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

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Similarly, the work hours were relatively humane, consisting of "only" twelve hours including a one-hour break. This change in the tides of war brought both joy and fear to the surviving Jews of the HKP camp, who understood that the SS would try to kill them in the days before the German retreat.

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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. This kind of work permit protected the worker, his wife, and up to two of his children from the SS sweeps carried out in the VilnaGhetto, in which Jews without work papers were captured and killed at the nearby Ponaryexecutiongrounds. The camp, which consisted of two multistory tenements originally constructed to house Jews on welfare, was surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by Lithuanian collaborators and SS men. Plagge attempted to contact Neugebauer, but was unable to, and the Jews were all deported to Klooga.About 70,000 of these people were Jews of Lithuanian or other nationality; others were deported to Nazi extermination camps. 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.

Karl Plagge - Holocaust Historical Society

Many years later, during his denazification trial, Plagge stated that he was initially drawn to the promises of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party to rebuild the German economy and national pride, which suffered during the years that Germany experienced after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. Plagge saved not only skilled male workers but also their wives and children, arguing that the workers would not be motivated without their families. Righteous Among the Nations Ceremony at Yad Vashem Tomorrow Major Karl Plagge to be posthumously honored in presence of German Ambassador". During the summer of 1944, the RedArmy advanced to the outskirts of Vilnius and the Wehrmacht withdrew abruptly in early July. He met considerable resistance, especially from the SS, regarding this plan and his insistence that the women and children not be separated from the men, which he said would negatively affect worker morale and productivity.

The ceremony, held in Jerusalem on 11 April 2005, was attended by many survivors, Konrad Hesse, and a few members of Plagge's extended family.

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Plagge was not completely exonerated, however, as it was believed his efforts were humanitarian and not in opposition to the NSDAP.A number of the workers' last memories of Plagge was shortly before the Red Army was to enter Vilnius, in July 1944. At least 500 people were caught the next day as the SS death squads arrived and swept through the camp. He told England's Guardian newspaper that during their trip to Vilnius, his mother was "waving her cane around and saying 'He was better than Schindler. 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.