Jennifer Teege shocked by relation to Nazi Amon Goeth
CBC Radio | Posted: April 15, 2015 12:11 PM | Last Updated: April 17, 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