Israel honours the Nazi who saved Jews
A German officer who became known as the “Nazi who saved Jews” was honoured by Israel’s Holocaust memorial today for rescuing hundreds of Jews from death camps during the Second World War.
Major Karl Plagge was named “Righteous among the nations” in an emotional posthumous ceremony at the Yad Vashem memorial in Jerusalem. The honour is reserved for non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust, when Nazis killed six million Jews.
Plagge served as an Nazi officer in Lithuania from 1941-1944, where he was in charge of a factory that employed hundreds of Jews. According to Yad Vashem, Plagge employed unqualified people to save them from deportation, and warned his workers in June 1944 that German troops were approaching and they would be handed over to the Nazis. The warning enabled 200 people to escape and survive.
“The experience of human-made horror is frequently accompanied by hope,” said Johann-Dietrich Worner, president of the Technical University of Darmstadt. “Karl Plagge and similar examples prove that even in the darkness of misdeeds there exists the light of hope, of humanity in inhuman situations.”
Worner accepted the honour on behalf of Plagge, who was a graduate of the university. Plagge, who died in 1957, has no surviving relatives.
During the ceremony, Dr Simon Malkes thanked Plagge for saving his life and the lives of many other Jews. Later, the participants congregated outdoors in the Garden of the Righteous Among Nations, where Plagge’s name was unveiled on a wall.
The ceremony capped a six-year odyssey by Michael Good, an American doctor whose mother was among those rescued by Plagge.
Good began searching for Plagge in 1999 in an effort to thank his family - only to learn that Plagge and his wife had no children. The effort grew into a major project that included Good’s recently published book, The Search for Major Plagge: The Nazi Who Saved Jews.
Good’s mother, Pearl, unveiled Plagge’s name on the memorial wall during today’s ceremony.
