The Captain (2017) - A historically inaccurate gem (II) 

True.

Maybe a symbolic choice? "A young man who was lost in the war". Everyone can sympathize with the idea that war takes away innocence like in the 1926 version of On The Western Front, "Life finds a way to go on".

Thank you for the kind words, William!

Thank you, Henrik, I am very pleased that you enjoy my work! I worry that accepting contributions would put some pressure on me to have some kind of posting schedule, and take the joy out of what I am currently doing. My videos are a side-product of the books I read and the places I visit; I don't have friends who are passionate about history, so all I wanted was for someone to lend me their ear and listen to me talk about the topics I find interesting. And I received exactly that, and it's wonderful. So this is enough for me at the moment.

What an interesting comment. you made here. First of all, thank you for your lovely praise! I will try to cover all your points, I hope I don't miss any. I first became truly intrigued by the Herold case after reading Captain Pantcheff's book and realizing he was not actually a desperate deserter as portrayed in the film. Fear and desperation were never his main motivations. My instinct told me that there was something deeper at play there, and I wanted to find out what. I was surprised and delighted to find as many puzzle pieces as I did, and I'm still hoping to find out more. When it comes to any personality disorders that Herold might have had, I am very hesitant to make any suppositions. What I have gathered with great effort are mere tiny pieces of his life, not enough, I feel, to have a complete and rounded picture of who he really was. One must take into account several facts: First of all, that the Herold family was somewhat withdrawn and tended to keep to themselves. Mr. Herold was not from Lunzenau and tended to be away for long stretches of time (he worked in Munich) and Mrs. Herold was quite the fiery character, and so there were few, if any people who knew them well. Second of all, people in Lunzenau did not like to talk about Willi Herold once it was revealed he had been executed. They were afraid, chiefly because the town is small, and the Herold parents and siblings (especially the sister) lived there for many decades afterwards, and as I mentioned in my first video on Herold, having a good reputation and an equally good relationship with one's neighbors and fellow Lunzenauers was extremely important. One historian I talked about went there during the 90s and wanted to meet up with a former classmate of Herold's. The man wanted to meet in a secret location, as if they were doing a drug deal and not talking about a boy who'd been dead for forty years. Third of all, talking about him, especially if one said anything positive, carried the risk of being seen as trying to excuse his actions in any way, to defend him, and so we have very little to go on. I have no knowledge of Herold torturing animals or setting fires or any such things that young pyshopaths do. His classmates recalled an intelligent boy, a very good student who could have well gone on to pursue superior education if his family's finances would have allowed it. He had a marvelous imagination and could conjure up the most incredible stories on the spot. His younger sister (born 1926) adored and looked up to him, and was amazed by his fearlessness and courage. She got along wonderfully well with him and was very protective of his memory, refusing to believe that he had done what he did. "How could our Willi have done such a thing?" she would say. He was his mother's favorite child, and the pride of his father. The fact that he hit younger children seems to me rather typical of some children who have abusive parents. Left in the care of a violent mother, I always suspected that this is where he inherited his poor anger management skills and unfortunate tendency to smack people weaker than him. Your point that he might have killed a Parachutist Captain is interesting because there was a journalist back in the day who actually had the same theory! He believed that Herold simply took the identity of the real Captain Herold after murdering the "original" and wanted to know if there were any Captain Herolds serving in the Luftwaffe at the time (1945). And there were! One was called Otto Herold, the other Eugen Herold. However, both survived the war. Although it's an intriguing theory, I doubt that it holds water. If he had really killed the Captain, Herold would have easily been able to replace the photo in the Captain's paybook with that from his own paybook, and would have had no problems showing it to the checkpoint and to the Pioneer Captain who challenged him, for example. Soldiers joined and left Herold's group over the month he was roaming the Emsland, and only the "worst" stayed, self-selected themselves in a way. Some, like Freitag, were scared of going back to the front. All of them were enjoying all the privileges that came with being under his command. The British, in the case summary, do mention that Herold had a knack for spotting morally corrupt people and attracting them over to his side. Herold was by nature easily bored. He could never sit still, he had to be doing something at all times. He always wanted adventure and action, regardless if he was five years old or nineteen. The image of the heroic, clever Captain was a fantasy for him, a role he yearned for and ultimately loved to play, which gave him everything he wanted in life: power, authority, recognition, adventure, opportunity, the spotlight. I believe that in some way, to a certain extent, he saw himself as a heroic figure, some main character from one of the cowboy films he saw as a child in Lunzenau. But he was an angry nineteen year old marred by war, and wanting to be a leader did not automatically make him a good one. Herold practiced for a leadership position all his life, from when he was a little boy. Being in charge was something that came naturally to him. The figure of a Captain (or at the very least an NCO), with their fine uniforms and aura of authority, must have been something he had wanted to emulate ever since (at the very least) 1943. This is my perspective on him, off the tip of my pen. He was... quite the character, with numerous facets of his personality coming into and out of the spotlight at various moments during his journey, like actors on a stage. Hope this was interesting. All the best to you and may the next year treat us kindly.

