The Search for Major Plagge: The Nazi Who Saved Jews, Expanded Edition

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In 1999, HKP 562 survivor Pearl Good traveled to Vilnius with her family. Good's son, Michael, decided to investigate the story of Plagge, but he had trouble locating him because survivors knew him only as "Major Plagge" and did not know his full name or place of birth. After fourteen months, Good was able to find Plagge's Wehrmacht personnel file. He eventually published the results of his research in 2005 as The Search for Major Plagge: The Nazi Who Saved Jews. [41] Good formed an organization of researchers and friends that he called the "Plagge Group" and, along with HKP survivors, petitioned YadVashem, Israel's official memorial to the Holocaust, to have Plagge recognized as " RighteousAmongtheNations". [42] Our relatively stable existence was shattered twice by Gestapo atrocities that made us realize the relative safety we felt in the HKP was an illusion; it could collapse at any moment. Plagge Denazification Trial Transcript. pp. 11–13 . http://searchformajorplagge.com/searchformajorplagge.com/Plagge_Documents.html.

Karl Plagge - Wikipedia

Here, is Begell's New York obituary and a good obituary in German. And here is one of my books, published by one of Begell's companies. On the other hand, the historian reasoned, Plagge was a virtual prisoner of the system who took what he saw as the only course “that allowed him to save more Jews than any other rescuer in Vilna.”After leaving Vilnius, Plagge led his unit westward and surrendered to the UnitedStatesArmy on 2 May 1945 without suffering a single casualty. [33]

Karl Plagge - Krav Maga Karl Plagge - Krav Maga

Plagge Denazification Trial Transcript. p. 36 . http://searchformajorplagge.com/searchformajorplagge.com/Plagge_Documents.html. The major insisted that each laborer be permitted to bring his wife and two of his children with him, arguing that this system would raise worker morale and boost productivity. Among this fortunate group were Perela Esterowicz (later Pearl Good) and her parents, Ida and Samuel Esterowicz. German troops rounding up residents of the Warsaw Ghetto, 1943. (Photo Credit: Roger Viollet Collection / Getty Images) Major Plagge at great risk to himself brought all of us so close to survival – liberation was just ten days away. He risked being executed for protecting “worthless Jews” as tragically happened to Wehrmacht Captain Anton Schmidt, who helped my aunt Reichel Cholem hide during the “ gele sheinen aktion (yellow life-certificates massacre).

This article does not contain any citations or references. Please improve this article by adding a reference. He was cleared of war crimes after survivors testified at his trial, but he insisted on being classified as a "fellow traveller". The judges may have been reluctant to recognize the extent of Plagge's humanitarian achievements because they cast a bad light on the indifference of ordinary Germans to the Holocaust and the retention of Nazi judges in the postwar judicial system. [37] Daniel Fraenkel, a member of the Yad Vashem committee that made the decision, said he had been persuaded by "massive and multi-layered evidence". She never talked to us about how she survived, but there she told me about this mysterious officer, Major Plagge, who she said saved her life and the lives of her parents and 250 other Jewish prisoners," he said.