September 11, 1925 - Willi Herold
What distinguishes Herold from most war criminals of his era is that he held no actual rank or authority — his crimes rested entirely on an improvised deception and the willingness of others to follow a uniform. In the final weeks of the war, he assumed the identity of a captain, seized control of a prison camp at Aschendorfermoor, and oversaw the killing of hundreds of fellow German soldiers, most of them deserters like himself. His case remains a study in how institutional collapse and the residual force of military hierarchy can enable atrocity even in the absence of any legitimate chain of command.
From Wikipedia
Willi Herold (11 September 1925 – 14 November 1946), also known as the Executioner of Emsland, was a Nazi German war criminal. Near the end of the Second World War in Europe, Herold deserted from the Luftwaffe and, posing as a captain, organized the mass execution of German deserters held at a prison camp. He was arrested by British forces and executed for war crimes on 14 November 1946 at Wolfenbüttel Prison.
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