So what of the monster of the story, Amon Goeth. Born in Vienna, 1908, our arch-villain joined the Nazi party in 1932, before progressing to the ranks of the Gestapo in 1940. Originally sent to German-occupied Lublin, east Poland, Goeth found a liking for slaughter during the liquidation of the Lublin Ghetto, and so impressed his seniors with his methods that he was promoted to camp commandant of the Płaszów camp in Kraków in 1943. In the same year he supervised the brutal clearing of the Kraków ghetto in Podgórze, as well as the ghetto found in Tarnów.
Having found a fondness for accepting bribes during his stint in Lublin he used his position in charge of liquidizing ghettos to steal property and valuables confiscated from Jews. Often found parading around on a white charger he was notorious for his corrupt nature, heavy drinking and bouts of extreme violence. Several scenes in Spielberg’s masterpiece never actually occurred however – he never murdered his stable boy (who survived the war), nor was he able to take pot shots at prisoners from his balcony, seeing that his house backed directly onto a hill.
However this should not be taken as a sign of a benign human being. In the words of Poldek Pfefferberg, ‘when you saw Goeth, you saw death’. Unable to shoot at prisoners from his balcony, he saved that dubious pleasure to taking crack shots from high on a hill.
In 1944 he was relieved of his position and charged with theft of Reich property, though Germany’s looming military collapse meant he was never brought to tribunal. Diagnosed with diabetes and mental illness by SS doctors he spent the remainder of the war in a sanatorium and was arrested by American troops in 1945. Charged with the murder of 2,000 Jews during the evacuation of the Podgórze ghetto, and 8,000 deaths during his time in Plaszów he was sentenced to death and hanged in Kraków in 1946.
Goeth’s mistress, Ruth-Irene Kalder remained loyal to him in death, keeping a photograph of him by her bedside until she died. Giving an interview in 1983 she declared him a charming man before choosing to commit suicide the following day.
Goeth’s crumbling villa, the only remaining building of the Plaszow concentration camp, still stands and can be seen at ul. Heltmana 22 (just off the edge of our map in L-5 if you carry on along ul. Wielicka), while down the road the grey house on ul. Jerozolimska 3 was once home to a detachment of SS officers as well as a basement torture chamber. The large field on the hill behind Goeth’s villa formed the camp; all buildings were destroyed by the Nazis at the end of the war. A number of monuments commemorate those who died here - one stands along the path behind the villa, the others can be found on the hilltop, a 10-minute walk up the path. The large official stone memorial on the highest point is accompanied by two small stones, and overlooks a geological reservation, with remains dating back to Jurassic times, to the west. 200m east of the official monument stands a large wooden cross. No remains of the camp can be discerned, and the hill is now simply an ersatz park for many local residents.
Having found a fondness for accepting bribes during his stint in Lublin he used his position in charge of liquidizing ghettos to steal property and valuables confiscated from Jews. Often found parading around on a white charger he was notorious for his corrupt nature, heavy drinking and bouts of extreme violence. Several scenes in Spielberg’s masterpiece never actually occurred however – he never murdered his stable boy (who survived the war), nor was he able to take pot shots at prisoners from his balcony, seeing that his house backed directly onto a hill.
However this should not be taken as a sign of a benign human being. In the words of Poldek Pfefferberg, ‘when you saw Goeth, you saw death’. Unable to shoot at prisoners from his balcony, he saved that dubious pleasure to taking crack shots from high on a hill.
In 1944 he was relieved of his position and charged with theft of Reich property, though Germany’s looming military collapse meant he was never brought to tribunal. Diagnosed with diabetes and mental illness by SS doctors he spent the remainder of the war in a sanatorium and was arrested by American troops in 1945. Charged with the murder of 2,000 Jews during the evacuation of the Podgórze ghetto, and 8,000 deaths during his time in Plaszów he was sentenced to death and hanged in Kraków in 1946.
Goeth’s mistress, Ruth-Irene Kalder remained loyal to him in death, keeping a photograph of him by her bedside until she died. Giving an interview in 1983 she declared him a charming man before choosing to commit suicide the following day.
Goeth’s crumbling villa, the only remaining building of the Plaszow concentration camp, still stands and can be seen at ul. Heltmana 22 (just off the edge of our map in L-5 if you carry on along ul. Wielicka), while down the road the grey house on ul. Jerozolimska 3 was once home to a detachment of SS officers as well as a basement torture chamber. The large field on the hill behind Goeth’s villa formed the camp; all buildings were destroyed by the Nazis at the end of the war. A number of monuments commemorate those who died here - one stands along the path behind the villa, the others can be found on the hilltop, a 10-minute walk up the path. The large official stone memorial on the highest point is accompanied by two small stones, and overlooks a geological reservation, with remains dating back to Jurassic times, to the west. 200m east of the official monument stands a large wooden cross. No remains of the camp can be discerned, and the hill is now simply an ersatz park for many local residents.
that amon goeth guy was like the devils apprentice because he was extremly violent and would kill people for no reason