EXECUTION of Amon Goeth - Extremely Sadistic NAZI Commandant of Płaszów Concentration Camp - WW2
EXECUTION of Amon Goeth - Extremely Sadistic NAZI Commandant of Płaszów Concentration Camp - WW2
Execution of Amon Goeth - Extremely Sadistic Nazi Commandant of Płaszów Concentration Camp - WW2. Amon Göth, the only child of Catholic parents, was born on the 11 December 1908 in Vienna then part of Austria-Hungary. The Second World War began on the 1st of September, 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. On the following year Göth joined the SS in which he reached the rank of SS-Hauptsturmführer. When in the summer of 1942 the Nazis began deporting Jews from ghettos in the General gouvernement to extermination camps, Göth was sent to SS headquarters in Lublin where he joined the staff of Odilo Globočnik, the SS and Police Leader of the Kraków area. As part of Operation Reinhard, which was a codename for the systematic extermination of the Jews in the General Government district of German-occupied Poland, three killing centers were established: Bełżec, Sobibor, and Treblinka. Göth was responsible for rounding up and transporting victims to these camps to be murdered.
Amon Göth’s next assignment, starting on 11 February 1943, was to oversee the construction of the 200 acre Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp, which he was to command. In his inaugural address as commandant he said to the prisoners: “ I am your God”.
The Płaszów camp was established in 1942 under the authority of the SS and police leaders in Kraków. It was initially a forced-labor camp for Jews. The original site of the camp included two Jewish cemeteries. From time to time the SS enlarged the camp and it reached its maximum size in 1944, the same year that it became a concentration camp. Until that time, most of the camp guards were Ukrainian police auxiliaries chosen from among the Soviet soldiers in German prisoner-of-war camps and trained at the Trawniki training camp in Lublin.
Płaszów camp was surrounded by an electrified barbed-wired fence and was divided into several sections. The camp had barracks for German personnel, factories, warehouses, a men’s camp and a women’s camp, and a “labor education camp” for Polish workers who violated labor discipline. Poles and Jews were segregated within the camp and the largest number of people confined in Płaszów at any one time was over 20,000. Thousands were killed there, mostly by shooting.
Everyday life in the camp was subject to Göth’s strict rules and was characterized by arbitrary executions, harassment, humiliation and torture by himself or by the guards. After morning roll call, the prisoners were herded to their assigned jobs. Escape attempts or sabotage were generally punishable by death, while food smuggling was punishable by 100 lashes. Successful escape attempts were punished with the execution of every tenth prisoner in the escapee’s group and it was not uncommon for Göth to perform the executions personally. He believed that with such measures he could demonstrate his ideas for order and discipline in a memorable way. One of Göth’s specialties was to shoot at prisoners in the morning from balcony of the villa which was specially renovated for him. Sometimes he shot people from the window of his office if they appeared to be moving too slowly or resting in the yard.
Before World War II, about 25,000 Jews lived in Tarnów, a city in southern Poland, 45 miles east of Kraków. Jews—whose recorded presence in the town went back to the mid-fifteenth century—comprised about half of the town’s total population. Deportations from Tarnów began in June 1942, when about 13,500 Jews were sent to the Belzec killing center. During the deportation operations, German SS and police forces massacred hundreds of Jews in the streets, in the marketplace, in the Jewish cemetery, and in the woods outside the town. After the June deportations, the Germans ordered the surviving Jews in Tarnów, along with thousands of Jews from the neighboring towns, into a ghetto. The ghetto was surrounded by a high wooden fence. Living conditions in the ghetto were poor, marked by severe food shortages, a lack of sanitary facilities, and a forced-labor regimen in factories and workshops producing goods for the German war industry…
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Content
0.78 -> The 12th of March, 1938. German troops cross the
border with Austria and invade the country without
8.28 -> firing a single shot. They are not met with armed
resistance, but with cheers and flowers. While
14.58 -> thousands of Austrians turn out to greet Adolf
Hitler as he travels first to Linz and then on
20.04 -> to Vienna, terrified Jews, leftists and other
opponents of the Nazi Regime race towards the
26.28 -> country’s borders, hoping to reach them before
they are closed but most would become trapped
31.14 -> in a rapidly Nazifying Austria. In the weeks
that follow, there is pogrom-like violence
36.66 -> across the country. Austrian Nazis and others
beat up, attack, and humiliate the Jews. They
43.8 -> force them to scrub the streets, clean public
toilets and perform humiliating exercises.
