156. Amon Göth - The Butcher of Płaszów

Summary

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Who Did What Now — Episode 156: Amon Göth – The Butcher of Płaszów

Host: Katie Charlwood
Date: August 19, 2025

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Episode Overview

Katie Charlwood continues her examination of Nazi concentration camps, focusing this episode on the notorious SS officer Amon Göth, commandant of the Płaszów concentration camp — infamously depicted in "Schindler’s List." Charlwood explores Göth’s upbringing, rise within the Nazi party, reign of terror at Płaszów, and eventual capture and trial, contextualizing his actions within the broader machinery of the Holocaust. The episode tackles the grim realities of Holocaust history and discusses challenges around Holocaust education, personal tolls of such research, and the importance of remembering all victims.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Emotional Toll of Holocaust History

(01:54–07:43)

• Charlwood reflects on her personal struggles researching and presenting Holocaust history:

  "There’s no way to go through all of that and not be affected. It’s, there’s no way, you have to be like devoid of emotion and empathy." (02:38)

• She addresses audience reactions and misunderstandings about discussing non-Jewish victims and handling sensitive historical narratives:

  "The guy was literally called a Holocaust hijacker for talking about disabled people being the first group to be murdered en masse by the Nazis…" (05:35)

2. Barriers to Holocaust Education

(06:30–07:29)

• Charlwood emphasizes the lack of accessible, people-centered Holocaust education, noting that many documentaries focus on military aspects (“tanks and the Luftwaffe”) rather than the lived reality of victims and ghettos.
• She stresses the importance of sharing this lesser-known history despite personal and social backlash.

3. Göth’s Early Life and Nazi Indoctrination

(09:39–14:49)

• Amon Göth’s background:
  • Born December 11, 1908, Vienna, to an upper-middle-class family.
  • He was expected to take over the family’s publishing business but became alienated and rebellious.
• Path to radicalization:
  • Joined Nazi youth and paramilitary groups in adolescence.
  • Charlwood lampoons Göth’s self-justification:

    "If your response to loneliness is to become a Nazi, well, you’ve got some huge fucking issues, okay?" (14:58)

4. Rise in Nazi Ranks and Early Activities

(15:22–21:00)

• Göth worked his way through Nazi organizations (Brownshirts, SS), earning promotions.
• Legal trouble in Austria for “Nazi shit” (acts of terrorism and smuggling arms); fled after the failed assassination of Chancellor Dollfuss in 1934.
• Returned after the Anschluss (German annexation of Austria), leveraging Nazi dominance for career advancement.

5. Nazi Ideology: Eugenics and Family Life

(21:02–24:39)

• SS officers (including Göth) were required to marry and procreate for the “Aryan race.”
• Göth's arranged marriage and family highlighted, with an ironic tone:

  "He meets a 23-year-old, Anna Gega, at a motorcycle race and after making her spit in a cup... Like, yeah, you’ll do, and decides to marry her." (22:26)

6. Göth’s War-Time Role and Płaszów Command

(24:39–27:38)

• Göth took administrative and later operational roles in occupied Poland, joining Operation Reinhard (the murder of Jews in Poland).
• Promoted to commandant of Płaszów in February 1943 — known for both bureaucratic efficiency and unrestrained violence.

7. Atrocities and “The God of Płaszów”

(28:54–36:30)

• Göth ruled through terror:

  "When the first prisoners arrived at the camp, he told them, 'I am your God.'" (28:54)

• Executions and murders were routine and arbitrary:
  • Shot prisoners for trivialities (soup too hot, walking too slowly, being too tall).
  • Trained dogs to attack and kill at his command.
  • Oversaw liquidation of ghettos, personally murdering dozens.
  • Looted property for personal enrichment.
• Charlwood highlights the depth of sadism and corruption permeating both Göth and the broader SS structure.

8. Relationship with Oskar Schindler

(36:30–38:24)

• Göth accepted bribes from Schindler, which gave Schindler’s Jewish factory workers somewhat better treatment.
• Discussed the dynamic of corruption and self-preservation among Nazi officers.

9. Crackdown and Downfall

(39:50–44:45)

• In 1944, Göth was relieved of his post and arrested by the SS for theft and excessive brutality (ironically, stealing from the Reich, not for his violence).
• His final months included divorce from his wife, relationships with various women, and attempts to conceal his loot.

