German SS Captain (Hauptsturmführer), he was the commandant of the Plaszow, Poland, Forced Labor Camp, and was portrayed in the movie "Schlinder's List" (1993); his role was played by actor Ralph Fiennes. Called the "Butcher of Plaszow," in 1946, he was convicted of war crimes and hung; afterwards, his body was cremated and the ashes were disposed of in the Weichsel River. His last name is often spelled Göth. Born in Vienna, Austria, his family was in the printing industry. In post-World War I Europe, both Austria and Germany were in political chaos, with constant changes in government. To many people, the strong, disciplined Nazi Party offered a way out of anarchy, and in 1930, at the age of 22, Amon Goeth joined the Austrian Nazi Party, even though it was illegal. He also joined the Austrian Schutzstaffel (SS) at the same time, and was assigned to the local underground SS Company in Vienna. By 1937, he had been promoted to Oberscharführer (Staff Sergeant), and when Germany annexed Austria in 1938, the Austrian SS was integrated into the German SS, with Goeth becoming a member of SS-Standarte (Regiment) 11, in Vienna. In 1941, he was commissioned Untersturmführer (Second Lieutenant). In August 1942, Goeth was appointed a regular SS Officer in the Concentration Camp Service, and on February 11, 1943, he was assigned to construct the Plaszow Forced Labor Camp, using Jews from the nearby Krakow ghetto. A month later, the camp was completed and the Krakow ghetto was closed down. During the liquidation of the ghetto, nearly 2,000 Jews were killed, of whom Goeth personally shot several. In the following year, Goeth was ordered to close the ghettos at Podgorze (Tarnow) and Szebnie, Poland, eliminating the Jewish population by either absorbing them into the Plaszow camp or shipping them to the Auschwitz extermination camp. On April 20, 1944, Goeth was directly promoted to the rank of Hauptsturmführer (SS Captain), skipping the rank of Obersturmführer (First Lieutenant). Over the two years that he administered the Plaszow Forced Labor Camp, Goeth is believed to have personally executed over 500 Jews himself, many by summary execution for working too slowly. In November 1944, Goeth was arrested and charged with theft of Jewish property, which according to Nazi law, belonged to the Nazi government. While awaiting trial, he was assigned to the SS Camp at Bad Tölz, Germany, where he was diagnosed with acute diabetes and mental illness. Eventually the theft charges were dismissed, but Goeth remained in the Bad Tölz sanitarium, where American troops arrested him in May 1945. At the time of his arrest by American authorities, he claimed that he had been promoted to Sturmbannführer (SS Major) in the Concentration Camp Service, but there is little evidence in writing to support the claim. Goeth was turned over to the Russian Occupation Army in Poland, where he was tried before the Polish Supreme National Tribunal at Krakow, and found guilty of war crimes in the murder of approximately ten thousand people (the exact number of his victims may never be known). He was hanged on September 13, 1946 at the age of 37. Following his hanging, his body was cremated and the remains disposed of in the nearby Weichsel River. In her 2002 book "Ich muss doch meinen Vater lieben, oder?" (I must love my father, mustn't I), Goeth's daughter, Monika Kalder, discusses the close loving relationship he had with her mother and mistress, Ruth Irene Kalder, who loved Goeth until her death in 1983. (Bio by Kit and Morgan Benson)