49.26 -> Many decide to try to leave Austria and lines
appear at consulates across the city of Vienna.
54.54 -> Among the Austrians who greet the Führer
is a man who as a commandant of the Płaszów
59.4 -> concentration camp during the Second World
War will be responsible for brutal torture
64.08 -> and killing of thousands of innocent men,
women and children. His name is Amon Göth.
71.79 -> Amon Leopold Göth, the only
child of Catholic parents,
75.3 -> was born on the 11 December 1908 in Vienna then
part of Austria-Hungary. His father, Amon Franz,
82.98 -> owned the prosperous publishing house and
due to his frequent business travels and
87.42 -> his mother frequently working in the family
business, Amon was raised mostly by his aunt.
92.4 -> After he attended public school in Vienna where
he showed little interest in what was happening
96.54 -> in the classroom, which was the reason why
his academic performance remained poor,
100.44 -> Amon studied agriculture for a few
semesters before abandoning his studies
104.7 -> in 1925 when he began an apprenticeship
as a bookseller in his parents' company.
109.38 -> Amon, then 17 years old, became increasingly
enthusiastic about National Socialism and its
116.46 -> radical ideology and his main political goal
was the annexation of Austria to the German
121.5 -> Reich. He shared this goal with the German
Nazi Party which he decided to join in 1930.
127.86 -> He was granted full party membership on 31
May 1931 which meant that he was considered
134.4 -> an Old Fighter - one who had joined the party
before Adolf Hitler's rise to the position of
139.74 -> Chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933. The
Old Fighters were distinguished from the flood
146.34 -> of new members who joined in 1933 and later for
opportunistic reasons. Once the Nazis took power,
152.94 -> many of the Old Fighters not only achieved
high status and received a number of special
157.5 -> awards instituted for this purpose but
were also given prestigious jobs in the
161.64 -> opera houses, government buildings
and universities of the Third Reich.
165.84 -> Beginning in May 1933, the Austrian Nazis
waged a propaganda and terror campaign which
171.48 -> was encouraged and funded by Germany. The Nazi
goal was to undermine the regime of the Austrian
177.24 -> Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss by making it look
incompetent. They staged disruptive protests
182.7 -> and brawled with political opponents and the
police. Austrian Nazis set off explosives and
187.68 -> tear gas bombs in public places and Jewish-owned
businesses. In June 1933, in response to a fatal
194.46 -> Nazi bombing, the Dollfuss regime banned
the Austrian Nazi Party and its affiliates.
199.08 -> When Göth ‘s illegal activities, including
obtaining explosives for the Nazi Party, made
204.3 -> him a wanted man in Austria, he fled to Germany.
From there Göth smuggled radios and weapons
210.12 -> into Austria and acted as a courier for the SS.
In October 1933, however, Göth was tracked down
217.02 -> by Austrian authorities and then arrested
but legal proceedings brought against him
221.4 -> ended in December 1933 with his acquittal for
lack of evidence. Göth then returned to his
227.88 -> parents' business, but continued to maintain
contact with the underground Nazi movement.
232.14 -> On the 25th of July 1934, when Austrian Nazis
attempted to overthrow the Austrian government,
238.62 -> the conspirators shot and killed
Chancellor Dollfuss. Amon Göth
243.3 -> was again detained but managed to
escape custody and flee to Germany
247.56 -> where he tried to help his parents
develop their publishing business.
250.38 -> His mother died in March 1936 and in the summer
of the same year his first marriage failed.
257.4 -> In the spring of 1938 Adolf Hitler annexed the
Federal State of Austria into the German Reich.
263.76 -> The Anschluss, as it became known,
266.4 -> took place over three days between
the 11th and 13th of March 1938.