10. Capture, Trial, and Execution

(44:45–47:12)

• Arrested by US military in Bavaria in 1945, after a period of hiding and being overlooked in post-war chaos.
• Identified by a survivor; extradited to Poland:
  • Tried and convicted as the first person at a war crimes trial for homicide, not just abstract war crimes.
  • His only defense: "I was only following orders." (47:25)
  • Executed by hanging on September 13, 1946; ashes scattered in a river.
  • Charlwood’s closing reflection:

    "Honestly, I think [cremation and river disposal] was a little too good for him. But here we are." (47:44)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the weight of Holocaust research:

  "My own mother phoned me because she was genuinely concerned for my mental well-being...There is no way to go through all of that and not be affected." (02:38)

• On denial and historical reality:

  "How can you believe that every single nation in the world...agrees that the Holocaust is a factual historical event? Nobody can agree on anything, right?" (05:09)

• On Nazi opportunism:

  "If your response to loneliness is to become a Nazi, well, you’ve got some huge fucking issues, okay?" (14:58)

• On arbitrary executions:

  "He had killed prisoners for serving him soup that was too hot because he couldn’t just blow on it..." (33:18)

• On the concentration of power:

  "He had complete authority over everything, especially at this point...He had free reinforcements to do as he pleased. And he did." (29:12)

• On historical recognition:

  "He is the first person in a war crimes trial to be convicted of homicide." (46:26)

• On the hopelessness of the material:

  "There’s no way to like it. That’s fucking horrible." (48:48)

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Timestamps for Significant Segments

• [01:54–07:43]: Reflections on personal/emotional toll of Holocaust history and public misunderstandings.
• [09:39–14:49]: Göth’s biography: from privileged childhood to Nazi enlistment.
• [21:02–23:41]: Nazi eugenics and SS marriage expectations.
• [27:38–31:25]: Atrocities at Płaszów; Göth's “God complex”; liquidation of ghettos and mass murder.
• [36:30–38:24]: Bribery and Oskar Schindler’s interaction with Göth.
• [39:50–44:45]: Göth’s removal, charges of corruption, collapse of Nazi power.
• [44:45–47:44]: Capture, trial in Krakow, execution.
• [47:44–48:48]: Closing remarks on the end of Göth and personal reflections on confronting history.

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Tone and Style

Katie Charlwood’s narration blends deadpan humor, expletive-laced commentary, and historical rigor. She often uses sarcasm to highlight atrocities and underline the absurdity of Nazi logic, all the while maintaining deep respect for victims. The frequent asides and pop culture references (e.g., "burlesque loving, girly"; "I like Murder, She Wrote and the Coconut Grove") lighten the grimness just enough to make the material accessible, but never trivialize the suffering described.

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Conclusion

This episode offers a comprehensive, uncompromising look at Amon Göth’s life and the horror he inflicted at Płaszów — threaded with sobering commentary on the difficulties of Holocaust education and remembrance. With accessible explanations and a blend of approachable and hard-hitting language, Katie Charlwood provides both a history lesson and a call to remember the depths of Nazi atrocity.

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Transcript

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[Katy Charlwood]

Hello, delicious friends, and welcome to who did what Now? The history podcast. That's not your history class with me, your host, Katy Charlwood, history harlot and reader of books. So remember last week when I was saying about the different ways that people perceive me? Like, if they've seen me for the first time doing this Nazi concentration camp series, or if they've known me for a long time or watched me for a long time. And the people who have seen me for the first time are like, you're.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

So animated and perky and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[Katy Charlwood]

And anyone who's watched me for any length of time or anyone who knows me personally is like, girl, are you okay? Because like, we can see that this is really taken out on you.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

We see how withdrawn.

[Katy Charlwood]

Well, yeah, how like, like muted you are, how low your tone is. Like, how this is affecting you. Like, to the point. My own mother phoned me because she was genuinely concerned for my mental well being. Like, she was worried that this whole Nazi concentration camp series was taking a toll on my mental health. Now here's the thing, there's no way to look at this information. There's no way to go through it and to write it out and research it and look at, you know, the photographic evidence and listen to the survivor testimonies. There is no way to go through all of that and not be affected. It's, there's no way, you have to be like devoid of emotion and empathy. And because I studied this for six, no, seven ish years, I have actively avoided going deep into it because I know how bad it is. But there are so many people out there who don't know like most parts.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Of this, like there, I mean it's a huge, huge topic.

[Katy Charlwood]

It's very deep, it's very, it's very, it's multi layered and there are spider grams upon spider grams and there's no way to cover it all without like.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Years, years of discussing it.

[Katy Charlwood]

But I am doing my best to provide context and a full comprehensive understanding of what is happening. And that's what I'm really doing with those videos on social media.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

And there are so many people out.

