Herold then joined the Hitler Youth proper at the age of fourteen, and for a time he was enamored with the group's benefits, including long nature excursions.

In the chaos of the retreat, Herold became separated from his unit in late March 1945 and was left to travel by himself on the lengthy route between Gronau and Bad Bentheim.

He encountered local garrison commander Jann Budde in the village of Surwold, who informed him that hundreds of former Wehrmacht soldiers were waiting for the war to conclude in the Aschendorfermoor II penal camp.

On 11 April, Herold's group arrived at Aschendorfermoor II, a part of the Emslandlager camp complex which housed German inmates.

There, he was asked by one of the camp supervisors, Karl Schütte, to judge a group of thirty inmates who had escaped during a forced march to Collinghorst and been recaptured.

He was eventually stopped by the judicial official Friedrich Hansen, who asked Herold to obtain permission from Dr. Richard Thiel, the head of the central administration of the Emslandlager camps.

Over the next two weeks, Herold ordered the execution of the inmates, as well as a large number of political prisoners from a list of 400 names compiled by Thiel.

Herold also chose a large number of inmates, equipped them with uniforms and weapons and dispatched them to the town of Leer to join the Wehrmacht.

On 19 April, British bomber planes attacked a nearby antiaircraft battery, and a few bombs hit Aschendorfermoor II, destroying the camp completely.

The band executed five Dutchmen accused of espionage after removing them from a nearby prison, making them dig their own graves, and hanging a farmer who had flown a white flag.

Herold was brought to a special unit, where he was warmly welcomed, but he swiftly left under the cover of darkness and traveled to the port city of Wilhelmshaven.