Göth, Amon Leopold.

Amon Leopold, Göth was born on 11-12-1908, in Vienna, Austria, his father, Amon Franz Göth, was 28 and his mother, Bertha, born Schwendt, was 31. Amon married Olga Janauschek in 1934. Göth 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. Göth joined the Austrian SS in 1930 and was appointed an SS-Mann with the SS number 43,673.

Göth 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). Göth 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.[4][5]

Göth served with the SS Truppe Deimel and Sturm Libardi in Vienna until January 1933, when he was promoted to serve as adjutant and Zugführer (platoon leader) of the 52nd SS-Standarte, a regimental-sized unit. He was soon promoted to SS-Scharführer (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 19-06-1933, so it set up operations in exile in Munich. From this base, Göth smuggled radios and weapons into Austria and acted as a courier for the SS.  Göth 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 Oberführer (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.

Göth 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 23-10-1938. 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, Göth was transferred to the 1st SS-Sturmbann of the 11th SS-Standarte at the start of the war, and was promoted to SS-Oberscharführer (staff sergeant) in early 1941. On 05-03-1940, he was drafted into the Wehrmacht with the rank of SS Unterfeldwebel (Under Field Sergeant), but his continuous SS service record indicates he did not actively serve. From mid-1941 to late May 1942, as Einsatzführer (action leader), and financial officer in East Upper Silesia in the Kattowitz office of the Reichskommissariat für die Festigung deutschen Volkstums – RKFDV (Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationhood), Göth 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-Untersturmführer (second lieutenant) on 14-07-1941. Göth also received a Dienstleistungszeugnis (Certificate of Service)  from his commanding officer, praising his service, as well as his physical and ideological traits.

Göth was transferred to Lublin in the summer of 1942, where he joined the staff of SS-Brigadeführer Odilo Globočnik, the SS and Police Leader of the Kraków area, as part of Operation Reinhard, the code name given to the establishment of the three extermination camps at Bełżec, Sobibór, 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, Göth was responsible for rounding up and transporting victims to these camps to be murdered.[17]

Płaszów

Göth was assigned to the SS-Totenkopfverbände (“Death’s head” unit; concentration camp service). His first assignment, starting on 11-02-1943, was to oversee the construction of the 200 acre Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp, which he was to command. Göth was atypical of most SS officers who served in concentration camps, as most hailed from small municipalities. He likely had a personal interview with Reichsführer 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 13-03-1943, the Jewish ghetto of Kraków was liquidated and those still fit for work were sent to the new camp at Płaszów. 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, Göth told his new prisoners, “I am your god.” Göth had complete authority over the camp, especially in this early stage.

In addition to his duties at Płaszów, Göth was the officer in charge of the liquidation of the ghetto at Tarnów, 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 Płaszów to be slave labourers. By the time the ghetto was liquidated, 8,000 Jews remained. The final roundup began on 01-09-1943, 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, Göth personally shot between 30 and 90 women and children during the liquidation of the ghetto.

On his birthday in 1943, Göth ordered the Polish Natalia Karp,

who had just arrived in Płaszów, to play the piano. Karp performed Frédéric Chopin’s Nocturne in C-sharp minor so well that Göth allowed her and her sister to live. Natlia Karp died 09-07-2007 (aged 96) in London, United Kingdom.

Göth 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 Göth’s trial indicates he delegated this task to a subordinate, SS-Hauptscharführer Josef Grzimek, who was sent to assist camp commandant SS-Hauptsturmführer Hans Kellermann with mass killings. Between 21-09-1943 and 03-02-1944, the camp was gradually liquidated. Almost all of the Polish inmates were transferred to Płaszów or the Bochnia Ghetto, where Göth 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, Göth had all the camp’s supplies sorted and transported to Płaszów. After the end of the war SS-Hauptscharführer Josef Grzimek, age 44, was tried for his crimes by a Polish court in Warsaw and sentenced to death on 29-01-1949. The sentence was carried out by hanging on 18-02-1950.

On 28-07-1943, Göth was assigned to Section F, the SS and Police Fachgruppe (section of experts) that specialised in ghetto liquidation and transport. By April 1944, Göth had been promoted to the rank of SS-Hauptsturmführer (captain), the highest of the company grade ranks, having received a double promotion, skipping the rank of SS-Obersturmführer (first lieutenant). He was also appointed a reserve officer of the Waffen-SS. In early 1944 the status of the Kraków-Płaszów 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 Kraków-Płaszów one of 13 official concentration camps in Poland. Mietek Pemper[a]

  testified at the trial that it was during the earlier period that Göth committed most of the random and brutal killings for which he became notorious. In early May 1944, Göth was informed that 10,000 Hungarian Jews would soon be sent to be imprisoned in Płaszów. To create space for the new arrivals, on 14 May Göth ordered all children in the camp to be moved to the kindergarten. The next day, Göth 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.

Balcony of Amon Göth’s house in Płaszów, from which Helen Jonas-Rosenzweig said Göth would shoot at prisoners. His Tyrolean hat would mark his intentions. It was the signal for seasoned prisoners to attempt to hide.

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.] Göth, 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. Ruth Irene Kalder, Amon Göth’s mistress, with Rolf the dog. Göth 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 Wilhelmine Hirsch, who were in constant fear for their lives, as were all the inmates. During his time at Płaszów, Göth 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. She survived the war and died 20-12-2018 (aged 93) in Boca Raton, Florida, U.S. The date of death for Helene Hirsch is noted as 30-09-1942, age 20.

Leopold “Poldek” Pfefferberg, another Schindlerjude (Schindler Jew), said: “When you saw Göth, you saw death.”  Polek survived the war and died on 09-03-2001, aged 87, in Beverly Hills.

Göth 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 Płaszów was Hujowa Górka (“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 Płaszów.

Death and burial ground of Amon Göth.

On 13-09-1944, Göth 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 Płaszów was turned over to SS-Obersturmführer Arnold Büscher.

On 23-01-1948, Büscher was sentenced to death in Poland for his crimes at Płaszów. Buscher was executed by hanging on 02-08-1949. age 49.

The camp was closed on 15-01-1945. Göth 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 Göth with a mental illness, and he was committed to a mental institution in Bad Tölz 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 Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp, including Josef Levkovich.

Josef Levkovich was a teenage slave laborer when Amon Goth, the villainous “Butcher of Plaszow” who murdered Jews for sadistic sport, pointed his gun at Josef’s head. Josef Levkovich rescued 600 orphans, captured Amon Goth, and built a beautiful life.

Trial and executionGöth in 1946, shortly before his execution

After the war, Göth was extradited to Poland, where he was tried by the Supreme National Tribunal of Poland in Kraków between 27 August and 5 September 1946. Göth 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. Göth 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.”

Amon Leopold Göth was sentenced to death, not far from the site of the Płaszów camp and was hanged on 13-09-1946, age 37 at the Montelupich Prison in Kraków, not far from the site of the Płaszów camp.[61] His remains were cremated and the ashes thrown in the Vistula River.

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