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Blue_Tires

(55,445 posts)
Thu Oct 3, 2013, 02:06 PM Oct 2013

My Nazi grandfather, Amon Goeth, would have shot me

Jennifer Teege was shocked to discover her grandfather was a Nazi concentration camp commandant. Her mother never told her, and as a child she never knew her father - a Nigerian student with whom her mother had a brief affair. This is her story.

Five years ago in northern Germany, in Hamburg, I was in the central library and I came across a book. It was wrapped in a red cover and for some reason I was immediately drawn to it.

The title, translated into English, was I Have to Love My Father, Right? and it had a small picture of a woman on the front who looked faintly familiar.

So I took the book and quickly went through it. There were a lot of photos and as I looked at the book I felt something was wrong.

At the end, the author summed up some details about the woman on the cover and her family, and I realised they were a perfect match with what I knew about my own biological family.

So at that point I understood that this was a book about my family history.

The woman in the picture was my mother, and her father was Amon Goeth, the commandant of Plaszow concentration camp near Krakow.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24347798

8 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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My Nazi grandfather, Amon Goeth, would have shot me (Original Post) Blue_Tires Oct 2013 OP
wow what a life narrative gopiscrap Oct 2013 #1
That's a fascinating story! lunatica Oct 2013 #2
Very Interesting JustAnotherGen Oct 2013 #3
kick Blue_Tires Oct 2013 #4
Damn! He's the real life villain from Schindler's List. backscatter712 Oct 2013 #5
Freaking wow malaise Oct 2013 #6
Sometimes, just existing is the best revenge. nt Xipe Totec Oct 2013 #7
Damn, talk about family heritage. MicaelS Oct 2013 #8

gopiscrap

(23,761 posts)
1. wow what a life narrative
Thu Oct 3, 2013, 02:10 PM
Oct 2013

I was born in Germany, family name was Stein, I have lived the Nazi actions all my life. My mom was ill all her life, had a stroke when I was 15, lived with American prejudice as a child immigrating, but my story doesn't even compares with yours!

JustAnotherGen

(31,828 posts)
3. Very Interesting
Thu Oct 3, 2013, 02:21 PM
Oct 2013

I don't think this was ever brought up in the documentary her mom appeared in with one of Goeth's survivors/victims . . .

You might be able to catch it on Netflix too . . . http://www.pbs.org/pov/inheritance/film_description.php

I agree with her though - it's easier to learn that stuff as a kid and integrate it into your life. I.E. My great great grandfather was an Irish immigrant - who rose to the rank of Colonel in the Confederate army and was a contemporary of Longstreet. When you walk into your black grandmother's home and she shows your her grand daddy's uniform, the MS regiment flag, the old clippings and such . . . as a little kid it becomes a 'part' of you.

How chilling though - her own grandfather would indeed have shot her for WHAT she is.

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