Karl Plagge was drafted to the Wehrmacht as an engineer officer in 1939. In German-occupied Wilna (now Vilnius, Lithuania) from 1941, he ran an army vehicle pool (HKP), where military vehicles were repaired. Plagge deployed many Jews from the Wilna ghetto in his workshops. He declared them “necessary for the economy,” which rescued them from being murdered, including a large number of untrained laborers.
When the Jews in the Wilna ghetto were to be deported in the fall of 1943, Plagge arranged with the SS leadership to continue deploying more than 1,000 Jewish forced laborers at the HKP. He had a camp set up for them.
In July 1944 the HKP’s Jewish forced laborers were to be deported and murdered. Plagge warned the Jews. Around 250 of them managed to break out of the camp or flee to prepared hiding places.
After the war, Karl Plagge was in an American prisoner-of-war camp for three months. He was honored as Righteous Among the Nations in 2005.
Wedding photo of Karl Plagge (front row, seated) and Anke Madsen, Darmstadt, 1933. Source: Darmstädter Geschichtswerkstatt e.V.
Captain Karl Plagge (center) after a military parade in Wilna, 1942. Source: Darmstädter Geschichtswerkstatt e.V.
The Wehrmacht Army Vehicle Pool labor camp, Wilna, 1944. Source: Bejt Lochamej haGeta’ot, Kibbuz Lochamej haGeta’ot
