Amon Goeth Early life and career . Goeth was born on 11 December 1908 in Vienna , then the capital of the Austro - Hungarian Empire , to a family in the book publishing industry . Goeth 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 . Goeth joined the Austrian SS in 1930 and was appointed an SS - " Mann " with the SS number 43 , 673 . Goeth served with the SS " Truppe " Deimel and " Sturm " Libardi in Vienna until January 1933 , when he was promoted to serve as adjutant and 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 June 1933 , so they set up operations in exile in Munich . From this base , Goeth smuggled radios and weapons into Austria and acted as a courier for the SS . He was arrested in October 1933 by the Austrian authorities and 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 the infamous Dachau Concentration Camp . He temporarily quit the SS and Nazi party activities until 1937 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 . Goeth returned to Vienna shortly after the Anschluss in 1938 and resumed his party activities . He married Anny Geiger in a civil SS ceremony on October 1938 . 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 , Goeth 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 . He soon 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 for 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 . 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 camp s 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 , Goeth was responsible for rounding up and transporting victims to these camps to be killed . Płaszów . Goeth was assigned to the " SS - Totenkopfverbände " ( " Deaths - head " unit ; concentration camp service ) . His first assignment , starting on 11 February 1943 , was to oversee the construction of the Kraków - Płaszów concentration camp , which he was to command . The camp took one month to construct using forced labour . On 13 March 1943 , the Jewish ghetto of Kraków was liquidated and those still fit for work were sent to the new camp at Płaszów . Several thousand not deemed fit for work were sent to extermination camps and killed . Hundreds more were killed on the streets by the Nazis as they cleared out the ghetto . On 3 September 1943 , in addition to his duties at Płaszów , Goeth 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 . They were loaded on a train to Auschwitz concentration camp , but less than half survived the journey . Most of the survivors were deemed unsuitable for forced labour and were killed immediately on their arrival at Auschwitz . According to testimony of several witnesses as recorded in his 1946 indictment for war crimes , Goeth personally shot between 30 and 90 women and children during the liquidation of the ghetto . Goeth 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 Goeth ' 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 executions . Between 21 September 1943 and 3 February 1944 the camp was gradually liquidated . Around a thousand of the victims were taken to the nearby forest and shot , and the remainder were sent to Auschwitz , where most were gassed immediately on arrival . By April 1944 , Goeth had been promoted to the rank of SS - " Hauptsturmführer " ( captain ) , 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 ) . Mietek Pemper testified at the trial that it was during the earlier period that Goeth 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 . 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 . Goeth personally murdered prisoners on a daily basis . His two dogs , Rolf and Ralf , were trained to tear inmates to death . He shot people from his 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 daily fear for their lives , as were all the inmates . Poldek Pfefferberg , another " Schindlerjude " ( Schindler Jew ) , said : " When you saw Goeth , you saw death . " Yet Goeth spared the life of Jewish prisoner Natalia Hubler ( later known as Natalia Karp ) and that of her sister , after hearing her play a nocturne by Chopin on the piano the day after she arrived at the Płaszów camp . Goeth believed if one member of a work team escaped or committed some infraction , the entire team must be punished . On one occasion he ordered every second member of a work detail should be shot 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 execution site at Płaszów was Hujowa Górka ( " Prick Hill " ) , a large hill that was used for mass killings and executions . Pemper testified that 8 , 000 to 12 , 000 people were murdered at Płaszów . Dismissal and capture . On 13 September 1944 Goeth 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 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 . Goeth 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 Goeth as suffering from mental illness and he was committed to a mental institution , where he was arrested by the United States military in May 1945 . Execution . After the war , Goeth was extradited to Poland , where he was tried by the Supreme National Tribunal of Poland in Kraków between 27 August and 5 September 1946 . Goeth 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 . He 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 " . He was sentenced to death and was hanged on 13 September 1946 at the Montelupich Prison in Kraków , not far from the site of the Płaszów camp . The body was cremated and the ashes thrown in the Vistula River . Family . In addition to his two marriages , Goeth had a two - year relationship with Ruth Irene Kalder , a beautician and aspiring actress originally from Breslau ( or Gleiwitz ; sources vary ) . Kalder first met Goeth in 1942 or early 1943 , when she worked as a secretary at Oskar Schindler ' s enamelware factory in Kraków . She soon moved in with Goeth and the two had an affair . She took Goeth ' s name shortly after his death . Goeth ' s last child was a daughter , Monika Hertwig , whom he had by Kalder . Monika was born in November 1945 in Bad Tölz . In media and culture . " Schindler ' s List " . Goeth ' s actions at Płaszów Labour Camp became internationally known through his depiction by British actor Ralph Fiennes in the 1993 film " Schindler ' s List " . In a subsequent interview , Fiennes recalled : Fiennes won a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor . His portrayal ranked 15th on American Film Institute ' s list of the top 50 film villains of all time . He ranks as the highest non - fiction villain . When Płaszów survivor Mila Pfefferberg was introduced to Fiennes on the set of the film , she began to shake uncontrollably , as Fiennes , attired in full SS dress uniform , reminded her of the real Amon Goeth . Monika Hertwig . In 2002 , Goeth ' s daughter Monika Hertwig published her memoirs under the title " Ich muß doch meinen Vater lieben , oder ? " ( " But I have to love my father , don ' t I ? " ) . Hertwig described the subsequent life of her mother , Ruth Kalder Goeth , who unconditionally glorified her fiancé until confronted with his role in the Holocaust . Ruth committed suicide in 1983 , shortly after giving an interview in Jon Blair ' s documentary " Schindler " . Hertwig ' s experiences in dealing with her father ' s crimes are detailed in " Inheritance " , a 2006 documentary directed by James Moll . Appearing in the documentary is Helen Jonas - Rosenzweig , one of Goeth ' s former housemaids . The documentary details the meeting of the two women at the Płaszów memorial site in Poland . Hertwig had requested the meeting , but Jonas - Rosenzweig was hesitant because her memories of Goeth and the concentration camp were so traumatic . She eventually agreed after Hertwig wrote to her , " We have to do it for the murdered people . " Jonas felt touched by this sentiment and agreed to meet her . In a subsequent interview , Jonas - Rosenzweig recalled : Hertwig also appeared in a documentary called " Hitler ' s Children " ( 2011 ) , directed and produced by Chanoch Zeevi , an Israeli documentary film maker . In the documentary , Hertwig and other close relatives of infamous Nazi leaders describe their feelings , relationships , and memories of their relatives . Jennifer Teege . Jennifer Teege , the daughter of Monika Hertwig and a Nigerian , discovered that Goeth was her grandfather through Hertwig ' s 2002 memoirs . She addressed her coming to terms with her origins in a 2013 book , " Amon . Mein Großvater hätte mich erschossen " ( " My grandfather would have shot me " ) . Summary of SS career . Dates of rank Awards At the time of his capture by American forces , Goeth claimed to have been recently promoted to the rank of " Sturmbannführer " , a claim not supported in in his SS service record . Nonetheless , several American interrogation transcripts list him as " SS - Major Goeth " . SS - " Obersturmbannführer " Rudolf Höss , commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp , supported the claim at his own trial when he testified that Goeth was a major in the concentration camp service . Due to poor record keeping at the end of the war , it is possible that Goeth was promoted ; most historical accounts simply list his rank as that of " Hauptsturmführer " .