[Katy Charlwood]

There who do understand what led to, to the Holocaust, the build up. They don't understand, you know, how it grew, they don't understand how the network existed. And the only thing they know is 6 million Jewish people were murdered. That's the only information they have. And that is the only constant that I've managed to find apart from within the Holocaust deniers who are their own disgusting little bucket of fish. Holocaust deniers are fairly simple to shut down at the best of times because how can you have less cognitive skills than a ham sandwich? Because how can you believe that every single nation in the world, or at least almost every single nation in the world, agrees that the Holocaust is a factual historical event? Nobody can agree on anything, right? How can you think it's a lie? And they all agreed because nobody can agree like what came first, the chicken or the egg? And is a Jaffa cake a cake or a biscuit? No, nobody can agree on it. And you think everybody did. No, no, that's ridiculous. And like, but yeah, they are their own thing. But something I've noticed happen, especially in recent days is the accusation that talking about non Jewish victims of the Holocaust or at least other victims of the Holocaust is somehow anti Semitic. The guy was literally called a Holocaust hijacker for talking about disabled people being the first group to be murdered en masse by the Nazis in action. T4 like what in the ableism, motherfucker. Like if you're Watching my entire concentration camp series and your first thought is, wow, that's anti Semitic. I genuinely believe that you need a medical intervention. Like you need a psychological evaluation, because something is not right there. But anyway, not only am I like, dealing with this horrific subject matter, but I'm being attacked from all angles. And then, of course, there's always some arsehole who's like, complaining about how I dress or my weight or some other nonsense, and it's like, can you please shut the fuck up?

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Okay? Please. And honestly, I just.

[Katy Charlwood]

I'm tired and I'm exhausted and this is fucking stressful.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

But here's the thing.

[Katy Charlwood]

A lot of this information isn't accessible. It's not easy to find. Not necessarily. And unless you know what you're looking for, you might not be able to find it. And so there are a lot of barriers to education anyway. And half the stuff I get is from like, archives, scholarly articles, journals, other languages, you know, propaganda, misinformation, and reading through that as well. That's what I do, you know? And again, there's so much barriers to this information and to education. If not me telling you this, if not me finding a way to share this with you, then who? Nearly every history documentary that is out there is about fucking tanks and the Luftwaffe.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

You know what I mean?

[Katy Charlwood]

It's about those things. Not about people. Not about the camp systems themselves.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Not really.

[Katy Charlwood]

Not ever. And I know this has taken a toll, but I promised. I promised that I would continue doing this until the end of August. And I'm gonna fucking do it. And I'm not gonna stop. And anyway, I know what you're thinking.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

You're Katy.

[Katy Charlwood]

Katie. It's been almost six minutes. Quit your jibble jabber and fact me.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

In fact, you are well. But first we've got to get our source on. Our sources are forgotten. Trials of the Holocaust by Michael J. Beisler. The Invented and the Real Historiographical Notes on Schindler's List by Michael Wildt and Pamela Selvin. Adjusting to the Techniques of Neutralization and the Holocaust by Alexander Alvarez. The Economic Puzzle of Oskar Amenity. Potential and Rational Choice by Ray Jones. Trial of Hobstommel, Amon, Leopold Gut From Law Reports of Trials of War Criminals. The United nations war crime commissions Volume 7 Prosecution of Nazi Crimes in Poland by Andrzej Zulowinski. Death as a Master from the Life and Deeds of Amon Leopold Gut by Johann Saxlena.

[Katy Charlwood]

SS Service Record of Amon Gut by National Archives and Records Administration. Guaco Boazhov Main Camp the Encyclopedia of.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945 the United States.

[Katy Charlwood]

Holocaust Memorial and Museum. Schindler's True Stories of the List Survivors.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

By Eleanor Bucher Amon Gut, the Hunter.

[Katy Charlwood]

Of Concentration Camp Puzhov by Bartosz Velinsky the Graov Ghetto and the Pozhov Camp Remembered by Malvina Graf.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

And of course, we have resources from.

[Katy Charlwood]

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Holocaust Encyclopedia, the Holocaust Historical Society.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Are you sitting comfortably?

[Katy Charlwood]

Good.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Then let's begin. The man who would go on to earn the moniker the Butcher of Pozhov was born Amon leopold gut on 11.

[Katy Charlwood]

December 1908 in Vienna, which at the time was the capital of the Austria Hungarian Empire. He was born to Amon Franz Gut, the owner of a Publishing House, A&Berta Svendgut. Now, Amon, he was the only child of the upper middle class couple and.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Was expected to live quite a comfortable life, take over the family business and continue printing military books, religious pamphlets and postcards. He attended a Catholic school and then went on to an agricultural college, of all things. But this was not to be. He only lasted there a couple of months. So, like, by the time he is a teenager, right, by the time he's starting this college, his country has changed. So the Austria Hungarian Empire, it was the second largest country in Europe. It had a dual monarchy, and it was. It was huge, right?

[Katy Charlwood]

And it was very expansive to the point that if you have seen the Sound of Music and you think to yourself, geez, how was Captain von Trapp a navy captain in a landlocked country? And that is a fair question if you don't know the history of Austria. So initially it was a massive area.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

And it was disassembled after the First World War. So there was a coast, right? So it had covered, like, Slovenia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Austria, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and also parts of Romania, Poland, Ukraine, Serbia and Italy.

