German Wehrmacht officer honored for saving 1,000 Jews from extermination

An officer of Nazi Germany's army, the Wehrmacht, who saved hundreds of Jews from the Nazi Holocaust in Lithuania has been honored at a ceremony in Israel. The story of Major Karl Plagge was unearthed by a US physician who began searching in 1999 for the man who saved his mother among others. Major Plagge sheltered about 1,000 Jews at a labor camp, safe from the SS annihilation of the Vilnius ghetto. On Monday, the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem honored him posthumously as "Righteous Among the Nations". Good will join his parents and other survivors at the ceremony in Israel. The search for evidence was difficult, as he had to collect testimonies from survivors scattered across the globe. Plagge has joined 20,757 men and women recognized by Yad Vashem as "Righteous Among the Nations" for rescuing Jews from annihilation by the SS.