Nazi German military officer and war criminal (1908?1946)
Amon Leopold Goth
(
German:
[??øːt]
ⓘ
; alternative spelling
Goeth
; 11 December 1908 ? 13 September 1946) was an Austrian
SS
functionary and
war criminal
. He served as the commandant of the
Krakow-Płaszow concentration camp
in
Płaszow
in
German-occupied Poland
for most of the camp's existence during
World War II
.
Goth was tried after the war by the
Supreme National Tribunal
of Poland at
Krakow
and was found guilty of personally ordering the imprisonment, torture, and extermination of individuals and groups of people. He was also convicted of homicide, the first such conviction at a war crimes trial, for "personally killing, maiming and torturing a substantial, albeit unidentified number of people."
Goth was executed by hanging not far from the former site of the Płaszow camp. The 1993 film
Schindler's List
, in which Goth is portrayed by
Ralph Fiennes
, depicts his running of the Płaszow concentration camp.
Early life and career
Goeth was born on 11 December 1908 in
Vienna
, then the capital of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire
, to a family in the book publishing industry.
Goeth joined a Nazi youth group at age 17 and was a member of the
antisemitic
nationalist paramilitary group
Heimwehr
(Home Guard) from 1927 to 1930. He dropped his membership to join the Austrian branch of the
Nazi Party
, being assigned the party membership number 510,764 in September 1930. Goeth joined the
Austrian SS
in 1930 and was appointed an
SS-
Mann
with the
SS
number 43,673.
Goth began working for the party in the
Ortsgruppe
(local group) of the
Margareten
district in Vienna and soon moved to the
Mariahilf
Ortsgruppe
, where he was a political leader in the
Sturmabteilung
(SA). Goth joined the
Austrian SS
in 1930, and was granted full membership in 1932 after the two-year candidacy period. He was appointed an
SS-
Mann
with the
SS
number 43,673.
Goth served with the SS
Truppe
Deimel and
Sturm
Libardi in Vienna until January 1933, when he was promoted to serve as adjutant and
Zugfuhrer
(platoon leader) of the
52nd SS-Standarte
, a regimental-sized unit. He was soon promoted to SS-
Scharfuhrer
(squad leader).
He fled to Germany when his illegal activities, including obtaining explosives for the Nazi Party, made him a wanted man. The Austrian Nazi Party was declared illegal in Austria on 19 June 1933, so it set up operations in exile in
Munich
. From this base, Goth smuggled radios and weapons into Austria and acted as a courier for the SS.
He was arrested in October 1933 by the Austrian authorities but was released for lack of evidence in December 1933. He was again detained after the assassination of Austrian Chancellor
Engelbert Dollfuss
in a failed Nazi coup attempt in July 1934. He escaped custody and fled to the SS training facility at
Dachau
, next to
Dachau concentration camp
.
He temporarily quit the SS and Nazi Party activities until 1937 because of differences with his
Oberfuhrer
(commander) Alfred Bigler, and lived in Munich while trying to help his parents to develop their publishing business. He married on the recommendation of his parents, but was divorced after only a few months.
Goth returned to Vienna shortly after the
Anschluss
in 1938 and resumed his party activities. He married Anna Geiger, a woman he met at a motorcycle race, in an SS civil ceremony on 23 October 1938.
Prior to the wedding, the couple had to pass a set of strict physical tests administered by the SS to determine the suitability of the marriage.
The couple had three children: Peter, born in 1939, who died of
diphtheria
aged seven months;
Werner, born in 1940; and a daughter, Ingeborg, born in 1941.
The couple maintained a permanent home in Vienna throughout World War II.
Initially assigned to
89th SS-Standarte
, Goth was transferred to the
1st SS-Sturmbann
of the
11th SS-Standarte
at the start of the war, and was promoted to SS-
Oberscharfuhrer
(staff sergeant) in early 1941. On 5 March 1940, he was drafted into the
Wehrmacht
with the rank of
Unterfeldwebel
(Under Field Sergeant), but his continuous SS service record indicates he did not actively serve.
From mid-1941 to late May 1942, as
Einsatzfuhrer
(action leader), and financial officer in
East Upper Silesia
in the
Kattowitz
office of the
Reichskommissariat
fur die Festigung deutschen Volkstums ?
RKFDV
(
Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationhood
), he gained a reputation as a seasoned administrator in the Nazi efforts to isolate, relocate, and kill the Jewish population of Europe. He was commissioned to the rank of SS-
Untersturmfuhrer
(second lieutenant) on 14 July 1941.