[Katy Charlwood]

So there was a lot of space.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

That was covered by, you know, this empire. But of course, after its involvement in the First World War, things split up, right? And for Goode, this would have happened during his sort of childhood, adolescence.

[Katy Charlwood]

Like, the country would have changed as he grew up in it. And at the age of 17, after he left the agricultural college, which was like, near the Czech border, if I'm not mistaken. So he ends up joining a Nazi.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Youth group, and he's with them for two years before he joins the Himveh.

[Katy Charlwood]

The Home Guard, right?

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

So this is a nationalist paramilitary group, and he ends up being A member for three years. And so this particular home guard, it was for lack of a better term, a rabidly anti Semitic branch. And he was, he was a membership of it, but he dropped that in order to join the Austrian brand of the Nazi party.

[Katy Charlwood]

So after the Wall street crash happened, the Nazi party grew exponentially in Germany. It went from like 5% of the votes to I think like 45. It might not be 45 exactly, but it just, it jumped and it was massive. And the Austrian branch decided that it was going to try and get other fascist groups to merge to like sort of build this momentum, but it didn't happen.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

And so then the Nazis say, well, you can either be part of us or not part of us.

[Katy Charlwood]

Like your loyalty has to be to us alone.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

And so that's how they basically set it up. And so in September 1930, he was assigned the party membership number 510764. So he applies in 1930 to like become like an SS, but he doesn't actually get anything for another two years because it's not until he's 24 that he actually manages to join the Schutzstaffel and gets his SS number 43763. So when gut actually joins the Nazis, this is before Hitler's rise to power. And because of this he's known as.

[Katy Charlwood]

An Alte Kampfa or an old fighter, which we'll get back to all that in a wee second.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

But growing up Gut, he's basically isolated, right?

[Katy Charlwood]

He was raised by his aunt mainly.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Which was not unusual for the time. What was unusual was that the reason for this was because his father was traveling as a publishing mogul and his mother was running the business in Vienna in his absence. So he's being raised by his aunt, he's an only child. He apparently doesn't have any friends whoms to say why that is. Here's the thing, here's the thing.

[Katy Charlwood]

He talks about this being like a big factor in his life. Like he tells this to his mistress, right?

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

And here's the thing, being an only.

[Katy Charlwood]

Child might be lonely, but. But if your response to loneliness is to become a Nazi, well, you've got.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Some huge fucking issues, okay? Like, like. And he would like tell his mistress as well that he joined the Nazi.

[Katy Charlwood]

Party to oppose his parents bourgeois life. Like, all right, I ain't the rebel without a clue, mate. You're just a teenager with an attitude problem and a desperate need for attention and belonging.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Like, he wants power. Like his parents tried to get him to go to like, proper schooling and to get proper educated. And he's like, no, I'm gonna go to an agricultural college. And it's like, how's that gonna help you become a publishing mogul? He's like, no, no books for me. So he's working his way up the Nazi ladder. He starts as a member of the AC as the brownshirts, then he moves into the SS. So he was promoted in 1933 to Zugfuhrer of the 52nd SS Standant. Then he was promoted again to SS Scherfderer.

[Katy Charlwood]

So other Nazis, they thought he was swell, but the authorities were not happy with him doing Nazi shit. Like, you know, purchasing bombs for Nazi activities.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

See, Austria had declared the Nazi party illegal on the 19th of June, 1933. And so the party just says, like, fuck this for a game of soldiers, and sets up shop in Munich.

[Katy Charlwood]

It's like, to Bavaria, right?

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

And gut.

[Katy Charlwood]

He would smuggle weapons and radios and, like, act as a mule, sorry, act.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

As a carrier for the ss.

[Katy Charlwood]

And so he gets arrested in October, but he's released two months later for lack of evidence. See, the Austrian government under Chancellor Encobert Dollfuss was incredibly anti Nazi. And after the attempted Nazi uprising in February 1934, Dollfuss established a new constitution that basically gave him ultimate power, although.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

He didn't actually live long enough to do anything with that power because he was assassinated in a failed Naz on the 25th of July that year. So, like, a couple months later. And most historians agree that Gutt played a part in at least planning the assassination. He was again detained, but managed to evade execution somehow and flee to Germany. Where? Well, I'm glad you asked, because I'll tell you. To the SS training facility in Dachau. Yes. Next to the Dachau concentration camp, where he tried to advance but ended up leaving because he butted heads with his Oberfeuhrer Alfred Beigler. So there he is effectively banished from his home country because, you know, he joined an evil fascist group and tried to do evil fascist things and then did not get on with his evil fascist boss because they had different evil fascist ideas.

[Katy Charlwood]

So what does he do?

