User:Tbmiller3/sandbox

Early life and career[edit]
Göth, an only child named after his father and grandfather, was born on 11 December 1908 in Vienna, then the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, to a wealthy Catholic family in the book publishing industry (Teege 29, Crowe 217). His mother was Berta Schwendt Göth and his father, Amon Franz Göth, owned Verlagsanstalt Amon Franz Göth (Amon Franz Göth Publishing House) whose wares included religious literature, postcards, and books in military history (Teege 29, Crowe 217). As a child he went by the nickname “Mony” and attended public school in Vienna and was raised mostly by his aunt, due to his father traveling for business and his mother frequently working at the publishing house (Teege 29, Crowe 218)'''. He then went on to study agriculture for a few semesters in Waidhofen an der Thaya, but he abandoned his studies at the age of 17 due to a strong interest in radical right wing ideas''' (Teege 29, Crowe 218). Göth joined the local youth chapter of the Austrian Nazi Party in 1925 and, from 1927 to 1930, was a member of the Steirischer Heimatschutzverband Wien (Styrian Home Protection Organization in Vienna), the more radical and powerful faction of the antisemitic nationalist paramilitary group Heimwehr (Home Guard) (Crowe 218-219). He dropped his membership to join the Austrian branch of the Nazi Party, and was assigned the party membership number 510,764 in September 1930. He later was granted full party membership on 31 May 1931 (Crowe 219). Joining the party at this early stage would later make him be considered on of the Alte Kämper (Old Fighters), those who joined the Nazis before Hitler’s rise to the position of Chancellor (Crowe 219)'''. Upon joining the Nazis, Göth began working in Margareten district Ortsgruppe (local group) in Vienna and soon after moved to the Mariahilf Ortsgruppe and started working in the SA and as a political leader (Crowe 219). Göth joined the Austrian SS in 1930, being granted full membership in 1932 after the two year candidacy period', and was appointed an SS-Mann'' with the SS number 43,673 (Crowe 220).

Göth served with the SS Truppe Deimel and Sturm Libardi in Vienna until January 1933, when he was promoted to serve as adjutant and Zügführer (platoon leader) (Crowe 220) 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 June 1933, so they set up operations in exile in Munich. From this base, Göth smuggled radios and weapons into Austria and acted as a courier for SS Sector VIII (Crowe 221). 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, due to issues with his Oberführer (commander) Alfred Bigler, and lived in Munich while trying to help his parents to develop their publishing business (Crowe 221). 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 a woman he met at a motorcycle race (Teege 30), Anna Geiger, in an SS civil ceremony on 23 October 1938. Prior to the marriage the couple had to pass a strict set of physical tests by the SS to examine the suitability of their physical traits (Crowe 223). The couple had three children: Peter, born in 1939, who died of diphtheria at age 7 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 5 March 1940 he did get drafted for service in the Wehrmacht at the rank of Unterfeldwebel, but his continuous SS service indicates he did not actively serve ("Amon Göth"). During the period from the summer of 1941 to late May 1942 he gained a reputation as a seasoned administrator in the Nazi efforts to isolate and relocate the Jewish population of Europe as an Einsatzführer (action leader) and financial officer in East Upper Silesia in the Kattowitz office of the Reichskommissariat für die Festigung deutschen Volkstums (Reichskommissariat for the Strengthening of German Nationhood; RKFDV). He was commissioned to the rank of SS-Untersturmführer (second lieutenant) on 14 July 1941 (Crowe 224). With this promotion Göth also received a Dienstleistungszeugnis (Certificate of Service) praising his service and both physical and ideological traits, from his commanding officer Otto Winter (Crowe 228).

He 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; participants were sworn to secrecy. But according to the transcripts of his later trial and his brief commission, Göth was to be working on Judenumsiedlung (Jewish Resettlement) (Crowe 226). This would have primarily consisted of rounding up and transporting victims to these camps to be murdered.

Płaszów[edit]
Göth was assigned to the SS-Totenkopfverbände ("Death's head" unit; concentration camp service). His first assignment, starting on 11 February 1943, just ten days following the German defeat at Stalingrad, was to oversee the construction of the 200 acre Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp on top of old Jewish cemeteries (Teege 34, Crowe 241). The camp took one month to construct using forced labour. On 13 March 1943, the Jewish ghetto of Kraków was liquidated and several thousand not deemed fit for work were sent to extermination camps and murdered while hundreds more were murdered on the streets by the Nazis as they cleared out the ghetto. Those still fit for work were sent to the new camp at Płaszów, and Göth, in his opening address as the Kommandant of the newly populated camp, told his new prisoners, “I am your God” (Teege 33, Crowe 241, MacLean 87). As Kommandant, especially in this early stage, Göth had complete authority over the camp (MacLean 22, Megargee 865)'''. Also, to be assigned this position it is likely he had a personal interview with Heinrich Himmler as that was normally the standard procedure when assigning SS camp commanders (MacLean 22). Göth was atypical of most SS officers who served in concentration camps as most hailed from small municipalities as opposed to big cities such as Göth’s Vienna (MacLean 270).''' Hujowa Górka ("Prick Hill"), the execution place in Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp (2007)

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 per cent of the city's population) at the start of World War II. By the time the ghetto was liquidated, 8,000 Jews remained. The final roundup for the liquidation began on 1 September 1943 with a gathering of the remaining Jews to Magdeburg Square which was surrounded by heavily armed guards (Crowe 232)'''. The roundup, separation of Jews, and train loading ended around mid day the next day (Crowe 232). Most were loaded on a train to Auschwitz concentration camp, of which''' less than half survived the journey. Throughout the liquidation about 10,000 were sent to Plaszow for forced labor ("Amon Göth"). Most of the survivors were deemed unsuitable for forced 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 Natalia Karp, who had just arrived in Płaszów, to play the piano. Karp performed Chopin's Nocturne in C-sharp minor so well that Göth allowed her and her sister to live.