Goth also received a
Dienstleistungszeugnis
(Certificate of Service) from his commanding officer, praising his service, as well as his physical and ideological traits.
He was transferred to
Lublin
in the summer of 1942, where he joined the staff of SS-
Brigadefuhrer
Odilo Globo?nik
, the
SS and Police Leader
of the
Krakow
area, as part of
Operation Reinhard
, the code name given to the establishment of the three
extermination camps
at
Beł?ec
,
Sobibor
, and
Treblinka
. Nothing is known of his activities in the six months he served with Operation Reinhard because participants were sworn to secrecy, but, according to the transcripts of his later trial, Goth was responsible for rounding up and transporting victims to these camps to be murdered.
Płaszow
Goth was assigned to the
SS-Totenkopfverbande
("
Death's head
" unit; concentration camp service). His first assignment, starting on 11 February 1943, was to oversee the construction of the 200 acre
Krakow-Płaszow concentration camp
, which he was to command.
Goth was atypical of most SS officers who served in concentration camps, as most hailed from small municipalities.
He likely had a personal interview with
Heinrich Himmler
before being appointed to the post, as was the standard procedure when assigning SS camp commanders.
Located on the grounds of two old Jewish cemeteries, the camp took one month to construct using
slave labour
.
On 13 March 1943, the Jewish
ghetto of Krakow
was liquidated and those still fit for work were sent to the new camp at Płaszow.
Several thousand deemed not fit for work were sent to
extermination camps
and murdered. Hundreds more were murdered on the streets by the Nazis as they cleared out the ghetto.
In his opening address as the
Kommandant
of the newly populated camp, Goth told his new prisoners, "I am your god."
Goth had complete authority over the camp, especially in this early stage.
In addition to his duties at Płaszow, Goth was the officer in charge of the liquidation of the ghetto at
Tarnow
, which had been home to 25,000 Jews (about 45 percent of the city's population) at the start of World War II.
About 10,000 were sent to Płaszow to be slave labourers.
By the time the ghetto was liquidated, 8,000 Jews remained. The final roundup began on 1 September 1943, when the remaining Jews were assembled in Magdeburg Square, which was surrounded by heavily armed guards. The trains were loaded and departed by midday the next day. Most of the victims were sent to
Auschwitz concentration camp
; less than half survived the journey.
Most of the survivors were deemed unsuitable for slave labour and were murdered immediately on their arrival at Auschwitz. According to testimony of several witnesses as recorded in his 1946 indictment for war crimes, Goth personally shot between 30 and 90 women and children during the liquidation of the ghetto.
On his birthday in 1943, Goth ordered
Natalia Karp
, who had just arrived in Płaszow, to play the piano. Karp performed
Frederic Chopin
's
Nocturne in C-sharp minor
so well that Goth allowed her and her sister to live.
Goth was also the officer in charge of the liquidation of
Szebnie concentration camp
, which interned 4,000 Jewish and 1,500 Polish slave labourers. Evidence presented at Goth's trial indicates he delegated this task to a subordinate, SS-
Hauptscharfuhrer
Josef Grzimek, who was sent to assist camp commandant SS-
Hauptsturmfuhrer
Hans Kellermann with mass killings.
Between 21 September 1943 and 3 February 1944, the camp was gradually liquidated. Almost all of the Polish inmates were transferred to Płaszow or the Bochnia Ghetto, where Goth was also in command. Around a thousand Jews were taken to the nearby forest and shot, and the remainder were sent to Auschwitz, where most were gassed immediately on arrival. After the liquidation, Goth had all the camp's supplies sorted and transported to Płaszow.
On 28 July 1943, Goth was assigned to Section F, the SS and Police
Fachgruppe
(section of experts) that specialised in ghetto liquidation and transport. By April 1944, Goth had been promoted to the rank of SS-
Hauptsturmfuhrer
(captain), the highest of the company grade ranks, having received a double promotion, skipping the rank of SS-
Obersturmfuhrer
(first lieutenant).
He was also appointed a reserve officer of the
Waffen-SS
.
In early 1944 the status of the Krakow-Płaszow Labour Camp changed to a permanent concentration camp under the direct authority of the
SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt
(WVHA; SS Economics and Administration Office).
This distinction made Krakow-Płaszow one of 13 official concentration camps in Poland.
Mietek Pemper
[a]
testified at the trial that it was during the earlier period that Goth committed most of the random and brutal killings for which he became notorious.
