The Road to Rescue: The Untold Story of Schindler's List by Mietek Pemper

Author:Mietek Pemper
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Holocaust, history
Publisher: Other Press
Published: 2018-05-15T04:00:00+00:00

Helena Hirsch, a former domestic servant in Göth’s villa in the camp, testified about his hubris at his 1946 trial. He had told her more than once that “when he gave an order, it was like the word of God.”72 Göth reveled in his absolute power and enjoyed intimidating people. Any inmates who could have threatened him were liquidated without further ado. He thought of himself as the “uncrowned king” of Płaszów and expected absolute obedience.

Such arrogance was typical of many SS men. They not only flaunted their power over the inmates, but also tried to outdo or trump each other as well. One day SS-Sturmbannführer Willi Haase, SS-Oberführer Julian Scherner’s chief of staff, brought his two daughters into camp headquarters and sent for a barber. Göth was not in Płaszów at the time. He and Haase couldn’t stand each other. Haase insisted on having his girls’ hair cut in Göth’s private office, where there was a long-haired sheepskin rug, dyed red, on the floor. I was scared to death that some of the cuttings would remain on this rug. If Göth found out that Willi Haase had used his office as a beauty salon for his children, there would be hell to pay. I had the floor carefully covered with towels, which I later shook out thoroughly.

I had learned one thing very quickly from the correspondence and telegrams I presorted and placed on the commandant’s desk: if you pleased him, you lived; if you didn’t, you died. I later read in the trial records of Rudolf Höss—the commandant of Auschwitz who had organized the entire machinery of murder on Himmler’s orders—that there was no evidence that Höss had personally tortured, shot, or even struck a single inmate. Göth, however, had done so repeatedly. Seen in this light, he was worse than Höss. His personal behavior was more extreme and brutal than that of other commandants. At his trial, the presiding judge asked Göth whether he had had explicit instructions from his superiors for every death sentence that had been carried out. Not in every case, answered Göth. Instead, his general guideline had been to treat prisoners severely. And besides, he hadn’t had enough reliable German personnel to work with.

As far as I am concerned, Göth was a perfect example of how the elements that make a person uniquely human—specifically one’s conscience and self-control, to say nothing of one’s compassion or empathy—can be lost. I don’t know what motivates someone to become a murderer. Göth did more than just follow the orders of his superiors. He always thought up ways to be even more cruel and merciless. Göth’s behavior seemed like the negative reflection of my own ethical convictions.

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