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Well, what any man standing on his own two feet would do. He goes to work for his parents publishing business in Munich, and he gets married due to pressure from his parents, because they're like, what are you doing? Get married, get a job. And so he marries Olga Janusik, and shocker, they get divorced after only a few months of marriage. Color me surprised. Meanwhile, the Austrian government Under Kurt Sushnik maintains the anti Nazi stance and Austrian Nazi members, they would just decline like those numbers were dropping. But there was a storm brewing on the horizon.

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[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Yeah, finance.

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[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

See, it all changed after the Anschluss when Germany Goose stepped in and took over Austria. Now you'll hear words pallid about like annexed or occupied, like such innocuous terms.

[Katy Charlwood]

For invade and take over. But before the Anschluss, like before all that happened.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Like in fairness, just the year before, Gut had rejoined the Nazis because he'd.

[Katy Charlwood]

Left in, what was it, 34 and.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

He rejoins in 37. So he returns to being an SS member and had even written to the Austrian refugee society and requested that his Nazi party membership be transferred from Austria to Munich.

[Katy Charlwood]

But it was after the Anschluss that Gut could actually return back to Austria without fear of being arrested, you know.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

For doing Nazi shit.

[Katy Charlwood]

And so here he was at 28.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Years old and wanting to advance in his career and just be a good Nazi. And what is the core belief?

[Katy Charlwood]

Like what is the core of the Nazi belief system? If you guessed eugenics, you guessed right. See, Heinrich Himmler, the head of the.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

SS issued a directive that all SS men between the ages of 25 and.

[Katy Charlwood]

30 were, were to get married and start having children. Well, their wives would start having children.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

This was to ensure that they would produce a generation of ideal German citizens.

[Katy Charlwood]

Mass reproduction and replacements to create the so called Aryan race.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Because like the Nazis, I mean they.

[Katy Charlwood]

Co opted the term Aryan and were.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Like blonde haired, blue eyed, physically fit. Ooh, definitely are the ultimate humans.

[Katy Charlwood]

Like we're talking eugenics, we're talking phrenology, for God's sakes. Like what?

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Phrenology.

[Katy Charlwood]

Life's bad when phrenology comes into the conversation.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

So he meets a 23 year old, Anna Giga at a motorcycle race and.

[Katy Charlwood]

After making her spit in the cup.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

He'S like, yeah, you'll do, and decides to marry her.

[Katy Charlwood]

Like all SS men and their prospective.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Brides, the couple had to pass a.

[Katy Charlwood]

Set of stringent physical tests and interviews admitted by the SS to determine the suitability of the marriage.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

So, like they had to answer all.

[Katy Charlwood]

These questions about being a good German, being a good Nazi, and they also.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Had to do all these like physical.

[Katy Charlwood]

Tests to ensure that they were in peak physical fitness. They wanted to make sure that they were strong and healthy so that they could procreate more little Nazis.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

So they were wed in an SS.

[Katy Charlwood]

Civil ceremony on 23rd October 1938, and.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

They would go on to have three children in quick succession. Peter was born in 1939, but died.

[Katy Charlwood]

Of diphtheria at seven months old. Werner was born in 1940 and their daughter Ingberg followed in 1941. So they had a permanent residence in Vienna and Anna stayed there with the kids while Gut would spend most of.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

The war in Poland.

[Katy Charlwood]

So back in Austria, like he's quickly rising through the ranks of the SS. He's promoted to Unterstuff in 1941 and.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

He had been drafted right into the Wehrmacht. But, well, that's the weird thing, right?

[Katy Charlwood]

He's drafted into the Wehrmacht, like the actual, like army.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

But his SS service record shows that.

[Katy Charlwood]

He did not actively serve in the Wehrmacht. Like there is no record of him serving because of everything else he's doing. Like, he's not doing boots on the ground, military stuff. No, instead he's an Einsatfuhrer and a financial officer in the Katowicz office for the Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationhood.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Now that's the English version. There was a German version, but I'm.

[Katy Charlwood]

Already struggling with my throat and so.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

I'm not putting myself through that particular one. Screw it, let's give it a go.

[Katy Charlwood]

The Reichskommissel ver de Fistergung Deutschen Volksstung. Yeah, there we go. There we go. It was responsible for the return and resettlement of the German diaspora. Right, that's, that's what that is. It's basically trying to get German people who live abroad Back home, which is.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Like, on the face of it, it's.

[Katy Charlwood]

Like, oh, that sounds nice. But unfortunately, in order to do that, what they had to do was displace the people who were already living there and anyone that they felt was alien or foreign to the land that they believed was theirs.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

This included moving people that they didn't.

[Katy Charlwood]

Feel belonged in those areas, you know, into camps, ghettos, or just straight up murdering them. Now, I'm sure we can all agree that those actions are horrific and a terrible thing to do. Anyway, in 1942, he joined Operation Reinhard, which was a scheme to murder Jewish people in German occupied Poland. In the summer, he was transferred to Lublin, where he worked under Odino Klobonik himself, the SS brigadier, an Austrian Nazi charged with a senior role in the construction and expanding of three death. Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Now, due to the highly secretive nature.

