Karl Holstedder is a minor antagonist in the Amazon Prime original series Hunters, appearing in the episode "The Mourner's Kaddish". He is a former Nazi and concentration camp guard involved in the Fourth Reich conspiracy in the United States.
He was portrayed by John Hans Tester, whilst his younger self was portrayed by Jon Collin Barclay.
Biography[]
As a child, Holstedder's abusive father bullied him for listening to classical music by Richard Wagner. He grew up with a deafening ringing in his ears which he tried to drown out with music by Wagner. During the Second World War, Holstedder joined the SS and worked as a guard at the Buchenwald concentration camp, where he gained the nickname "The Pied Piper" due to holding contests where he would force Jewish prisoners to play Wagner music and execute those who failed to do so to his satisfaction. On at least one occasion, shown in a flashback at the beginning of the episode, five Jews he was forcing to play defied him by playing Jewish music, driving Holstedder to shoot them all after they refused to stop.
After the war, Holstedder and other Nazis escaped to the United States via Operation Paperclip, where Holstedder was given the identity of "Erik Folsom" and became a well-known record producer. However, despite the government's belief, he had not abandoned his Nazi past and became involved in The Colonel's plot to establish a Fourth Reich in the United States through terrorism. Holstedder ran a pirate radio station from his house where he broadcast coded messages to Nazi agents around the United States giving the dates and coordinates of upcoming attacks. These attacks included the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968.
Hunters[]
Holstedder comes to the attention of Meyer Offerman's Nazi-hunting group in 1977 after a coded letter from Heinz Richter is found to be addressed to him. Upon confirming Holstedder's identity, the Hunters break into his house and subdue him before tying him up in the main atrium to give him what the people in Buchenwald never got: a fair trial. With witness statements from Buchenwald and his own admission that he was in the SS, Holstedder is soon convicted, but before he can be executed, Hunter Lonny Flash comes across Holstedder's secret radio broadcasting a taped message (later revealed to be the date and coordinates for an upcoming bomb attack) and informs Meyer.
When Holstedder refuses to tell the Hunters what he's broadcasting, they decide to torture him for information. He is tied down in his recording suite and subjected to music being played over the speakers at painfully loud volumes until his eardrums burst and his ears start bleeding, at which point Jonah Heidelbaum convinces Meyer to stop the torture. Holstedder insists he was only following orders and does not know what was on the tapes he was playing.
The Hunters go to investigate the radio, leaving Jonah to guard Holstedder. Holstedder appeals to Jonah's sympathy by telling him how he made the Jews play music to drown out the ringing in his ears and asks for a glass of water; however, he then breaks the glass and uses the shards to cut himself free before taking Jonah hostage. When Hunter Joe Mizushima answers Jonah's cry for help, Holstedder threatens to cut Jonah's throat with the glass if he is not let go. Joe manages to shoot Holstedder dead before he can kill Jonah, but the bullet goes through the wall and disables the radio, ending the broadcast. This tips the Nazis off that something has happened to Holstedder and the Hunters are forced to flee. Nazi agent Maryanne is later sent to Holstedder's house to clean up evidence of Holstedder's ties to the Fourth Reich.
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 Villains
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Fourth Reich Others | ||