271.56 -> Göth returned to Vienna shortly after the
Anschluss in 1938 and resumed his party
276.78 -> activities. He married Anna Geiger, a woman
he met at a motorcycle race, in an SS civil
282.78 -> ceremony in October 1938. Prior to the wedding,
the couple had to pass a set of strict physical
288.66 -> tests administered by the SS to determine the
suitability of the marriage. The marriage produced
294.66 -> 3 children but Peter, their oldest child born
in 1939, died of diphtheria aged seven months.
301.56 -> The Second World War began on the 1st of
September, 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland.
307.62 -> On the following year Göth joined the SS in which
he reached the rank of SS-Hauptsturmführer. When
314.28 -> in the summer of 1942 the Nazis began deporting
Jews from ghettos in the General gouvernement
319.44 -> to extermination camps, Göth was sent
to SS headquarters in Lublin where he
323.82 -> joined the staff of Odilo Globočnik, the SS and
Police Leader of the Kraków area. As part of
329.46 -> Operation Reinhard, which was a codename
for the systematic extermination of
333.48 -> the Jews in the General Government
district of German-occupied Poland,
336.42 -> three killing centers were established:
Bełżec, Sobibor, and Treblinka. Göth was
342.84 -> responsible for rounding up and transporting
victims to these camps to be murdered.
347.34 -> Amon Göth’s next assignment, starting
on 11 February 1943, was to oversee the
353.22 -> construction of the 200 acre Kraków-Płaszów
concentration camp, which he was to command.
357.6 -> In his inaugural address as commandant he
said to the prisoners: “ I am your God”.
363.36 -> The Płaszów camp was established in 1942 under the
authority of the SS and police leaders in Kraków.
370.32 -> It was initially a forced-labor camp for Jews.
The original site of the camp included two
375.42 -> Jewish cemeteries. From time to time the
SS enlarged the camp and it reached its
380.58 -> maximum size in 1944, the same year that it
became a concentration camp. Until that time,
386.34 -> most of the camp guards were Ukrainian police
auxiliaries chosen from among the Soviet soldiers
391.26 -> in German prisoner-of-war camps and trained
at the Trawniki training camp in Lublin.
395.52 -> Płaszów camp was surrounded by an electrified
barbed-wired fence and was divided into several
400.98 -> sections. The camp had barracks for German
personnel, factories, warehouses, a men's camp
406.98 -> and a women's camp, and a "labor education
camp" for Polish workers who violated labor
411.54 -> discipline. Poles and Jews were segregated within
the camp and the largest number of people confined
416.52 -> in Płaszów at any one time was over 20,000.
Thousands were killed there, mostly by shooting.
423.36 -> Everyday life in the camp was subject to Göth's
strict rules and was characterized by arbitrary
428.46 -> executions, harassment, humiliation and torture by
himself or by the guards. After morning roll call,
435.18 -> the prisoners were herded to their assigned
jobs. Escape attempts or sabotage were
439.74 -> generally punishable by death, while food
smuggling was punishable by 100 lashes.
444.96 -> Successful escape attempts were punished with the
execution of every tenth prisoner in the escapee's
450.18 -> group and it was not uncommon for Göth to perform
the executions personally. He believed that with
455.34 -> such measures he could demonstrate his ideas
for order and discipline in a memorable way.
459.66 -> One of Göth's specialties was to shoot at
prisoners in the morning from balcony of
464.16 -> the villa which was specially renovated
for him. Sometimes he shot people from
468.3 -> the window of his office if they appeared to
be moving too slowly or resting in the yard.
472.38 -> His Tyrolean hat would mark his
intentions. It was the signal
476.94 -> for seasoned prisoners to attempt to hide.
His two dogs, Rolf, a Great Dane, and Ralf,
483.12 -> an Alsatian mix, were trained to tear inmates
to death. Amon Göth was soon given the nickname
489.36 -> “Butcher of Płaszów” by the prisoners and he
killed at least 500 people with his own hands.
