really a civilian. So they released him--with the offer to join the U.S. Army now, they would have use of him. Eventually, he would be a civilian, and therefore bound to his German soldier's oath no longer.
But how could the U.S. Army prove that? Had they asked the German Surgeon General? Or had they gotten his medical record? At least, by then the hospital that had invalided him was yet captured by the French Army *. . .*
He carried himself with an air of authority in a time and a place where frightening and potentially lethal chaos was the norm. In circumstances like that, desperate people can and will do desperate things, and everyone is grasping for hope, and safety and order, and anyone who appears to offer such has a very high probability of not only being believed, but being believed in, and followed, too.
Which, of course, is precisely the set of circumstances that lead to the rise of Hitler in the first place just 20 short years before the disastrous events covered in this fine video.
Thanks again.
1 day not long from now, another man like that will appear.
and he will do horrendous things.
Charisma. He had it.
The difference is that Hitler created most of the problems he pretended to solve. By 1930 the Weimar Republic was weak but he painted the picture of it being in the cusp of occupation by foreign powers and the minorities that he hated.
I was expecting him to rally the prisoner-deserters to him and form a larger force, like he did with the deserter/stragglers he met along his earlier journey. instead he friggin murdered the lot. imagine if he didn't do that? man...
I still couldnt get over the fact the "captain" manage to convince his superior (or the major actually believing him) that he was sent for a secret mission from Hitler himself. How would Hitler, sitting among his generals in Berlin, planning tactics over Eastern Front then, suddenly giving missions to a low-level Luftwaffe (instead of SS, who were usually more relied on by Hitler) captain (who would be in charge of a company, or at most a battalion, around 100-400 men) who is stationed away in some countryside in the Western border. And that assigned "captain" was so bad he managed to "lost" all its men except himself.
He likely got lucky that his superior wasnt thinking at that time and gave away his precious manpower, and he probably realized how absurd this excuse was and stop using it later on.
It cost them less than nothing at this point to just accept the bullshit whereas if it was actually true denying him support is a death sentence. It was basically an officer looking at the insanity of the end of the war and saying, "Whatever, I do not care, take the responsibility out of my hands."
it's not as odd as you think,
let's leave it at that.
The Germans are " papers "
Fetishes.
If you cannot produce your papers or "Soldbuch"( some sort of a passport like format)
Where everything About you are written and the limitations of your travel...the special German police, assigned in every unit, will take you against the wall and...ratat..tat..tat..tat!
The German soldiers feared ( and hated !!) these special
German police more than anything!
@@sanchezroman8995 He didn't have any good paper.
I’ve watched this film a couple of times and what resonates most is that I learned if you speak or act with enough commitment and confidence you can become an authority in the eyes of others. What spooked me about the film was towards the end when he was parading through a modern street, it was quite surreal and highlighted his disgraceful behaviour.
You can carry a clipboard and a hardhat and basically get access to any office building.
@@Kraken9911 yep. 2 guys carrying a ladder can get in anywhere just about.
If you put a high visibility vest, get another friend to wear one, you might as well throw in a dude in a tight suit with glasses and a hardhat. Believe me, you will get inside most places.
Wow! You learn something new every day. In all the books on WW2 books and films I have seen, I never heard of Willis Harold. He was obviously a sociopath and a narcissist. A con man willing to take risks, and probably pretty charismatic. People like that are everywhere, the prisons are full of them.
That movie "The Captain" is a damn good movie and the guy playing Willi Herold does a great job.
Once again, Your thoughts on history are spot on. Really glad I SUBSCRIBED.... and looking forward to seeing more...
Man I remember this from that one movie. Edit it was called The Captain 2017.
That fills in some gaps from the movie for me, I'll have to rewatch it now. A 20 year old "Captain" with a chest full of medals. He had balls.
I'm 51 yrs.old & I never heard about this. It just goes to show one is never to old for knowledge P.S.during WW2 by putting on a Captain's uniform if you were NOT one than staying in yours what ever rank you were...Thank You very much for this vid.& to keep Up the Great work 👍
Shet man y look 35. They made a movie about him look it up
The fact that so many soldiers died thinking he was a real captain
I think he pulled the deception off and people followed him for the same reason, because of his charisma, luck, belief in his lie, and the willingness for people to believe and blindly follow someone who looked like they had authority. If I found the in form, I'd wear it because it was dry and clean clothes and try to escape inconspicuously.
That he used that authority to do what he did, (instead of the rational thing of bringing "his" men safely thru the end of the war) means he was also a psychopath.
Wow.
Thank you!
I don't understand why he was not challenged by other officers and older other ranks as he looked young, far too young, for example, to have served in Narvic and be a Captain as the Narvic medal ribbon was one of the medal ribbons on his uniform jacket.