[Katy Charlwood]

Of this possession, like there isn't a paper trail, like there are scratches and scratches, but there's no full paper trail to this. So we don't know exactly Goode's actions or roles during the six month, like he was there involved in this operation.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

The only thing we can be sure of is that he was responsible for rounding up victims and transporting them to the camps to be murdered. And so he is really taking on board, like Klobochnik's like way of doing things.

[Katy Charlwood]

So Klobonik had a way of combining untold cruelty with basic greed and corruption. He saw Klobochnik lining his pockets and.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

He was inspired by 1943. Goethe had clearly impressed his sociopathic superiors.

[Katy Charlwood]

And he was promoted to Haupsturmflower and he was assigned to the SS Totenkopfwande unit, the Death Head. And on the 11th of February that year, Gutt became the commandant of the Pozhev concentration camp.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Before he even stepped foot in Krakow.

[Katy Charlwood]

His reputation preceded him as the bloody dog of Lublin. Good news travels fast, bad news travels faster. His first task as commandant was to.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Oversee the camp's construction on a 200 acre site.

[Katy Charlwood]

And because they wanted to amplify the suffering and really rub salt in the wind. This site was to be built over two Jewish cemeteries. And like most camps, it was built using slave labor, effectively using victims to build their own prisons in order to create this camp and to streamline everything. Because remember, the Nazis weren't just evil, they were also evil bureaucrats. And so they had a very well organized system. So the Krakow ghetto was liquidated with those too weak to work transported to extermination camps or simply murdered in the streets. And within weeks, because of the gruelling labor that was forced, that it was a fully operational labour camp.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Just in case you were unsure if Amon Gut was a megalomaniac, when the first prisoners arrived at the camp, he told them, I am your God. And in the camp, he had complete.

[Katy Charlwood]

Authority over everything, especially at this point. At the beginning, he had no one to answer to. There was no one to clip his wings or nip it in the bud. He had free reinforcements to do as he pleased. And he did.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

As well as being the commandant of.

[Katy Charlwood]

Pozhov, he had other responsibilities, like he.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Was tasked with liquidating nearby ghettos, so on and so forth. Now, this wasn't just rounding people up and putting them on trains. This was violent. Like, this was aggressive and terrifying. And anyone not killed immediately, like they were shipped off to a camp. You know, again, those fit for work, they were sent to labor camps, like a lot of them just ended up in Pozhov. And those who couldn't, those who were deemed unfit to work, too weak, too ill, they were sent to extermination camps. And sometimes when they were rounded up in the square, they would just be shot. And Amon Gut personally murdered Jewish victims in these roundups himself. See, here's the thing. The Tarnow ghetto, it held almost half the city's population, like entire population.

[Katy Charlwood]

And that was almost 25,000 Jewish people.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

10,000 were sent to Poitou for slave.

[Katy Charlwood]

Labour, with 8,000 being sent on to Auschwitz.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

And the rest, they were simply shot where they stood, with Goode executing up to 90 women and children himself. And then as he was liquidating the ghettos, he looted the homes, taking jewellery, clothes, furniture and anything not nailed down. And then he sold them on the black market. He did keep some of his favourite thefts for himself, but he made himself rich selling the rest.

[Katy Charlwood]

What a corrupt Nazi. I know you're shocked.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

So here's an interesting fact to remember as a member of the ss, acting on behalf of the ss, that loot was considered property of the Reich.

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[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

As commandant of Brasov, he was drunk with power.

[Katy Charlwood]

He carried out executions on an almost daily basis.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

And the threat, not just that, but.

[Katy Charlwood]

The unknown threat, the fact that it could happen at any time, that adds to the terror of the situation because.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

You'Re never knowing when he was going to strike. Sometimes he'd order subordinates to perform the executions and other times he'd just do it himself. Like he had killed prisoners for serving him soup that was too hot because he couldn't just blow on it. Or wait a minute. Another was killed because he dared to look him in the eye. And another was walking too slowly. One time he shot a man for being too tall. And as he lay dying on the ground, he urinated on him. Now, Pua, it didn't have gas chambers or crematoria, so most of these victims, they were just shot dead. And Gutte, he was known to stand on the balcony of his villa at the camp and shoot prisoners with his rifle. Like he had this villa with a balcony. And he would ride his horse, like in and out of the camp. He didn't just use his rifle, he didn't just use a pistol, he didn't just shoot. Like that wasn't his modus operandi 100% of the time. He also had two large dogs, Rolf, a Great Dane, and Ralph, an Alsatian mix. Now, is he an Alsatian mix or is he a German shepherd mix? Listen, it's the same dog, a German shepherd, as an Alsatian. I think I discussed this before in a previous episode, but yeah, everywhere I.