494.58 -> After murdering a person, he requested their index
card so that their relatives could also be killed,
500.46 -> as he did not want to have "discontented people"
in the camp. Göth killed indiscriminately almost
505.92 -> daily. A misinterpreted look was enough for this,
which is why the prisoners preferred to look at
511.32 -> the floor when Göth was present. Another time he
shot a victim just for a forgotten tribute. On
517.86 -> one occasion Göth, after catching a woman eating
a potato, had her thrown into a large cauldron
523.14 -> of boiling water in order to cook her alive.
A former Płaszów prisoner, Helen Jonas-Rosenzweig,
529.44 -> who survived the war later testified: “ When we
saw him from a distance, everybody was hiding,
535.08 -> in latrines, wherever they could hide.
I can't tell you how people feared him.”
540.54 -> During his time at Płaszów, Göth
lived comfortably in a villa,
544.5 -> owning cars and horses that he rode in the
camp. He also had an interpreter responsible
549.48 -> for his correspondence, a personal physician
and a large number of personal servants;
554.64 -> these included several domestic workers,
maids, a stable boy, a masseur, a chauffeur,
560.52 -> a bodywork specialist, a butler and a car
mechanic for his fleet of three passenger
565.38 -> cars. Negligence in the care and maintenance of
the vehicles was punished draconically by Göth.
570.42 -> The kitchen staff could also count on Göth beating
them to the point of unconsciousness or slapping
575.94 -> them in the face if the food served was too little
or had too much salt. On one occasion he shot a
582.06 -> Jewish cook because the soup was too hot.
Göth ‘s shoemaker was threatened with the
586.56 -> same procedure if he used the wrong materials
or if the shoes he had made by hand were too
591.42 -> big or too small. Up to six pairs of shoes are
said to have been produced for Göth each week.
596.22 -> Amon Göth was also a sexual deviant and an
alcoholic who had no problem raping Jewish
602.1 -> women in the camp even though under the “Law for
the Protection of German Blood and German Honor,
606.24 -> sexual relations between Jews and Germans were
punishable by severe imprisonment or even death.
611.34 -> After the war, Göth’s former maid
testified how on one occasion she
615.96 -> entered the living room where Amon Göth,
drunk and naked with whip in his hand,
620.04 -> ordered her to undress. When she refused,
he whipped her and tried to rape her.
625.26 -> In his villa Göth also organized orgies
and parties with a lot of alcohol.
629.88 -> In addition to his duties at Płaszów, Göth
was the officer in charge of the liquidation
634.8 -> of the ghettos and labor camps of Szebnie,
Bochnia, Tarnów, Kraków, and other places.
640.44 -> Before World War II, about 25,000 Jews
lived in Tarnów, a city in southern Poland,
646.68 -> 45 miles east of Kraków. Jews—whose
recorded presence in the town went
652.08 -> back to the mid-fifteenth century—comprised
about half of the town's total population.
655.44 -> Deportations from Tarnów began in June 1942, when
about 13,500 Jews were sent to the Belzec killing
663.36 -> center. During the deportation operations, German
SS and police forces massacred hundreds of Jews in
669.6 -> the streets, in the marketplace, in the Jewish
cemetery, and in the woods outside the town.
674.52 -> After the June deportations, the Germans
ordered the surviving Jews in Tarnów,
678.96 -> along with thousands of Jews from
the neighboring towns, into a ghetto.
682.68 -> The ghetto was surrounded by a high wooden
fence. Living conditions in the ghetto were poor,
687.96 -> marked by severe food shortages, a
lack of sanitary facilities, and a
692.1 -> forced-labor regimen in factories and workshops
producing goods for the German war industry.
696.36 -> In September 1942, the Germans ordered all
ghetto residents to report at Targowica Square,
702.36 -> where they were subjected to a selection in which
those deemed "unessential" were selected out
707.22 -> for deportation to the Belzec killing center.
About 8,000 people were deported. Thereafter,
713.88 -> deportations from Tarnów to the killing
centers continued sporadically and the Germans
718.74 -> deported a group of 2,500 in November 1942.
When the Germans decided to destroy the Tarnów
725.34 -> ghetto in September 1943, the surviving 7,000
Jews were deported to Auschwitz and 3,000 to the
731.28 -> Plaszow concentration camp in Kraków. In late
1943, Tarnów was declared "free of Jews" .