Why did so many follow him? In the chaos at the end of the war, soldiers would follow anyone who they felt was competent to lead. Plus he was on a "secret mission for Hitler" - what officer was really going to question that?
Never underestimate who easily a young person can be influenced.
Your correct social media has destroyed young minds
Interesting story , kinda makes me want to watch the film now .
An interesting fact is although it was a British court, technically the trial was under German law, so as a result, he wasn't executed by hanging, as he would have been under British law, instead he was guillotined, which was the German method of execution at the time
He reminds me of my grandfather, he was wounded in the last days of the war when the camps were liberated. He fell from a watchtower.
naah, this can be told better.
@@elixir4487 not my best effort
I'm equally amazed that the various authorities military and secret police both expected men to have papers at this stage and that any men at all could still produce them. Even more amazed that there was enough authority for various German officers to almost clue in and act against Herold, or for there to be any German Police [civil police, or field police?] operating to finally catch him.
Well, what else could be said, they were mostly germans, even if not they still lived in system run by *tZzE GeRRmns* 😁Seine dokumente bitte...Was?! Sie mussen die Papire haben!! You know, the grammar nazis ain't call like that for no reason 😁
One of the reasons why the Nazi Reich held together for as long as it did was because of the German culture's perchant for order and structure. The Nazis took advantage of this to harness it to their diabolical ends. It literally never broke down until Allied and Soviet troops rolled into their cities and towns.
I’ve been waiting for this information since I saw The Captain because it was truly unbelievable to see what that movie portrayed, thank you for the video.
I think he got away with it because everything had broken down into chaos by then, with Germany on its last legs. His uniform was also in good shape, not looking like he'd gotten it off a dead man, so the soldiers took it for granted he was genuine. His confidence had to have helped, too. Personally I would have surrendered to those British instead of fighting them, especially with no artillery. But it shows, if nothing else, how loyal he was to his nation.
Charisma. That dude had it. A waste....He should have rallied the men together to surrender to the Americans like the other German units did. I forget which but a few of the large German army remnants that survived the Soviets on the Eastern front fought their way to the Elbe (?) river to surrender to the Americans rather than taken prisoner by the Soviets.
Funny how when the Reich was falling, anything that might be a crazy idea just might have worked in a crazy time of desperation.. Even a private could put on a uniform of a Capitan and there were so many deserters and soldiers who were willing to follow this 20yr old no matter how crazy the orders were.. The movie The Captain was stunning to watch but it defiantly seemed normal in a abnormal time with so many desperate men and women who just wanted to survive the end of WWII. Worth the time to watch!
Amazingly well constructed and narrated video! So interesting. Thank you!
Der Hauptmann(2017) is a Great movie made on that
I think it's how he "carried himself" he must have been a good mimic..That's the trick.There was a thief before WWI that got a German Captains uniform at a used clothing store and seized a bank.The Kaiser was so amused he pardoned him and he became a minor celebrity..
Some people can pull off convincing cons.
Many years ago in America, there was an impersonator, Ferdinand Waldo Demara, who impersonated a Trappist monk, a medical officer in the Royal Canadian Navy during the Korean War, an assistant prison warden, and God knows what else. The movie "The Great Impostor" starring Tony Curtis, is based on Demara's antics.
Its not hard. Soldiers are conditioned to react instinctively to authority. On one deployment as a Private I got a pair or shiney airline pilot wings and put them on my hat. I walked around as a joke and other soldiers would salute me.
Gefr. Herold must have heard the story about Wilhelm Voigt, "The Captain from Köpenick".
The fox on the lady's shoulder (@ 6:30) is still alive. It is playing dead until the end of the war.
1:29 wow he was clearly a hard working young man. Look at all the soot on his face!
Fantastic video! Thank you!
Very informative and entertaining video, thank you.
"Faked being a captain to commit warcrimes" relatable
He was a sus imposter.
I don’t know about the story but the photo at 4:14 is just spectacular. I’ve not seen that before
Brother, your videos deserve more views. Def. going to be a subscriber
He might have not been a Nazi but he wasn't any better either.
Exactly right
you will find that no side in that war was any better than the nazis they were all murderers
@@jamesi2018 "any better"? So you are saying all the other belligerents committed as many war crimes?!?!?! You are either delusional or just trolling.
@@danielfarquharson661 of copurse they did the british and americans are no angels dont get on your high horse
@@jamesi2018 angels? No. Better? Absolutely lmao
"war criminal"
That's a funny way of saying Hero.
When the Imposter is sus
pum pum pum pum pum pyuumm pum tutun tunnn
THAANNN THAANNN
What a great picture. Watched in numerous times
Any chance of you doing a video on the heroes of the kokoda track ... more maroubra brigade
Seen the movie. Didn't fully understand the context. Now I do better. Thanks
Never knew all of those details about him! I thought he only went to the lager but all of the rest is so crazy
The court scene after he was finally caught was the craziest part.