In early May 1944, Goth was informed that 10,000 Hungarian Jews would soon be sent to be imprisoned in Płaszow. To create space for the new arrivals, on 14 May Goth ordered all children in the camp to be moved to the kindergarten. The next day, Goth had the majority of them, with only a few exceptions, sent to Auschwitz to be killed.
Concentration camps were more closely monitored by the SS than labour camps, so conditions improved slightly when the designation was changed.
The camp housed about 2,000 inmates when it opened. At its peak of operations in 1944, a staff of 636 guards oversaw 25,000 permanent inmates, and an additional 150,000 people passed through the camp in its role as a transit camp.
Goth, described by survivors as a huge and imposing man, personally murdered prisoners on a daily basis. His two dogs, Rolf, a
Great Dane
, and Ralf, an
Alsatian
mix, were trained to tear inmates to death.
He shot people from the window of his office if they appeared to be moving too slowly or resting in the yard.
He shot a Jewish cook to death because the soup was too hot.
He brutally mistreated his two maids,
Helen Jonas-Rosenzweig
and Helen Hirsch, who were in constant fear for their lives, as were all the inmates.
During his time at Płaszow, Goth lived comfortably in a villa, owning cars and horses that he rode in the camp. He had a Jewish cobbler inmate make him new shoes each week.
As a survivor I can tell you that we are all traumatized people. Never would I, never, believe that any human being would be capable of such horror, of such atrocities. When we saw him from a distance, everybody was hiding, in latrines, wherever they could hide. I can't tell you how people feared him.
?
Helen Jonas-Rosenzweig
Poldek Pfefferberg
, another
Schindlerjude
(Schindler Jew), said: "When you saw Goth, you saw death."
Goth believed if one member of a work team escaped or committed some infraction, the entire team must be punished. On one occasion, he ordered the shooting of every second member of a work group because one of the party had escaped.
On another occasion, he personally shot every fifth member of a crew because one had not returned to the camp.
If inmates were caught smuggling food, they were shot.
The main murder site at Płaszow was
Hujowa Gorka
("
Prick
Hill"), a large hill that was used for mass killings and murders.
Pemper testified that 8,000 to 12,000 people were murdered at Płaszow.
Dismissal and capture
On 13 September 1944, Goth was relieved of his position and charged by the SS with theft of Jewish property (which belonged to the state, according to Nazi regulations), failure to provide adequate food to the prisoners under his charge, violation of concentration camp regulations regarding the treatment and punishment of prisoners, and allowing unauthorised access to camp personnel records by prisoners and non-commissioned officers.
Administration of the camp at Płaszow was turned over to SS-
Obersturmfuhrer
Arnold Buscher
. The camp was closed on 15 January 1945.
Goth was scheduled for an appearance before
SS Judge
Georg Konrad Morgen
, but due to the progress of World War II and Germany's looming defeat, the charges against him were dropped in early 1945.
SS doctors diagnosed Goth with a mental illness, and he was committed to a mental institution in
Bad Tolz
in
Bavaria
, where he was arrested by the
United States military
in May 1945.
He was arrested wearing a Wehrmacht uniform, and did not admit to being an SS officer. He was sent to a temporary prison camp located on the grounds of the former
Dachau concentration camp
. He was later identified by former inmates of the Krakow-Płaszow concentration camp,
including Josef Levkovich.
Trial and execution
After the war, Goth was extradited to Poland, where he was tried by the
Supreme National Tribunal of Poland
in Krakow between 27 August and 5 September 1946.
Goth was found guilty of membership in the Nazi Party (which had been declared a criminal organisation) and personally ordering the imprisonment, torture, and extermination of individuals and groups of people.
He was also convicted of homicide, the first such conviction at a war crimes trial, for "personally killing, maiming and torturing a substantial, albeit unidentified number of people."
He was sentenced to death and was hanged on 13 September 1946 at the
Montelupich Prison
in Krakow, not far from the site of the Płaszow camp.
His remains were cremated and the ashes thrown in the
Vistula
River.
Family
In addition to his two marriages, Goth had a two-year relationship with
Ruth Irene Kalder
[
de
]
, a beautician and aspiring actress originally from
Breslau
(or
Gleiwitz
; sources vary).
Kalder first met Goth in 1942 or early 1943 when she worked as a secretary at
Oskar Schindler
's
enamelware factory
in Krakow. She met Goth when Schindler brought her to dinner at the villa at Płaszow; she said it was love at first sight. She soon moved in with Goth and the two had an affair, but she stated that she never visited the camp itself.
