Information AboutAmon Göth |
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Amon Leopold Göth (or Goeth; November 12 , 1908 – September 13 , 1946 ) was a '' Hauptsturmführer '' of the S.S. and was the commandant of the Nazi Concentration Camp at Plaszow . EARLY LIFE AND CAREER Göth was born in Vienna , (former) Austro-Hungarian Empire , to a family in the printing industry. Göth first joined the Nazi Party at the age of 22, becoming a member of the Austrian branch of the Nazi Party in 1930 and assigned the Party Number 510764. Göth also joined the Austrian SS at the same time he entered the Nazi party and was appointed an SS- Mann with the SS Number 43673. Göth's early SS activities are little known, due large in part that 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 ''. Between 1938 and 1941 , he was a member of ''SS-Standarten'' (Regiment) 11 operating from Vienna and was commissioned an SS- Untersturmführer on July 14 , 1941 . PLASZOW In August 1942 , Göth left Vienna to join the staff of the SS And Police Leader of Krakow . He was appointed as a regular SS officer of the Concentration Camp service, and on February 11 , 1943 was assigned to construct and command a forced labor camp at Plaszow. The camp took one month to construct via Slave Labor and, on March 13 , 1943 , the Jew ish Ghetto Of Krakow was closed down with the surviving inhabitants imprisoned in the new labor camp. Approximately 2,000 people died during the evacuation, many of whom Göth personally executed. On September 3 , 1943 , Göth was further tasked to close down the ghetto at Tarnow , where an unknown number of people were killed on the spot. On February 3 , 1944 , Göth shut down the concentration camp at Szebnie by ordering the inmates to be Murder ed on the spot or Deported to other camps, again killing several thousand people. On April 20 , 1944 , Göth was promoted to the rank of ''SS- Hauptsturmführer '', having received a double promotion and thus skipping the rank of ''SS- Obersturmführer ''. He was also appointed a regular officer of the Waffen-SS . His assignment as Commandant of the Plaszow Labor Camp continued, now under the direct authority of the SS Economics and Administration Office. In Plaszow, Göth Torture d and murdered prisoners on a daily basis. He became internationally known through his depiction by Ralph Fiennes in the movie '' Schindler's List ''; Fiennes earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor , and his portrayal ranked 15 on AFI 's List Of The Top 50 Film Villains Of All Time . This grim portrayal (where, for shooting practice, he Sniped Jews from the balcony of his house) showed only a subset of Göth's crimes. During his time at Plaszow, Göth allegedly shot over 500 Jews himself; Poldek Pfefferberg, one of the Schindler Jews , famously said, "When you saw Göth, you saw death." as Amon Göth in Schindler's List]] The exact nature of the relationship between Göth and Oskar Schindler is not known, but it is suggested that in order to save the lives of the Jews working for him (and keep his own Profit s), Schindler made friends with Göth. These Jews initially lived in a sub-camp in his factory. On September 4 , 1944 , with the Soviet army approaching Krakow, this sub-camp was closed by the Nazi authorities and the Jews were forced to move to the Plaszow camp. To save his workers, Schindler continuously Bribed Göth with money and Black Market goods. When Plaszow itself was shut down on October 15 , 1944 , Schindler managed to establish his famous list of Jews that were not to be murdered, but instead sent to a new kriegswichtige (war-essential) factory at Brnenec- Brunnlitz in Protectorate Of Bohemia And Moravia , now Czech Republic . LATER MILITARY CAREER On September 13 , 1944 , Göth was relieved of his position as Commandant of Plaszow 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 the Second World War , and Germany's looming defeat, a Tribunal was never assembled and the charges against him were summarily dismissed. He was next assigned to Bad Tölz , Germany, where he was quickly diagnosed by SS doctors as suffering from Mental Illness and Diabetes . He was committed to a Sanitarium where he was arrested by American troops in May 1945 . At the time of his arrest, Göth claimed to have been recently promoted to ''SS- Sturmbannführer '' and, during later interrogations, several documents list him as "SS-Major Goeth". Rudolf Hoess was also of the opinion that Göth had been promoted and, when called to give testimony at Göth's trial, indicated that Göth was an SS-Major in the Concentration Camp service. Göth's SS service record, however, does not support the claim of a late war promotion and he is listed in most texts as having held the rank of SS-Hauptsturmführer. DEATH AND LEGACY After the war, the Supreme National Tribunal of Poland at Krakow 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 Plaszow camp, saluting the '' Führer '' in a final act of defiance. In 2002 , an interview book with Göth's daughter, Monika, was published in Germany under the name Ich muss doch meinen Vater lieben, oder? ("But I must love my father, must I not?"). 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 , leaving Monika to bear her father's legacy alone (ISBN 3-8218-3914-7). EXTERNAL LINKS
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