“Schindler’s List” is considered to be the best Holocaust movie. Steven Spielberg based it on Thomas Kenneally’s novel “Schindler’s Ark”. The book is historical fiction, but features several real persons including Oskar Schindler and Amon Goth. Ralph Fiennes gained 28 pounds to play Goth. When asked what it was like to play an evil person, he explained that he saw Goth as an example of the banality of evil. He was a man who was gradually drawn further and further into psychopathy. In the movie, Goth complains to Schindler of the pressures of his job. At one point, Schindler talks him into tapping into his humanity to forgive Jews of acts that normally would provoke him to murder. Goth tries it for a while, but it’s just not him. Fienne’s chilling performance garnered him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor and he won a BAFTA. Goth was chosen as the 15th greatest villain in movie history by the American Film Institute. How close was the character to the real person?
Goth was born in Vienna in 1908. He came from a wealthy Catholic family. He dropped out of college (he was studying agriculture) to concentrate on right-wing activities. He joined the youth chapter of the Austrian Nazi Party and then its antisemitic paramilitary. In 1930, he joined the Austrian Nazi Party. As a member of the party’s version of the SS, he was involved in illegal activities like the acquisition of explosives. He fled to Germany when his actions put him on the wanted list. He returned after the Anschluss in 1938. He was given a job involving the relocation and execution of Jews. His efficiency got him promoted to a role in Operation Reinhard which created labor camps at Sobibor, Belzec, and Treblinka.
He then oversaw the construction of Krakow-Plaszow and became its commandant. When the first Jews arrived, he told them “I am your god.” He supervised the liquidation of the Krakow ghetto. After the war, Jewish survivors testified to his personally murdering 30-90 women and children when he did the same to the ghetto in Tarnow. He sent the children in Plaszow to Auschwitz to make space for the arrival of 10,000 Hungarian Jews. His depravity is notorious. He shot random Jews from the balcony of his villa. He had two large dogs, Ralf and Rolf, who were trained to kill. He once shot a cook because the soup was too hot. He had two maids who he brutalized. Unlike in the movie, he did not have any romantic feelings toward either.
In 1944, he was accused of theft of Jewish property (the personal effects belonged to the Third Reich), inadequate food for the inmates, and overly harsh treatment. He was too evil even for the Nazis! The charges were dropped because the war situation got so bad. He ended up in a mental institute which was where he was arrested by the US military. He was put on trial and became the first Nazi to be convicted on homicide. He was hanged on September 13, 1946.
I hate to disagree with Ralph Fiennes, but I do not see a gradual descent into evil. I think it is clear from his teenage years, he was a sadist. The movie gives him a conscience that he did not have.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amon_G%C3%B6th
https://collider.com/ralph-fiennes-schindlers-list-amon-goth-true-story/
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