[Katy Charlwood]

See it, it says Alsatian.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

And I'm like, I feel like if.

[Katy Charlwood]

There was ever an appropriate time to call it a German shepherd, this would.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Be the appropriate time. Now, I'm fairly certain that the dog, he was like Alsatian mixed with Great Dane because he looks kinda Danish. But anyway, these massive dogs, they had been trained to torture prisoners on command. Like he would set them on people and watch them tear them apart. Like he would watch these dogs just like tear into these prisoners. And just to add another layer of horrible onto this, like he Got jealous of the Jewish dog handler because he thought the dogs liked him better. So he had the dog handler killed. So it was about this time that he meets Oskar Schindler, who, if you.

[Katy Charlwood]

Don'T know who he is, he's a.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

German industrialist who owned an enamelware factory nearby. And so he had discovered that Goot had an Achilles heel. Isaiah heel? Heels. More than one really, because he loved flattery, he loved like presents, especially fancy presents. And also was rather fond of bribery. And so Oskar Schindler, he had been a member of the Nazi party. And initially he had hired Jewish workers because he could underpay them and make more money for himself. And then over time, he came to the realization that Jewish people were people too. So Schindler, he bribes Goethe. And in return, Schindler's workers were kept in separate barracks. And they didn't receive like the same level of cruelty. Like there was like some protection for them. Like they were prisoners being used for slave labor.

[Katy Charlwood]

But they had it slightly less bad than the other prisoners being used for slave labor.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

So, like, as the Red army is approaching towards Poland, Schindler convinced Goot to allow him to move his factory and his 1200 workers to Berlinjitz in Czechoslovakia. And one of the reason that Gutt agrees to this is because he thought he could use it to cover his black market tracks. So he thought he could, like, take some of the stolen, like, Jewish goods from, you know, where he looted from all their homes and from, you know.

[Katy Charlwood]

Them coming into the camp.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Because if you come from the camp and you're coming from a ghetto a like just a living situation that is not another camp and you have anything of value on you, like that man's gonna take it, like he's, he's gonna steal it. And so in early May 1944, Gutt was told that 10,000 Hungarian Jewish people would be imprisoned in Pozhov. Now, the camp numbers had risen steadily and they weren't really executing them as.

[Katy Charlwood]

As quickly because they weren't doing it on mass, right?

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

It wasn't happening.

[Katy Charlwood]

And so there was just a lot.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Of people like men, women and children in this camp. And in order to create space and this ever growing population, he ordered that all children in the camp would be moved to the kindergarten. And on the 14th of May, most of those children, like nearly all of them, were deported to Auschwitz for extermination. See, in early 1944, the Pozhov camp status changed from a labour camp to a concentration camp. Under the SS Economics and Administration's office.

[Katy Charlwood]

This made it one of 13 official.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Concentration camps in Poland. And because the SS were now in charge of the camp, the camp was under closer scrutiny, which meant the corruption was not really going to go unnoticed for much longer. And it didn't. On 13 December 1944, gut was removed from his position of camp commandant at Boasov and was charged by the SS with theft of Jewish property because remember, according to Nazi regulations, this belonged to the state. He was also charged with violation of concentration camp regulations regarding the treatment of and punishment of prisoners and allowing unauthorized access to camp personnel records. Basically he was charged with corruption and brutality. Like another thing he did like that I don't think I mentioned actually was he sold rations like he sold food rations and was therefore underfeeding the prisoners. Now from the perspective of like the.

[Katy Charlwood]

Administration, like their idea was like, if.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

You'Re not giving them the allocated rations.

[Katy Charlwood]

They'Re not going to be strong enough.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

To work enough to do what we.

[Katy Charlwood]

Need them to do.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Oh, and another thing I may have failed to have mentioned is that his wife Anna, she divorced him because of his plethora of affairs, including one with Ruth Irene Calder, one of Oskar Schindler's secretaries. Right. She was a secretary in his factory. And yeah, they met at dinner and next thing you know they're boinking, which, I mean, this man shoots people for walking slowly and you're gonna, you're gonna boink this man. Really, Ruth make better choices. Anyway, he was held in Breslau for about a month. But because of the fast approaching end of World War II and the Nazis inevitable defeat looming in the air, the charges were dropped because they were like, we don't have time for this right now. And so he is skirting around Central Europe like he is running about. His primary concern is getting his hands on his ill gotten wealth from his corruption at pie. So he had goods shipped from like eastern Poland and he tried to retrieve some of this at Oskar Schindler's new factory. Like he's trying to get like his stolen Jewish loot from the ghettos that he has sent to Oskar Schindler's factory with the intent of collecting it from Oskar Schindler. Now in a crazy random happenstance like he goes and he tries to get it and then he's suddenly in excruciating pain. Like he's got this acute stomach pain. It's happened all of a sudden and it's just from nowhere. So he gets sent to an SS hospital. Like he's like just in a lot of Pain. Like, an abnormal amount of pain. And when he gets there, the doctors diagnose him as mentally ill. And so he is committed to a mental institution in Bad Toles in Bavaria. And in Bad Toles, he was arrested by the US military in May, in 1945. So, you know, the Allies are coming in. You've got the Red army on one side. You've got, like, US forces coming in from the top. Like, everyone's coming in from all angles. And so may 1945, like, the US military show up and they're like. And when they arrest him, he's wearing a Wehrmacht uniform, which he clearly went and found. Like, they're not putting patients in military attire. Like, that's not a thing. Like, he's wearing this uniform. And he doesn't admit to being ss.

