Did 'executed' Nazi criminal in Schindler's List escape justice? Historians claim video of camp commander being hanged is NOT him

• Amon Goeth killed thousands of people as concentration camp commander
  
• For decades video of a Nazi execution was believed to show his death
• But new documentary says film shows execution of Dr Ludwig Fischer
• Goeth was chillingly played by Ralph Fiennes in the Spielberg masterpiece
  
• His death is a complete mystery and it is not known where he was buried
  

By Becky Evans

Published: 10:05 EDT, 21 March 2013 | Updated: 12:47 EDT, 21 March 2013

Sadistic Amon Goeth was believed to have been executed in a filmed hanging but now historians say it was a different Nazi butcher

Revelations about the execution of a notorious Nazi war criminal, immortalised in Schindler's List, have raised questions about how the mass murderer died and whether he was even hanged at all.

For decades Amon Goeth, who was responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Jews and Poles during World War Two, was believed to have been filmed being executed in 1946.

A black and white video shows executioners twice botching a hanging before he was eventually killed.

But historians claim in a new National Geographic documentary called Bloody Tales that the video was from 1947 and shows Dr Ludwig Fischer being hanged.

Worryingly, there is almost no detail about the sadistic mass murderer's death in official records and no one knows what happened to his body.

Historian Dr Suzannah Lipscomb and presenter Joe Crowley do not believe he escaped Europe like other high profile Nazis such as Adolf Eichmann and Joseph Mengele, and say he was killed.

However the revelations surrounding Goeth, who was known to carry out his own killings rather than order them, mean his death is now a complete mystery with records containing just two words: 'He died.'

Dr Lipscomb said: 'We are pretty sure that he was executed. On some level there will be speculation but if it was a court of law it would be concluded beyond reasonable doubt.

'He was a truly horrific individual.'

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Goeth was arrested in 1945 after German forces fled Poland and was handed over to the Polish authorities

The new documentary says the infamous video shows the botched execution of Dr Ludwig Fischer in 1947 and not Amon Goeth, a year earlier, as has been believed for decades

She said she hoped the information would inspire other researchers to now try to find out more about what happened to his body.

David Caldwell-Evans, documentary director, said a combination of inaccurate records and the internet has perpetuated the myth that Goeth was in the video of the execution.

He said: 'We know he was executed and there was one unconfirmed account that said the executioners struggled because of Goeth's height.

'There is no record of where he was buried, he could have been cremated and had his ashes thrown in the river or his body could have been donated to a medical school. We just don't know.

'With Goeth, he acted alone so we thought there may be records and reports of his death but there is nothing.

The only record left about the execution of Amon Goeth, who enjoyed killing people himself rather than ordering their deaths, is a note saying 'he died'

'He actually killed people himself, the war helped him exact his psychopathic tendencies.'

Goeth was chillingly portrayed by British actor Ralph Fiennes in the Steven Spielberg's Oscar-winning masterpiece Schindler's List.

The Polish State Film Archive, the Yad Vashem Holocaust Archive in Israel, Goeth's biographer and numerous online holocaust sites identified the man being hanged as Goeth.

Goeth, the Kraksow-Plaszow concentration camp commander in Poland, was convicted of killing tens of thousands of Jews in 1946.

He was known to shoot babies for fun and got an extra kick when victims died slowly and painfully.

Goeth was chillingly played by Ralph Fiennes in the Oscar-winning classic Schindler's List in 1993

In Schindler's List Ralph Fiennes' Goeth is seen being hanged, pictured, after giving a Nazi salute but historians say very little is known about the actual execution and what then happened to the body

As well as killing Jews and Poles, Goeth also stole from them for his personal gain.

At his trial he was found guilty of ordering up to 8,000 inmates to be exterminated, killing 2,000 more by closing the Krakow ghetto, and ordering the murder of several thousands more by closing down the forced labour camp at Szebnie.

Survivors told of the horror of living under Goeth's command and testimonies said that he took a personal interest in the murder of prisoners.

He would often set dogs on prisoners, who would eat them alive, before Goeth personally shot them but only when they stopped moving.

Prisoners were counted lucky if they survived for more than four weeks.

In 1943 on Yom Kippur, Goeth and SS officers shot 50 Jews and prisoners were regularly hanged in front of others.

Schindler Jew Moshe Beijski's testimony at the trial of war criminal Adolf Eichmann is quoted on the Auschwitz website: 'The case of Olmer, whose daughter lives in Jerusalem, and I know her .. He was summoned by the Camp Commandant Amon Goeth.

'The Camp Commandant had two dogs, Ralf and Rolf, and he set the dogs on him. The dogs ate him up alive. Possibly a little breath still remained in him. He shot him and he was killed.'

In another testimony, an older man received a beating and was then made to thank Goeth for it.

When he turned to leave, he was shot in the back.

At Plaszow, Goeth spent the mornings using a high-powered rifle to shoot children playing in the camp.

Documentary film director David Caldwell-Evans said Goeth, portrayed here by Fiennes, has been 'slightly forgotten'

Schindler Jew Poldek Pfefferberg said: 'When you saw Goeth, you saw death.'

Goeth was arrested by the Gestapo for theft in 1944 but charges were dropped as Germany faced defeat by the Allied Forces.

He was arrested again in 1945, this time by U.S. forces and put on trial in 1946 at the Supreme National Tribunal of Poland in Krakow.

Goeth was found guilty on September 5, 1946 and executed on the 13.

Mr Caldwell-Adams added: 'The prison record only says two words: "He died". The Polish archives have been 80 per cent sure that it was him.

'We knew the WFDIF had the original film and when we went to them they said the film on the internet was theirs and they were 80 per cent sure it was Goeth.

'When you think about the end of the war, Poland was a mess.

'They weren't terribly concerned by the accuracy of the records so the video may have just been dumped on a table and mislabeled. 

'The clip was later used in a documentary about Goeth and uploaded to YouTube and it has all perpetuated the myth.

'People in Krakow are aware of Goeth but he has slightly been forgotten.

'Schindler's List gave us a hero and a villain, but without remembering the villain we can forget the hero and what he fought against.'

In Steven Spielberg's 1993 masterpiece Schindler's List, Goeth was played by Ralph Fiennes - winning a Bafta for Best Supporting Actor.

Fiennes' portrayal led to Goeth being named as the 15th biggest villain in movie history by the American Film Institute.

Oskar Schindler, played by Liam Neeson, was named 15th top hero.

• 'Bloody Tales' is on Monday, March 25 at 8pm on the National Geographic Channel. 

LUDWIG FISCHER: THE WAR CRIMINAL WHO CREATED THE WARSAW GHETTO

Historians believe the video of the botched execution actually shows Dr Ludwig Fischer

Dr Ludwig Fischer was a Nazi lawyer, politician and war criminal, who was responsible for creating the Warsaw Ghetto.

Born into a Catholic family, he joined the National Socialist party in 1926 and rose to the senior rank of Gruppenführer.

He was elected to the Reichstag in 1937 - two years before the outbreak of World War Two.

After the invasion of Poland in 1939, Fischer was appointed Governor of the Warsaw District and held the position until the withdrawal of German forces in January 1945.

Fischer issues anti-Semitic laws and was responsible for mass executions, slave labour programmes and sending Polish Jews to concentration camps.

He survived an attempted assassination attempt in 1944 before the Warsaw Uprising and was arrested a year later by the Allied forces and handed over the the Police authorities.

He was tried before the Supreme National Tribunal and sentenced to death.

Fischer was executed by hanging at the age of 41 on March 8, 1947, in Warsaw's Mokotów Prison.