Amon Göth: Difference between revisions

So terrible was Göth that when Mila Pfefferberg, a surviving Schindler Jew, was introduced to Fiennes while on the set of the film, she began to shake uncontrollably in terror, as Fiennes—while in full SS-Hauptsturmführer uniform—reminded her of the real Göth.

Göth was born in Vienna, then the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, to a family in the printing industry. Göth joined a Nazi youth group at the age of seventeen, moved to a nationalist paramilitary group at the age of nineteen and at the age of twenty two, Göth became a member of the Austrian branch of the Nazi Party. In 1930, he was assigned the Party Number 510764. Göth was married and divorced twice. Göth being divorced in 1934 and then in 1944 bearing a son and two daughters. Göth's son passed away at the age of seven months of unknown origin. Göth simultaneously joined the Austrian SS and was appointed an SS-Mann with the SS Number 43673.

Göth's early SS activities are little known, largely because the Austrian SS was an illegal and underground organization until the Anschluss of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938. Between 1932 and 1936, Göth was a member of an Allgemeine-SS company in Vienna and, by 1937, had risen to the rank of SS-Oberscharführer (Staff Sergeant). Between 1938 and 1941, he was a member of 11th SS-Standarte operating from Vienna and was commissioned an SS-Untersturmführer (Second Lieutenant) on 14 July 1941.

In August 1942, Göth left Vienna to join the staff of SS-Brigadeführer Odilo Globočnik, the SS and Police Leader of Kraków. He was appointed as a regular SS officer of the Concentration Camp service, and on 11 February 1943 was assigned to construct and command a forced labour camp at Płaszów. The camp took one month to construct using slave labour and, on 13 March 1943, the Jewish ghetto of Kraków was closed down with the surviving inhabitants imprisoned in the new labour camp. Approximately 2,000 people died during the evacuation. At his war crimes trial, Göth was accused of having personally shot many people during the action.

In Płaszów, Göth tortured and murdered prisoners on a daily basis. During his time at Płaszów, Göth allegedly shot over 500 Jews himself; Poldek Pfefferberg, one of the Schindler Jews, said, "When you saw Göth, you saw death." Göth spared the life of a Jewish prisoner Natalia Hubler, later famous as Natalia Karp, after hearing her play a nocturne by Chopin on the piano the day after she arrived at the Płaszów camp.

On 13 September 1944, Göth was relieved of his position as Commandant of Płaszów and was assigned to the SS Office of Economics and Administration. Shortly thereafter, in November 1944, Göth was charged with theft of Jewish property (which, according to Nazi legislation, belonged to the Reich), and was arrested by the Gestapo. He 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, a tribunal was never assembled and the charges against him were summarily dismissed.

Göth's service record, however, does not support the claim of a late war promotion and he is listed in most texts as having only held the rank of SS-Hauptsturmführer equivalent of a Captain.

After the war, the Supreme National Tribunal of Poland at Kraków found Göth guilty of murdering tens of thousands of people. He was hanged on September 13, 1946, aged 37, not far from the former site of the Płaszów camp. At his execution, Göth's hands were tied behind his back. The executioner twice miscalculated the length of rope necessary to hang Göth, and it was only on the third attempt that the execution was successful.

In 2002, an interview book with Göth's daughter, Monika, was published in Germany under the name "Ich muß doch meinen Vater lieben, oder?" (I still have to love my father, don't I?). For the first time, Göth's daughter spoke of her mother, who unconditionally glorified her father until faced with his role in the Holocaust, and had committed suicide after giving an interview in the 1980s.