I saw the movie. It was good. I learned something new about post Germany's WWII soldiers. Very good video.
If I found the uniform, I probably would do the same thing, excluding the war crimes
I been looking for a documentary on this guy ty ty ty 👏
Thanks
Very cool 😎
What a loon, did more damage to his own men than the allies
It's weird for me to hear this guy talk about World War II because he also voices a channel that goes over facts about Star Wars and other things like that so it's kind of just funny to me
I knew I recognised his voice from somewhere else
Thank you.
We fought on the wrong side!
Just FYI, the photo at 4:25 is not a shot of German deserters being executed by other Germans. It is a photo of some of the German soldiers who wore American uniforms and tried to sow confusion and commit sabotage behind the American lines during the Battle of the Bulge (150 Panzer Brigade, Operation Grief) about to be executed by American soldiers.
I had been about to ask how he could be guilty of war crimes, and if the Hague and Geneva Conventions even covered crimes committed by a member of an army against his own people. I thought not, certainly not back then. But if he was tried under German law for being a German soldier committing crimes against Germans, then it would be a normal procedure. The British would carry out the trial since the Allies were in sovereign power over Germany, the only authorities able to apply German law in the absence of a German state. Then they would turn him over to the Germans to implement sentence. I understand some German deserters were handled this way- tried for ordinary military law crimes by the occupying power, then turned over to Germans for disposition. At least the allies applied a stricter Western standard of procedure and evidence than late war German courts.
Thank you for sharing that. I love constantly learning about history! I know one of the attorneys who represented the US at the Nuremberg trials...but I didn't know who could deal wth German law back then
You are right. There are other cases that the Allied occupying forces allowed the captured German prisoners to try and execute their own deserters and criminals.
At least he got what was coming to him eventually.
WHY do ppl insist on saying BCE and CE?? It is B.C. and A.D. Always has been, always will be.
Because of ‘ feelings ‘
Times and habits change, sometimes as a natural evolution, sometimes because authorities impose change for their own reasons. I do wish they'd come up with something less stupid than "Common Era" for an era that has nothing in common unless we restarted the clock circa 1900 or so. 1 is common to nothing except, more or less, Western Christianity.
@Lex Bright Ravensurely that is different, 2000 years ago, Julius Caesar named a month after himself (July) and then Caesers great nephew Augustus thought he'd do the same (August) which put all the months after August out by 2 months.
In the Before Christ (BC) debate, some religiously neutral pedant attached E for Era/Epoch after it in the last 20 years. In 2002, an advisory panel for the religious education syllabus for England and Wales recommended introducing BCE/CE dates to schools,In the United States, the use of the BCE/CE notation in textbooks was reported in 2005 to be growing.
I prefer BC, because the calenderr is religious, because for the Islamic world the year is 20 Rajab 1443. In the Jewish world the year is Hebrew Year 5782 - תשפ"ב The current year is 5782 - תשפ"ב.
So it is unnecessry as all calenders are from religion, and no-one should be offended by their religion, unless its made illegal.
@Paddy le Blanc I see so because you were offended, everyone else has to be offended as well. Again for the people at the back who weren't paying attention, Nobody NEEDS to be offended by their religion. For most, religion is imposed on us from birth, and in adulthood you are also able to renounce such impositions.
Just ignore it and keep using the proper terms.
Der Hauptmann is a very very good film, very powerful.
Ahh, "Der Hauptmann"... good movie and even better docu, here on YT
Interesting, that in situations like WWII some men recognize opportunities before them and do good. Men like Oskar Schindler*, while others, such as the protagonist of this story do quite the opposite.
*Ironically, had Heer Shindler been a good man from the start, he would not have the opportunity he got, to help people.
I once read about a German Corporal doing something similar.
Fascinating story
It is not „Elmsland“, it‘s Emsland. The river Ems flows through this landscape.
One can only imagine what was to be a German soldier in 1945...
Yep
Those who commited war crimes don't deserve to be regretted
@@heroe480 Maybe you would have done some had you been in the same position.
@@tubarao1143 Ask those who did rape, murder and plunder on the east front, not alot of them but they still living. Maybe you want example. Do you think that world is fair? Many of those bastard didn't meet punishment. Do you want from me any respect for such scums?
@@heroe480 ask the polish and baltic state citizens that got occupied and murdered, raped etc by soviets. It was not only the nazis that were baddies.
That was absolutely mad !! And the mind runs away with what would I have done? Well not murder the guys in the camp …..
Possibly 25,000 German soldiers were executed during the war for desertion and sometimes trivial actions.
Had this playing in the background and I realized I just saw this movie a few months back. The Captain,I knew it sounded familiar, lol
Well if I found a uniform I wouldn't use it too harm anyone I would have just used it temporarily to impress the girls.