738.66 -> After the war several witnesses testified
that Göth personally shot between 30 and
743.58 -> 90 women and children during the
liquidation of the Tarnów ghetto.
746.82 -> Amon Göth was hated not only by the camp inmates
but also by his SS subordinates whom he treated
753 -> harshly and brought them before an SS and
police court for the smallest offences. However,
758.4 -> when it was revealed that the Göth
himself had used the massive Nazi
762.06 -> apparatus to gain an enormous amount of
wealth, his downfall became inevitable
766.5 -> as all possessions stolen from murdered Jews
were regarded as the property of the Reich.
771.48 -> He stole valuables of any kind –
diamonds, money in foreign currency,
775.92 -> paintings, carpets and furniture.
In the course of the investigations, it
781.02 -> was revealed that he stole assets worth millions
of Reichsmarks and first wagon with Göth's looted
785.7 -> goods was secured at the Opava train station at
the end of August 1944, with others to follow.
791.16 -> On 13 September 1944, Göth was relieved of his
position and arrested by Gestapo officials in
798.42 -> his Płaszów villa. He was charged by
the SS with theft of Jewish property,
802.5 -> failure to provide adequate food to the prisoners
under his charge, violation of concentration camp
807.54 -> regulations regarding the treatment and
punishment of prisoners, and allowing
811.32 -> unauthorised access to camp personnel records
by prisoners and non-commissioned officers.
815.46 -> Administration of the camp at Płaszów was turned
over to SS-Obersturmführer Arnold Büscher and
821.7 -> the camp was closed on 15 January 1945.
Göth was scheduled for an appearance before
827.34 -> SS Judge Georg Konrad Morgen, but the charges
were later dropped due to Germany's looming
832.8 -> defeat. SS doctors diagnosed Göth with a
mental illness and he was transferred to
837.9 -> a mental hospital where he was arrested by
U.S. soldiers wearing a Wehrmacht uniform.
842.4 -> He was then sent to a temporary prison
844.62 -> camp located on the grounds of the
former Dachau concentration camp.
847.92 -> and extradited to Poland where he
finally faced justice for his crimes.
852 -> Between 27 August and 5 September 1946 Göth
was tried for his crimes by the Supreme
858.96 -> National Tribunal of Poland in Kraków.
He was accused of being responsible for:
864.54 -> - the deaths of ~8000 people in the Płaszów camp
- the deaths of ~ 2000 people during
869.64 -> the liquidation of the Kraków ghetto
- order for the deportation of ~ 8000 people
873.96 -> in the course of dissolution of the Tarnów ghetto
- orders for the murder and deportation of an
879.06 -> unspecified number of people as part
of the liquidation of the Szebnie camp
882.42 -> - and misappropriation of
significant Jewish assets
886.38 -> During the proceedings, Amon Göth pursued
the simple practice of rigorously denying
891.42 -> all allegations against him and
when testifying about violent
894.6 -> excesses committed during his reign of
terror, he questioned the credibility of
898.38 -> the witnesses and defended his actions by
merely carrying out orders as a soldier.
903.18 -> In addition, Göth appeared unimpressed
by the course of the court proceedings
907.56 -> and expressed his contempt for the court by
demonstratively polishing his fingernails.
911.88 -> On the September 5, 1946, he was found guilty on
all five counts and sentenced to death by hanging.
919.2 -> Amon Göth was 37 years old when he
was hanged on 13 September 1946 at
925.86 -> the Montelupich Prison in Kraków, not
far from the site of the Płaszów camp.
930.18 -> However, the smooth execution of the sentence
was thwarted by the fact that the prepared rope
935.94 -> turned out to be too long. It had to be shortened
twice because of Göth's height – he was 2 meters
941.7 -> tall. Only the third attempt succeeded.
Göth's last words were "Heil Hitler!"
948.36 -> After the execution, his body was cremated and
the ashes scattered into the Vistula river.
954.84 -> There were no teras shed for Amon Göth.
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