Major Karl Plagge

[tenoriodj]

Michael Good, The Search for Major Plagge (New York: Fordham, 2005)

Too bad the book is only a couple of days´ read...really wonderful

The book is the account of Michael Good´s search for the Heer Major whose courage and determination to do what is right saved the lives of hundreds of Jews in Vilnius, Lithuania, including his mother.

A couple of chapters are devoted to the research and search for Major Plage, Kommandeur of Heeres Kraftfahr Park 562 in Vinius until the summer of 1944. Michael Good began his research with several requests to archives in the US, including NARA.

Mr. Good´s first request to NARA turned up only a possible match, a Hans Plagge who was both NSDAP and SS member. Then a contact at MIT suggested to him to start with a book, the 1944-45 Heer Rangliste. The book was located at a Harvard University library, and the librarian there was kind enough to seach for him, only to find no Plagges listed.

Then he wrote to WASt in Berlin and received no answer (surprise surprise). just browsing their website Good came to the correct conclusion: "One is not given access to these records unless you are identified as someone that the archival staff thinks has a right to know". back to NARA who found NO officer named Plagge in their records. Then on to Bundesarchiv Aachen, in German, and still nothing.

Good´s breakthrough came only when a retired Bundeswehr Oberst, a friend of a friend, volunteered to write the Bundesarchiv for him.

Interestingly, Major Plagge turned out to be a Major der Reserve Karl Plagge. As we have discussed here, I personally dont think Reserve officer Karteikarten are at NARA at all.

Anyway, if you havent read the book, I highly recomment it. http://www.searchformajorplagge.com/

[Larry deZeng]

Gustavo wrote:

Interestingly, Major Plagge turned out to be a Major der Reserve Karl Plagge. As we have discussed here, I personally dont think Reserve officer Karteikarten are at NARA at all.

I don't think NARA has any of the Karteikarten for any of the branches of the Wehrmacht. I think their holdings are limited to Microfilm Publication A3356, German Armed Forces Personnel Files.

Am I wrong on this? Do they have more that I'm not aware of (excluding the microfilmed BDC SS records, of course)?

--Larry

P.S. the Michael Good story was great! His big mistake was making his inquiries while being an American! If he had disguised himself as a Canadian and mailed his letters from across the border, he would have had far less trouble. Most of the employees of the Bundesarchiv are to the left of Karl Marx and they do not have a fond view of America and Americans. Sad but true. They also mistakenly believe that NARA WashDC is hiding tons and tons of WW II Wehrmacht documents that have never been returned to Germany. They are a very delusional group.

[Michaeldg]

Search for Major Plagge

What a pleasant surprise to come across a discussion of my book in this forum (thanks to Google alerts).

I'm glad to see that some readers found the search itself to be of interest, you seem to understand how confusing such searches could be for an American novice. The truth is, I would have gotten nowhere were it not for the help of my friends in Germany: Salomon Klaczko, Joerg Fiebelkorn and Marianne Viefhaus. They were allowed access to the archives that, in retrospect, would have always been beyond my reach.

By the way, the "Hans Plagge" that I came across early in my search was apparently Karl Plagge's cousin- who was a member of the SS. According to Plagge's family, after the war the two men would not talk- one assumes because of their profound difference in political outlook and philosophy.

I'd be happy to discuss any other aspects of the book that you found to be of interest.

-Michael Good

[beerlover]

Hi guy's ,
I am just reading this interesting thread. I have also seen the documentary of Major Plagge on TV.
You know why this is so interesting for me ??????

My last name is PLAGGE too and I am not kidding.
I live in The Netherlands but according to my father our great-grand father comes from germany. So there might be a far-far link to major Plagge.

By the way there is also a lot of Plagge's in the USA.

[Larry deZeng]

What a pleasant surprise to come across a discussion of my book in this forum (thanks to Google alerts).

Great job, Dr. Mike. What a hellish experience that must have been for your mom, her parents and the others. Your book stands out from most because of your research. Many give up when they encounter the brick wall of German bureaucracy, but you persevered and overcame the obstacles.

