Amon Goeth's House

House on Jerozolimska Street where Amon Goeth lived

The photograph above, taken in 1998, shows the front of the house where Amon Goeth lived during the time that he was the Commandant of the Plaszow camp near Krakow, Poland. His mistress, who was introduced to him by Oskar Schindler, lived with him in this house.

The back of the house where Amon Goeth lived

The photo above shows a tour group at the house where Amon Goeth lived. At the top of the photo is the famous balcony from which Goeth allegedly shot prisoners at random with a high-powered rifle.

The photograph below shows another house on Jerozolimska Street, which was used as the residence of Amon Goeth in the movie, Schindler's List.

House used in the movie Schindler's List as Amon Goeth's house

The novel, Schindler's Ark, on which Spielberg's movie is based, says that Goeth stepped out of the front door of a "temporary residence" and shot prisoners at random. Later when he moved into a three-story white house on Jerozolimska Street, Goeth shot prisoners from the balcony, according to the book. In the movie, Schindler's List, Goeth is shown standing on the balcony in the rear of his house, shooting prisoners, who were not working fast enough, with a high-powered rifle. According to my tour guide, he actually shot prisoners from a hill overlooking the camp because his house was behind the hill.

The photograph below shows Goeth standing on the balcony, smoking a cigarette, and holding a rifle.

Amon Goeth holding a rifle on the balcony of his house

Goeth was married and had two children, who were living in Vienna while he was the Commandant of the Plaszow camp; his wife divorced him in 1944. He had been previoulsy married and his first wife had divorced him in 1934, according to a book entitled "Schindler," written by David Crowe. Like Oskar Schindler, whose wife did not accompany him to Krakow, Goeth took a mistress, Ruth Irene Kalder, who was one of Oskar Schindler's secretaries. Goeth lived lavishly and drank heavily, just like his friend Schindler, who is shown the photo below, taken several years after the war.

Oskar Schindler

Goeth's mistress remained loyal to him and kept a photograph of Amon on her night table until the day she died. In an interview with a British journalist in 1983, she described Goeth as a charming man with impeccable table manners. She said that she never regretted, for one second, her relationship with Amon, which began when she was 25 years old. Kalder committed suicide the day after her interview in 1983. Allegedly, she had become distraught when she learned that the 82-minute documentary, which the journalist was making, was not just about Oskar Schindler, but would include a negative portrayal of her former lover, Amon Goeth, who was also the father of her love child, Monika, born in November 1945. Kalder was a young, beautiful woman with a slender figure, a former actress and an experienced secretary; why she chose to live with a monster like Amon Goeth remains a mystery to this day.

Photos of Amon Goeth's daughter

Scenes from Schindler's List the movie

Amon Goeth, Commandant of Plaszow


This page was last updated on March 8, 2009