Woman who discovered Nazi heritage refuses to be "prisoner of the past"

A woman who discovered that her maternal grandfather was a brutal Nazi commander says that although the revelation sent her into a downward spiral of depression and guilt, she refuses to be a "prisoner of the past."

Jennifer Teege, the author of the memoir "My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me," told CBSN's Vladimir Duthiers and Elaine Quijano that she made the startling discovery about her heritage in a book in a German library in 2008. Teege, who was given up for adoption at age 7, said the details in the book "matched perfectly" with her adoption papers and clearly revealed that her biological grandfather was Amon Goeth, the ruthless Nazi officer who ran a concentration camp in Plaszow, Poland.

"It was something that was very difficult for me to sustain," Teege said. "It took me a long time to come to terms with the newfound situation."

Teege said that it was particularly difficult for her to reconcile her feelings toward her grandmother, who she adored as a child. She said her grandmother was in denial about her husband's atrocities and ended up committing suicide.

"She was someone who closed her eyes for most of her life," Teege said.

Goeth, who was known as the "Butcher of Plaszow" and was notorious for shooting Jewish inmates for sport, was portrayed by actor Ralph Fiennes in the 1993 Oscar-winning film "Schindler's List."

Teege said that she thought the film was powerful and authentic but stressed that it was still a "Hollywood movie."

"My grandfather became a symbol of evil and he did so many evil things but he was responsible for it," she said. "It was not an external power that was laid on him."

Goeth was convicted of war crimes and hanged in 1946.

Teege, who studied in Israel for several years, told CBSN that it took her a long time to build up the nerve to reveal her family secret to her Israeli friends. She said she was worried they would be unable to cope with the news but that they responded with empathy.

"They were every understanding and they cried with me," she said.

Israel marked its Holocaust memorial day on Wednesday.