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

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In addition to court papers, Michael Good’s research included a great deal of witness testimony culled from survivors who responded to online inquiries for information about Major Plagge. Like Pearl, they remembered the outwardly stern commandant who was paradoxically a pillar of hope and sanity in a demonic world. Good’s research culminated in a 2005 book, “In Search of Major Plagge, a Nazi Officer Who Saved Jews.”

Unraveling the Mystery of Major Karl Plagge a Nazi Officer

He was cleared of war crimes after survivors testified at his trial, but he insisted on being classified as a "fellow traveller". Originally a Lutheran, Plagge lost his belief in God as a result of the atrocities he witnessed during the Holocaust.

Efforts in vain?

When the city was liberated by Soviet forces a few days later, some 200 Jews shakily emerged. They represented the largest single group of Jewish survivors in Vilna. Daniel Fraenkel, a member of the Yad Vashem committee that made the decision, said he had been persuaded by "massive and multi-layered evidence".

Karl Plagge | The Engines of Our Ingenuity Karl Plagge | The Engines of Our Ingenuity

Plagge graduated from the Technical University of Darmstadt in 1924 with a degree in engineering. On being drafted into the Heer at the beginning of World War II, he was put in command of an engineering unit, HKP562, whose duties involved repairing military vehicles damaged on the eastern front. Plagge and his unit arrived in Vilnius (Vilna) in July 1941 and soon witnessed the genocide being carried out against the Jews of the area. Plagge would later testify that "I saw unbelievable things that I could not support...it was then that I began to work against the Nazis". [3] Good, Michael (2005). The Search For Major Plagge: The Nazi Who Saved Jews. Fordham: Fordham University Press. ISBN 0-8232-2440-6.During the summer of 1944, the Red Army advanced to the outskirts of Vilnius and the Wehrmacht withdrew abruptly in early July. [20] The camp was to be dissolved; accused of being soft on Jews, Plagge was forbidden to take them with his unit. [27] Knowing that the camp would be liquidated before the Red Army arrived, the Jews made hiding places in the camp in secret bunkers, in walls, and in the rafters of the attic. [28] However, they needed to know when the camp would be liquidated so they could implement their plans to escape or hide. On 1 July, Plagge made an informal speech to the Jewish prisoners in the presence of SS Oberscharführer Richter: In 1934, Plagge began to work at Hessenwerks, an engineering company run by Kurt Hesse, whose wife Erica was half-Jewish. By hiring a nominal Nazi, Hesse hoped to prevent the " Aryanization" of his business. [7] After Kristallnacht in 1938, Plagge became the godfather of Hesse's son Konrad. [8] The same year, Plagge took over as chief engineer of the Hessenwerks. [9] Service in Lithuania [ edit ] HKP 562 [ edit ] Lithuanian collaborator with Jewish prisoners, July 1941

Karl Plagge: The Nazi Who Saved His Jewish Workers

I grew up in the shadow of the Holocaust. I had direct knowledge of that era, the era just after the war, felt like. I experienced it first hand. But the true stories only came out later. The 1960's were too soon, it was all too fresh, and painful. Today we know more. We know the ugly side and we know the beautiful, glorious, side. When I was young I thought a new generation was rising, a better generation, the past was gone. But this was not true. Man is weak in his nature, and there are very few heroes. Plagge’s efforts are corroborated by survivor testimony, historical documents found in Germany, and Plagge’s own testimony found in a letter he wrote in 1957, a year before his death. In this letter he compares himself with the character of Dr. Rieux in Albert Camus' novel The Plague and describes his hopeless struggle against a plague of death that slowly envelops the inhabitants of his city. [11] Post-war [ ] Karl Plagge ( pronounced [kaʁl ˈplaɡə] ⓘ; 10 July 1897– 19 June 1957) was a German Army officer who rescued Jews during the Holocaust in Lithuania by issuing work permits to non-essential workers. A partially disabled veteran of World War I, Plagge studied engineering and joined the Nazi Party in 1931 in hopes of helping Germany rebuild from the economic collapse following the war. After being dismissed from the position of lecturer for being unwilling to teach racism and his opposition to Nazi racial policies, he stopped participating in party activities in 1935 and left the party when the war broke out. year old Pearl later described how she found a hiding place underneath the stairwell and crouched there in horror listening to the shrieks and cries of the doomed children.

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Plagge was born to a Prussian family in Darmstadt, Germany, on 10 July 1897; many of his ancestors had been militarydoctors. Plagge's father died in 1904, leaving Plagge, his mother, and his older sister. [1] Establishment [ edit ] St. Peter and St. Paul's Church in Vilnius with a sign pointing to the HKP 562 forced labor camp After leaving Vilnius, Plagge led his unit westward and surrendered to the United States Army on 2 May 1945 without suffering a single casualty. [33]

Years Later, Honoring an Unlikely Hero of the Holocaust 60 Years Later, Honoring an Unlikely Hero of the Holocaust

After graduating from Ludwig-Georgs-Gymnasium, [2] a secondary school that focused on the classics, Plagge was drafted into the ImperialGermanArmy. He fought as a lieutenant in WorldWarI on the WesternFront, participating in the battles of the Somme, Verdun, and Flanders. Imprisoned in a British prisoner-of-warcamp from 1917 to 1920, he caught polio and became disabled in his left leg. Jews in the area, so it was going on all around him," said Dr Good. "He felt he had helped create this monster and that it was his duty to try to help these imperilled Jews." It took Good six years of long-distance searching to find other survivors from Plagge's life-saving scheme, but eventually he succeeded. Along with Marianne Viefhaus, an archivist from the University of Darmstadt in Germany, he was able to complete the picture of a German whose courage saved several hundred Jews from certain death. Plagge's godson Konrad Hesse will be at today's ceremony, along with the Good family and survivors of Subocz Street. About a dozen plan to go on to the major's home town, Darmstadt, to honour him there. The front line is moving west and HKP's assignment is to always be a certain number of miles behind the front line...As a result, you the Jews, and the workers will also be moved...since all of you are highly specialized and experienced workers in an area of great importance to the German army, you will be reassigned to an HKP unit...You will be escorted during this evacuation by the SS which, as you know, is an organization devoted to the protection of refugees. Thus, there is nothing to worry about... "The Vilna Ghetto was seen as a particular threat because of its extensive underground activities and the proximity of partisans in the woods around the city.