[Katy Charlwood]

Like, completely blanks it.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

But they arrest him anyway, and he is sent to a temporary prison camp in Dachau. And they lose him. Like, they lose him amongst the prisoner population, and he's just gone. And it takes a former inmate of Pozhov to identify him so that he can be taken to trial. So there's this prisoner of Paozhov who goes on to become a Nazi hunter, and he is going through the camp anyway, and he recognizes this guy. And then he gets other prisoners to confirm that he is, in fact Amon Gut. Like, they do it. And so he's identified, and he is extradited to Poland, where the new government has been set up. And he is tried by the Supreme National Tribunal in Krakow between 27 August and 5 September, 1946. It is here that he is convicted of membership to the Nazi Party, which had been made illegal. Actually, at this time, they decided it's illegal to be a member of the Nazi Party. And so he's convicted of that. He is convicted of ordering the torture and imprisonment of people and of all things, which is interesting. Like, this is the most interesting part, like, regarding to, like, the actual just conviction of trials.

[Katy Charlwood]

Like, not his entire story because he's.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

A bastard, but he is convicted of homicide, right? This is the first such conviction at a war crimes trial. Like, he is the first person in a war crimes trial to be convicted of homicide. Like, there's other variations and other sort of like torture, abuse, but this homicide first time, like, typically when there's a war, like, when wars happen, like, death is just part of the course, you know? But this is execution. This is mass murder.

[Katy Charlwood]

It's not the same as, you know, one soldier shooting another soldier on the Battlefield, like, it's a very different, different thing.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

And, like, the only words he says in his defense, and I shit you not, proper Nuremberg trial, right? He says that he was only following orders. Sure, John, sure. His last words would actually end up being, heil Hiedla. On 13th September, 1946, at a prison which is like a stone's throw away from the site of the Pozhov camp, he is taken to the gallows and he takes a short drop in a sudden stop. He is hanged from the neck until dead. And after he dies, his body was cremated and his ashes dumped in a river, which, honestly, I think was a little too good for him. But here we are. So ends the story of the bloody dog of Lublin and the Butcher of Pozhov. So if you didn't hate me talking about history, rate and review, five stars if you. No, I'm not gonna say if you liked it, because there's no way to like it. That's fucking horrible. Follow me on socials. I'm on all of the places. I have a Patreon. I have all this stuff. And where are we now?

[Katy Charlwood]

So I'm on so many platforms. But also next month we're gonna go a bit more fun, I think next month.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

And, yeah, I just need to confirm to everybody, like, if you've listened to me for a while or you've seen me perform live, then you'll know I am a vintage, burlesque loving, girly. Okay? So I need you to understand this because I'm getting the pink diamonds corset dress from Moulin Rouge made. Okay. And I need everyone to know that this whole aesthetic is inspired by old timey burlesque and old timey showgirls and all that. And it's not inspired by Taylor Swift. Like, she can do what she wants.

[Katy Charlwood]

Good for her. But also, I'm not copying Taylor Swift.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Like, I'm just. I just like old things. I like Murder, She Wrote and the Coconut Grove. Okay. I don't know. Okay. For listening, right?

[Katy Charlwood]

If you want to get some, like, medieval Renaissance kind of history, but with, like, bite and the appropriate amount of.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Likes said in a sentence. Vulgar history is a really fun lesson. I really enjoy that. So if you listen to Anne, she's amazing. So she's someone really fun for watching. I didn't realize that Project Runway was still a thing. Like, I was unaware that it continued to exist. So that's super fun to know. So I was like, oh, Law Roach is on Project Runway. And I was like, oh, I'm not gonna see it, but it's on like Hulu and Disney plus and I was like, what? So that's gonna be my fun escapism after I filmed all this stuff. So there's that. And for reading, I got this amazing book a few months ago, and I don't think I ever recommended it to y'.

[Monday.com Advertiser (Alternate)]

All.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Like, if you get a chance to, you should definitely read the Hundred Years War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi.

[Katy Charlwood]

It is just an amazing book. It's amazing. And with that, I am going to bid you adios. Au revoir. Au revoir, my friends.

[Katy Charlwood's Co-host]

Bye Bye.

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