Kraków home where Nazi butcher Amon Göth tortured Jews to be a luxury mansion
The developer who owns the property, rejected offers to turn the building into a Holocaust memorial.
The house of Nazi mass murderer Amon Göth, where he shot and tortured Jews, could be turning into a luxury villa after a property developer bought the property and plans to live there with his family.
Göth, a member of the Austrian SS, was the commander of the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp. He was famously played by Ralph Fiennes in the film Schindler's List.
The SS commandant's Jewish maid Helen Jonas-Rosenzweig has spoken about the horrors perpetrated by Göth at the villa in Krakow, Poland.
"I was a prisoner in this house and a victim. I want the world to learn what happened there," she told MailOnline.
Jonas-Rosenzweig said she saw a young Jewish boy shot dead because he did not ask permission before leaving a room.
Luxurious parties were held for SS officers and Göth's mistress Ruth Irene Kalder would play loud music to block out the sounds of violence.
Jonas-Rosenzweig was haunted by memories of the Nazi commander's vicious dogs, who attacked people.
"One was black and white. He was so big," she said. "I brushed the dog, I fed the dog… He would give this order to the dog, Ralph, and it would tear people apart. Tear people apart, grab them by parts of the body."
She also recalled Göth walking around with a machine gun, looking down on labourers who were digging ditches. "He said to me, 'look at those pigs. If they don't start working in a few seconds, they are all going to be dead'."
Another maid, Helen Horowitz, reports of being sexually assaulted by the Austrian, saying she was "grabbed by the breasts" while working in the villa. "I thought he was tearing out both my breasts, he jerked me with such force."
She added: "He was a sadist, indescribable sadist… he started beating me and threw me with all his strength."
Developer Artur Niemyski, who owns the Göth property has rejected offers to turn the building into a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust.
"We can't do anything about what happened in the country at that time," he said. "I don't know if I will feel comfortable sleeping at night, but I don't think there will be a problem."
Rabbi Naftali Schiff, the founder of the UK charity Jroots said: "We welcome dialogue with the owner, but he has made it clear to us that he wants the world to forget what happened there."
Jroots is a UK charity, which arranges educational trips about Jewish history and identity, including visits to sites in Europe linked to the Holocaust.
He added: "We aim to inspire young people to light candles there and bring light into a dark place, to sing Jewish songs there that Göth would have had you killed for singing. We ask young people to make a pledge in that house of cruelty to return to Britain and make society a better place."
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