page_title: Karl Plagge
hierarchical_section_title: Karl Plagge
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of Karl Plagge taken in December of 1943 while he was home on leave from his post in Vilna Poland
context_page_description: Karl Plagge was a German engineer 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 caused by the draconian terms of the Treaty of Versailles. After being dismissed from a position of lecturer for being unwilling to teach racism, and his opposition to Nazi racist policies, he stopped participating in party activities in 1935, and left the party when the war broke out.
  During World War II, he used his position as a staff officer in the German Army to employ and protect Jews in the Vilna Ghetto. At first, Plagge employed Jews who lived inside the ghetto, but when it was due to be terminated in September 1943, he set up the HKP 562 forced labor camp, where he saved many male Jews by issuing them official work permits on the false premise that their holders' skills were vital for the German war effort, and their wives and children by claiming they would work better if their families were alive.
context_section_description: Karl Plagge ([kaʁl ˈpla.ɡə] (listen), 10 July 1897 – 19 June 1957) was a German engineer 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 caused by the draconian terms of the Treaty of Versailles. After being dismissed from a position of lecturer for being unwilling to teach racism, and his opposition to Nazi racist policies, he stopped participating in party activities in 1935, and left the party when the war broke out.
  During World War II, he used his position as a staff officer in the German Army to employ and protect Jews in the Vilna Ghetto. At first, Plagge employed Jews who lived inside the ghetto, but when it was due to be terminated in September 1943, he set up the HKP 562 forced labor camp, where he saved many male Jews by issuing them official work permits on the false premise that their holders' skills were vital for the German war effort, and their wives and children by claiming they would work better if their families were alive.  Although unable to stop the SS from liquidating the remaining prisoners in July 1944, Plagge managed to warn the prisoners in advance, allowing about 200 to hide from the SS and survive until the Red Army's liberation of Vilnius. Of 100,000 pre-war Jews in Vilnius, only 2,000 survived, of which the largest single group were saved by Plagge.
  Plagge was tried before an Allied denazification court in 1947, which accepted his plea to be classified as a "fellow traveler" of the Nazi party, whose rescue activities were undertaken for humanitarian reasons rather than overt opposition to Nazism. Survivors he rescued testified on his behalf. Plagge died ten years after the trial.
  According to historian Kim Priemel, the success of Plagge's rescue efforts was due to working within the system to save Jews, a position which required him to enter a "grey zone" of moral compromise. In 2000, the story of his rescues was uncovered by the son of a survivor of HKP 562. In 2005, after two unsuccessful petitions, the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem recognized him as one of the "Righteous Among the Nations".
caption: Plagge in December 1943
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