[Michaeldg]

Research obstacles

In hindsight, I am somewhat chagrined at the level of my own naiveté when I began my search. Being exposed to only American bureaucracy, I thought that the whole world worked like my local town hall. Here in Durham CT I can stroll into town hall and look at my neighbor's land records- I can see how much they paid for their house, how much of a mortgage they took out, whether they have paid their taxes etc. All this is freely available to any nosey person! When I began my search, I thought it was just a matter of writing a letter to the right repository of information. I guess it takes a bit of naive ambition to take on the task of finding a Wehrmacht officer last seen on July 1, 1944! As you can imagine, I had little success to begin with- all of the archives remained silent to my inquiries. Fortunately, I gained the assistance of Joerg Fiebelkorn who still teaches at the war college in Hamburg and then later Dr. Marianne Viefhaus a retired archivist from the Technical University of Darmstadt. The fact is, even here in the U.S., access to military personnel files is strictly limited to close family members. I have met Germans who were trying to research the stories of American soldiers from the WWII era who have met brick walls thicker than the ones I encountered.
-Michael Good

[Larry deZeng]

I have met Germans who were trying to research the stories of American soldiers from the WWII era who have met brick walls thicker than the ones I encountered.

Indeed, bureaucracy carries no flag and knows no nationality.

I suppose these privacy laws have a good purpose as they protect our personal information from falling into the hands of those with evil intentions. But it is difficult to make some of the youngsters here who collect German militaria see and appreciate this. As a military veteran with 11 years active duty back in the 1950's and 1960's, I certainly would not want strangers poking around in my personal military records.

But unlike the U.S. armed forces, the Wehrmacht had not only personnel records but also Karteikarten (card indices) that consisted of two-sided and four-sided European A4 size cards containing all of the basic military career information such as schools attended, assignments, decorations, DOB and date entered service. These contain no personal information. Accordingly, the information on these cards should be available to interested parties, provided they pay all handling, photocopying and mailing costs. But WASt and BA-MA won't do that (usually) and most of us find that unfair.

[tenoriodj]

Michael its a wonderful surprise to see you participating in this thread.

Your book was great reading, not only because of your research experiences which resonate with some of us here. Your and your mom´s drive to honor the memory of Plagge and how your persevered until you did it, was amazing. I visited Yad Vashem a couple of months ago and i wish i had known the story, so i could have looked up the tree in the avenue of the righteous.

Shalom from Madrid

[Michaeldg]

Garden of the Righteous

Hello Tenoriodj,

Actually, Yad Vashem has run out of room and therefore they are no longer planting trees for each individual awarded the title of Righteous Among Nations. Instead they have created a Garden of the Righteous, with a wall containing the names of those honored, grouped by country. Here is a photo of me, my mother and the members of the Plagge Group pointing at Karl Plagge's name:

[tenoriodj]

Michael, are you working on any new books?

[Michaeldg]

I'm not sure which edition of my book you read, but I did write a second edition (it is the softcover edition) with a new chapter containing stories that arose as a result of the first edition. The primary new material came from interviews with Alfons von Deschwanden, a former nineteen year old private in HKP 562 who, who had not spoken about his war experiences in over 60 years. He contacted me in April 2005 after the great shock of having seen a story of Plagge being honored in Israel on TV. He gave us the perspective of what the Holocaust in Poland looked like to an ordinary young man drafted into the Wehrmacht. Joerg Fiebelkorn and I had been looking for one of Plagge's men for years and our contact with Alfons gave us the opportunity to explore what an ordinary German soldier knew about the Nazis before and during the war, what and when did he comprehend the reality of the genocide in Vilna and what he knew of his commander's efforts to protect the Jewish workers in the unit's workshops. This second edition was translated into German by Joerg Fiebelkorn and was published by Beltz and then picked up by Weltbild.

By the way, you might be interested in seeing some relatively recently discovered letters written by Plagge to his wife Anke in June 1944. The were apparently sent by feldpost and contain highly treasonous statements. We have had long discussions within the Plagge Group trying to judge how risky sending such a letter was and how frequently such sentiments are to be found in letters sent to home. If you or any of the posters in these forums have expertise in this area, I would be eager to hear your/their thoughts. The letters can be found in the Plagge Documents section of my website, at the following link: http://hometown.aol.com/michaeldg/Pl...an_English.doc