Goth's second wife Anna, still living in Vienna with their two children, filed for divorce upon learning of Goth's affair with Kalder. Kalder left for
Bad Tolz
to be with her mother for the birth of her daughter,
Monika Hertwig
[
de
]
, on 7 November 1945.
This was Goth's last child. Kalder was devastated by Goth's execution in 1946, and she took Goth's name shortly after his death.
In 2002, Hertwig published her memoirs under the title
Ich muß doch meinen Vater lieben, oder?
("I do have to love my father, don't I?"). Hertwig described her mother as unconditionally glorifying Goth until confronted with his role in
the Holocaust
. Kalder suffered from
emphysema
and committed suicide in 1983 shortly after giving an interview in
Jon Blair
's documentary
Schindler
.
Hertwig's experiences in dealing with her father's crimes are detailed in
Inheritance
, a 2006 documentary directed by
James Moll
. Appearing in the documentary is Helen Jonas-Rosenzweig, a camp inmate and one of Goth's Jewish former housemaids at Płaszow. The documentary details the meeting of the two women at the Płaszow memorial site in Poland.
Hertwig had requested the meeting, but Jonas-Rosenzweig was hesitant because her memories of Goth and the concentration camp were so traumatic. She eventually agreed after Hertwig wrote to her, "We have to do it for the murdered people."
Jonas felt touched by this sentiment and agreed to meet her.
In a subsequent interview, Jonas-Rosenzweig recalled:
It's hard for me to be with her because she reminds me a lot of, you know ... she's tall, she has certain features. And I hated him so. But she is a victim. And I think it's important because she is willing to tell the story in Germany. She told me people don't want to know, they want to go on with their lives. And I think it's very important because there's a lot of children of perpetrators, and I think she's a brave person to go on talking about it, because it's difficult. And I feel for Monika. I am a mother, I have children. And she is affected by the fact that her father was a perpetrator. But my children are also affected by it. And that's why we both came here. The world has to know, to prevent something like this from happening again.
Hertwig also appeared in a 2011 documentary called
Hitler's Children
, directed and produced by
Chanoch Ze'evi
[
he
]
, an Israeli documentary filmmaker. In the documentary, Hertwig and other close relatives of infamous Nazi leaders describe their feelings, relationships, and memories of their relatives.
Jennifer Teege
is the daughter of Monika Hertwig and a Nigerian man with whom Hertwig had a brief relationship. She was raised in foster care.
She discovered that Goth was her grandfather through Hertwig's 2002 memoirs. Teege addressed her coming to terms with her origins in the book,
My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me
(originally published as
Amon. Mein Großvater hatte mich erschossen
in 2013).
In media and culture
Goth's actions at Płaszow Labour Camp became internationally known through his depiction by
Ralph Fiennes
in the film
Schindler's List
(1993). In an interview, Fiennes recalled:
People believe that they've got to do a job, they've got to take on an ideology, that they've got a life to lead; they've got to survive, a job to do, it's every day inch by inch, little compromises, little ways of telling yourself this is how you should lead your life and suddenly then these things can happen. I mean, I could make a judgment myself privately, this is a terrible, evil, horrific man. But the job was to portray the man, the human being. There's a sort of banality, that everydayness, that I think was important. And it was in the screenplay. In fact, one of the first scenes with Oskar Schindler, with Liam Neeson, was a scene where I'm saying, 'You don't understand how hard it is, I have to order so many?so many metres of barbed wire and so many fencing posts and I have to get so many people from A to B.' And, you know, he's sort of letting off steam about the difficulties of the job.
Fiennes won a
BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor
for his role and was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
.
His portrayal ranked 15th on
American Film Institute
's
list of the top 50 film villains of all time
, the highest ranking for a depiction of a non-fictional person.
When Płaszow survivor Mila Pfefferberg was introduced to Fiennes on the set of the film, she began to shake uncontrollably, as Fiennes, costumed in full SS dress uniform, reminded her of the real Amon Goth.
Notes
Citations
References
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(in Polish). Muzeum Wojska Polskiego (Museum of the Polish Army)
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27 July
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. Retrieved
29 April
2018
.
- "AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains"
.
AFI.com
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American Film Institute
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39
(3). Archived from
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. Retrieved
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.
Oberscharfuhrer
Josef Grzimek conducted mass extermination actions at the Dobrucowa Forest outside Szebnie in the fall and winter of 1943.
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"The Man Behind the Monster"
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. Retrieved
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.
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. Cambridge, MA: Westview Press.
ISBN
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(4 March 2010).
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POV
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Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933?1945
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