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Jennifer Teege shocked by relation to Nazi Amon Goeth

Jennifer Teege was in her 30s when she learned that her grandfather was the notoriously brutal Nazi concentration camp commandant Amon Goeth, that the grandmother she adored used to take his killer dogs for walks, and that she - as a biracial German - would likely have been one of his victims.
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When Jennifer Teege, a German woman, learned the true identity of her grandfather, Amon Goeth, she also learned that in a different time, he likely would have killed her. (Photo of Jennifer Teege by Thorsten Wulff)
The Current25:00My Nazi grandfather would have shot me, says Jennifer Teege - April 15, 2015

Nazi concentration camp commander, Amon Goeth, was a notoriously vicious Holocaust figure... known as the 'butcher of Płaszów'. 

When Amon Goeth was hanged in 1946 for war crimes... few mourned his death.

But Ruth Irene Kalder did.

She was Amon Goeth's mistress... and they had a daughter, Monika. And that family tree continued another generation, to Jennifer Teege.

I was a normal person and suddenly I became the granddaughter of Amon Goeth, the Nazi commandant.- Jennifer Teege

It wasn't until later in life that Jennifer Teege discovered the truth of her family tree and the real identity of her grandfather... a Nazi brute. A shock for anyone to learn, but perhaps especially so for a black woman. She tells the story in her book, "My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me: A Black Woman Discovers Her Family's Nazi Past."

Jennifer Teege joined us from New York. 


This segment was produced by The Current's Howard Goldenthal. 
 

RELATED LINKS

When a black German woman discovered her grandfather was the Nazi villain of 'Schindler's List' - Haaretz

​'My grandfather would have shot me' - Daily Mail 

How a part black German woman discovered her grandfather was a Nazi - Toronto Star

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