Göth was also the officer in charge of the liquidation of Szebnie concentration camp, which interned 4,000 Jewish and 1,500 Polish slave laborers. Evidence presented at Göth's trial indicates he delegated this aktion ("Amon Göth") to a subordinate, SS-Hauptscharführer Josef Grzimek, who was sent to assist camp commandant SS-Hauptsturmführer Hans Kellermann with mass killings. Between 21 September 1943 and 3 February 1944 the camp was gradually liquidated during which almost all of the Polish inmates found themselves transferred to Płaszów or Bochnia (Crowe 236). Around a thousand of the 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 the liquidation was finished Göth had all camp supplies sorted and transported to Płaszów (Crowe 236).

In addition to these liquidations Göth was also responsible for the Bochnia Ghetto (MacLean 362).

On 28 July 1943, Göth received designation to Section F, the SS and Police Fachgruppe (Section of Experts) with specialty in ghetto liquidation and inmate transport (Crowe 233). By April 1944, Göth had been promoted to the rank of SS-Hauptsturmführer (captain), the highest of the company grade ranks (MacLean 21), 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 Konzentrationslager Kraków-Płaszów one of 13 official concentration camps in Poland (MacLean 378, Megargee 865). Mietek Pemper, Göths personal stenographer and assistant (Teege 37), 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. Concentration camps were more closely monitored by the SS than labour camps, so conditions improved slightly when the designation was changed.

'''One of Göth’s largest mass atrocities occurred in early May of 1944. Göth was informed that 10,000 Hungarian Jews would soon be sent to be imprisoned in Płaszow. This information required Göth to in some way create room for these new inmates. To do this Göth, on 14 May, ordered the movement of all children in the camp to the kindergarten in the camp. The next day Göth had all of the children removed from the kindergarten and put all but a few exceptions on trains and sent them off to Auschwitz to be exterminated.''' (Megargee 865)

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 his inmates as huge and imposing man (Teege 37), 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 (Teege 38). At one point, due to a feeling that his dogs enjoyed the company of one of their inmate handlers, Adam Sztab, more than him, Göth killed Sztab (Crowe 257). He shot people from the window of his office if they appeared to be moving too slowly or resting in the yard. He shot to death a Jewish cook 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. '''Göth lived comfortably in his villa at the camp, owning cars and horses that he sometimes rode through the camp. He also had a Jewish inmate who was a cobbler fashion him new shoes on a weekly basis (Teege 37).'''

Poldek Pfefferberg, another Schindlerjude (Schindler Jew), said: "When you saw Göth, you saw death."

Göth believed if one member of a work team escaped or committed some infraction, the entire team must be punished. One such infraction, if inmates were caught smuggling foodstuffs they would be shot (Megargee 864). On one occasion he ordered the shooting of every second member of a work detail 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. 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.

Dismissal and capture[edit]
On 13 September 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 legislation), 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 unauthorized 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. The camp was eventually closed on 15 January 1945 (MacLean 17). 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 as suffering from mental illness, and he was committed to a mental institution in Bad Tölz, where he was arrested by the United States military in May 1945. '''He was arrested wearing only a Wehrmacht uniform and did not admit his identity as an SS officer. Due to this confusion regarding his identity he was sent to a temporary American prisoner camp located on the grounds of what was formerly the Dachau concentration camp . He was eventually identified by former inmates as the former Kommandant of the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp (Teege 53-54).'''

Family[edit]
In addition to his two marriages, Göth had a two-year relationship with Ruth Irene Kalder, a beautician and aspiring actress originally from Breslau (or Gleiwitz; sources vary). Kalder first met Göth in 1942 or early 1943 when she worked as a secretary at Oskar Schindler's enamelware factory in Kraków. Schindler brought her dinner with Göth at his villa during this time and she says it was love at first sight (Teege 61). She soon moved in with Göth and the two had an affair and Göth began calling his lover “Majola” (Teege 62)'''. She lived a life of luxury in Göth’s villa during the affair but claims to have never visited the camp (Crowe 210). During Göth’s period of imprisonment and hospitalization his second wife Anna, still in Vienna with their two children, filed for divorce upon learning of Göth’s affair with Kalder (Teege 53). During this same period, the pregnant Kalder went to Bad Tölz with her mother and gave birth to Monika Hertwig on 7 November 1945 (Teege 53-54). Göth's last child was this daughter''', Monika Hertwig, whom he had by Kalder. Kalder was devastated by Göth’s execution in 1946 and (Teege 77) she took Göth's name shortly after his death.