@@ivodora Kia Ora. Thank you so much for the quick and very informative reply. His childhood is very interesting and you make great points. Maybe the war gave him chance to live out his fantasies.He was clearly a charismatic person without as you say risking glorifying or justifying anything he did. Obviously regarding his life and ambition to "be in charge" is a fine line, being in charge so often Leads to bullying, It is certainly true that no one who goes to war comes back. The mindset is interesting, the para's I knew killed in cold blood surrendering Argentinian conscripts, after seeing so many of their own comrades killed, they had blood in their eye's, but afterwards some of those hardened warriors blew their own brains out. Others remained indifferentI It was interesting that he had men come and go, the worse staying with him. It's interesting he was killing deserters yet allowed those who chose, or saw though his dangerous nature go! Regarding the film I was most surprised to discover from you Freitad was amongst the worse, and another young man... I wander why the director gave him the position of conscience. The counterpoint in someways to Harold. Thank you again, I thoroughly enjoyed reading your excellent reply. You are a true historian... despite proclaiming yourself "amateur". I am really looking forward to what you give us next. I see... and I hope your following continues to grow. There are many weeds amongst the flowers on RU-vid, You bloom! Thanks again. Kia Kaha. Phil. I, like many others have pressed the button and rang the bell..... bring us more!!

Thank you ;)

Hello again! I agree that the film takes a lot of liberties with the characters' moral compasses - it's done for the sake of symbolism, but it affects the historical accuracy of the work. Freitag symbolizes the perfect follower; hopeless on his own, needing someone to tell him what to do, and willing to put aside his ethics for that. It's a softer portrayal that, as you mentioned, the real Freitag absolutely did not deserve. My goal with my entire Herold saga was to get the information out there that the film should not be taken into account as a historical source. I hope I will succeed with time. I'll stay a bit longer in the Third Reich in the next videos, as I have read so much about it in order to understand Herold's world that I have quite a bit of very niche topics that I would like to explore.

@@ivodora I think the main objective of historical movies should be to catch the average persons interest, and cause them to do more research on the subject of the movie they’ve discovered. It’s how many people including myself got interested in history in the first place due to popular media. Will it hurt anyone about these minor errors? No, the movie is fairly faithful to the main story. It should be the objective of the average person to gain interest in such an intriguing story and go from there. Still, this movie isn’t perfect (nothing is) and had a lot of minor issues that for the average person don’t mater at all but are still issues nonetheless

@@u.h.forum. In principle, I fully agree with the view that historical films should be able to capture interest and ideally encourage further research. The Herold case however presents a particular set of linguistic and financial challenges on that front. To start with, there are no books in English on the subject, so unless the viewer knows German, they're out of luck and have to rely on various bits and pieces found online, which are often incorrect (for example, I can't even count how many times I read on history forums that Herold was hanged). The 90s documentary is very accessible, but it doesn't clearly label who is who, and once you read the official documentation you realize that some of the people are either misremembering things, leaving things out intentionally or outright lying. Much of the official documentation is in English, but it is expensive (the files I have gathered cost me well over 700 euro, on top of all the books and the visits to Lunzenau and Wolfenbuettel). Resorting to the official documentation therefore costs a pretty penny. This is why I believe that even if they would want to research the case, viewers would have to either speak German and/or be willing to pay a not insignificant sum of money. So most people, for whom this film is the first contact with Herold's story, resort to taking the film literally, which is frustrating for me, because I think the real case is so much more fascinating - my entire project was designed as a solution for this issue that the film essentially caused: a complete misrepresentation of the reasons behind the events.

Absolutely. The real Herold had moments when he was very likeable, too. But he managed to bring misery to almost every single person who was unfortunate enough to cross his path during that month in 1945.

“Causing problems” is something of an understatement.

This was something that the actor who played Herold had an issue with, too. He felt he was given too little to work with, in terms of who his character was and what his motivations were. The real Herold’s behavior was a mixture of enthusiasm, determination, threat and charm that would have worked wonderfully in the hands of a good script writer. Paul Meyer, the maker of the Herold documentary from the 90s, wanted to make a film about Herold. It’s a shame he didn’t get the budget to do it, it would have made the story justice.

@@ivodora I was not aware there was a documentary from the 90’s about him. Would you mind telling me the name of this and/or where I can find it. This story is amazing. I think it could be one of the biggest things ever done if done properly. I think if the main actor saw your 3 part series first, and the movie was made afterwards, we’d be talking about an entirely different movie. But I’m not doc emmit brown so I guess I’ll just have to always wonder.

@@deadlyoneable The documentary is called "Der Hauptmann von Muffrika" and you can find it here on RU-vid for free, with English subtitles. Simply search for "Willi Herold: A true story from Emsland."

Indeed, but he doesn’t bring the coat with him when he goes inside the camp.

PTSD (shell shock) probably didn't help either

His father was by all accounts a really lovely man, who was absolutely shattered when he found out what his son did. Whatever went wrong with Herold, I don’t think it was his father’s fault.

@@ivodora thank you reply , in child abuse cases its usually the father as perpetrator , rarely the mother . Trauma in childhood can crate secondary psychopaths. Also Herold exhibits signs of Bi-polar , he might have been born with it off course . Either way a sad affair .

It depends on the country. I have subtitles and translations for five languages. If you would be watching this from Spain for example, you'd see the title and video description in Spanish.