At the heart of Pearl’s riveting story, recounted in letters she penned to Yad Vashem, lies a tale of a mysterious rescuer, Major Plagge, the German commandant of the slave labor camp in Vilna where 14-year old Pearl was interned during the war. testimony of William Begell" . http://searchformajorplagge.com/searchformajorplagge.com/Plagge_Documents.html.

Karl Plagge - Wikipedia

Originally a Lutheran, Plagge lost his belief in God because of the atrocities that he witnessed during the Holocaust. [39] [40] Assessment and legacy [ edit ] HKP survivor Pearl Good points to Plagge's name on the Wall of the Righteous at Yad Vashem The SS were no fools. The risk for Plagge was that he would be accused of favouring Jews, and this was really a very serious offence." I am living now three years in the East and work together with these people. A large quantity of my heart’s blood is in my work of keeping the camp running with [Jewish] labor. It is completely my work alone and will expire when I am no more. It is a piece of my life’s fulfillment.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. 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.

Karl Plagge — Wikipedia Republished // WIKI 2 Karl Plagge — Wikipedia Republished // WIKI 2

The court document that informs much of Good’s book contained the transcripts of Plagge’s 1946 “denazification” trial by the Allied Control Council seated in Berlin. Plagge’s role as commandant of a forced labor camp in Vilna where many Jews had been murdered brought him under Allied scrutiny, particularly when it was learned that he had been an active member of the Nazi party in the early 1930s. The judges may have been reluctant to recognize the extent of Plagge's humanitarian achievements because they cast a bad light on the indifferenceofordinaryGermanstotheHolocaust and the retention of Nazi judges in the postwar judicial system. [37] Then, in 1999, in her first post-war visit to Vilna, accompanied by husband Dr. William Good and her son Michael, Pearl Good found the place where she had lived in terror under the Nazi regime, witness to atrocities she could never forget.

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 Yad Vashem, Israel's official memorial to the Holocaust, to have Plagge recognized as " Righteous Among the Nations". [42] Israel's Holocaust memorial council, Yad Vashem, will declare Major Karl Plagge righteous among the nations, alongside men such as Raoul Wallenberg and Oskar Schindler, for an elaborate deception that saved about 250 Jewish lives.

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

Dr. Marianne Wrobel (2011-10-08). "English - Karl Plagge Award". Plagge-award.com . http://plagge-award.com/index.html . Retrieved 2013-06-19. And you know full well how well the S.S. takes care of their Jewish prisoners…” he added meaningfully.On certain occasions, Plagge’s general policy of non-confrontation with the SS put him “in a gray zone, and in a catch-22 situation with serious moral implications,” according to historian Kim Priemel.

Karl Plagge - Krav Maga Karl Plagge - Krav Maga

Good, Michael (2005). The Search For Major Plagge: The Nazi Who Saved Jews. Fordham: Fordham University Press. ISBN 0-8232-2440-6. Plagge was put on trial after the war, like thousands of other Germans. Trial transcripts show former prisoners and subordinates vouched for him, but he insisted on being classified as having some complicity. Still, Good's attempt to have Plagge named "righteous among the nations" met with resistance at first. Yad Vashem did not accept that Plagge had put himself in harm's way, since the German military had endorsed using Jewish slave labor to support the war effort. But on the third try, having gathered yet more material in support of his subject, he succeeded. Plagge was drafted into the Wehrmacht (German Army) as a captain in the reserve at the beginning of WorldWarII, [4] and stopped paying Nazi Party membership fees at the same time. Serving initially in Poland after the Germaninvasion, he witnessed atrocities that caused him to decide "to work against the Nazis". [10] In 1941, he was put in command of an engineering unit, Heereskraftfahrpark562 (vehicle maintenance unit 562, or HKP 562; literally, "Army motor-vehicle park"), which maintained and repaired military vehicles. After the GermaninvasionoftheSovietUnion, HKP 562 was deployed to Vilna, Lithuania, in early July 1941. Plagge witnessed the genocide being carried out against the Jews of the area. [4] [11] In an unparalleled atrocity, on March 27, 1944, during Plagge’s home leave absence, the SS carried out a vicious Kinder Aktion (Children Operation). They tore through the camp and rounded up the vast majority of the camp’s 250 children, transporting them out of the camp to be killed at Ponary.When word reached Plagge of the impending liquidation of the Vilnius ghetto, he swiftly set up the motor repair works for army vehicles on Subocz Street and shepherded in about 1,000 Jews. Some of the men were genuine workers, but Plagge also took in hairdressers, academics, kitchen staff and the elderly. He told the SS they were all skilled mechanics. After the outbreak of World War Two in 1939, he was drafted to form part of the engineering facility which brought him to Vilnius, Lithuania. The organisation twice rejected his petitions because it was not certain why the major acted as he did. It also needed to be persuaded that he took "a considerable and conscious risk" to save Jews. The second time was the “Kinder Aktion” – Children’s Massacre of March 27 th, 1944. No words in any language can describe this dreadful atrocity.