Why did he do it? Because he could get away with it, and it kept him alive. And because it gave him power. Why did so many go along with him? The Authority Principle. We naturally tend to obey instructions given by an authority figure, regardless of how tenuous their claim to that authority may be.
An awesome story. I have to see the movie now.
"Hey! That's STOLEN VALOR! You can't do that.?"
Wow great story, makes me want to check out the movie you used the still shots from!!
Time to watch the Captain then.
That's wild and I might have put it on also... Naaa would have been to many headaches unless it had papers or even forged one. It's easy to say one way or the other without being there in those condition
Enjoyed your video and I gave it a Thumbs Up as a support
4:19 Does anybody know what is going on in this picture?
German spies being executed after the Ardennes Offensive.
@@rdjhardy Thank you very much :)
During the finnish civil war in 1918 an german ex-POV and lance corporal Karl Müller appeared to the HQ of the white army and claimed to be senior liutenant of the imperial german army named Karl von Zedtwitz zu Hackenbach. He served as an field officer in the war leading battalion size unit at its best. When the regular german army units supporting white army arrived to Finland his true identity was revealed and the soldiers told Müller to disappear quietly.
Amazing
My German American grandfather was a deserter in Britain for a while posing as a Canadian Major even though he was barely nineteen. He was welcomed back without much fuss. Unfortunately I don't know what his unit was, only that he emigrated to Germany after the war.
Thats a cool story, was he a British deserter then? Or, for the German army but spoke good English?
They made a pretty cool german movie out this story, title is "The Captain"(der hauptmann)
Saw that a while ago, found it by accident.
The infantryman was such a physical beast that Hitler made him his top guy....his name Corporal Sam Haide
Just saw a film about his story a real gut punch of a movie
Ammunition supplies were barely affected until the end.
I had no knowledge of this untill now . With the way the Nazi's were about papers , I am shocked he got away with that !! The killing of the deserters in the camp is incredibly insane !! Then killing
civilians !!! Guy was definitely a psychopath !!!
Very interesting, in the film he never fought with the men though. I didn’t know he led men into battles.
This reminds me of the story of Wilhelm Voigt also known as the "Captain From Kopenick" (I don't know how to get an umlaut over the O) after he masqueraded as a Prussian officer in 1906. Though Voigt wasn't a killer.
There is a 1956 German comedy movie about the affair which is very similar to Danny Kaye's The Inspector General.
The other way round, the Danny Kaye movie is based on the novel about the Hauptmann von Köpenick written in 1908
@@steffenrosmus9177 That's what I meant to convey. It's a bit hard to tell, I know.
To get an Umlaut, on an Azerty keyboard press the shift key together with the ¨^[ key on the right side of the P key, at first nothing will happen but if you press the U or O key afterwards you will get an Ö or an Ü. The Hauptmann von Köpenick was with Heinz Rühmann as the hauptmann, there even is a disease called Hauptmann von Köpenick-Syndrom, where Willi Herold would fit right in.
In the 1940s and '50s, there was an impersonator by the name of Ferdinand Waldo Demara. He impersonated a Trappist monk, a medical officer in the Royal Canadian Navy during the Korean War, an assistant prison warden, and God knows what else. The movie "The Great Impostor" starring Tony Curtis, is based on Demara's antics.
@@gotzvonberlichingen8210 or use your smart phone😉😉
Legend!!
You ask "How did he get away with it?". He was found guilty and was executed. He did not get away with his crimes....
He meant how did he get German soldiers to go along with it.
@@mountainguyed67 - Amazing thing about Germans - they are good at following orders. An Allied Soldier said of the German POWs he was responsible for - if you look like you have authority and bark out orders in a clear and authoritative manner, the Germans are happy to follow them......
@@HistoryGe3k 3rd times the charm .
@@DirkusTurkess - 3rd times the charm ???
@@HistoryGe3k well when youre a pow in a german camp people would follow aswell i guess
*sees description response* Both would suffice. The person who sees the uniform might be forced to wear it so to try to do things of their own authoritarian accord, no matter the legitimacy, while the uniform itself will be shaped by the wearer through thick and thin, up to the point that, if it survives, it becomes a part of museum history, famous or infamous.
One question , the allies had the authority to put in trail a german which kill germans
He didn't kill captives or civilians from other nations , but from his
I didn"t know that
What?
@@aaroncousins4750 Thats what he said, that he wasnt court martialled by Germans but allies
Yes but interestingly he wasn't executed by the British but by the Germans. Him and five of his men were guillotined as per German practice and not hanged as per British practice.
A well off hotelier I once knew in Torquay deserted from the British army, and with similar types ahead of the advancing allies entered German towns . Upon being greeted by the mayor with a white flag he demanded access to the bank, which was then looted. He shot many a defenceless civilian. He was a nasty bastard.