One Book, One Community Reader's Guide

The Search for Major Plagge

By Michael Good

Reader’s Guide

Author’s Bio

Michael Good, the son of two Jewish immigrants from Vilna Poland, was born in Southern California in 1957. Michael and his two siblings grew up in West Covina, California, a suburb just outside of Los Angeles. Michael attended Occidental College in Los Angeles where he majored in Political Science. After college, he decided to pursue a career in medicine and attended medical school at the University of Rochester. After graduating from medical school, he and his wife Susan moved to Middletown, Connecticut where Michael entered the Family Practice Residency program at Middlesex Hospital. After graduating from residency, he helped found Middlesex Family Physicians with two of his classmates, and together they have been caring for patients in Middlesex County for almost twenty years. Dr. Good has devoted considerable professional energy to the prevention and treatment of tobacco-related diseases, working both in his practice and at the state level. The Good family moved to Durham in 1992 and his children Jonathan and Rebecca graduated from Coginchaug High School. The author has a variety of interests, including birding, hiking, kayaking, geocaching and travel. His interest in Holocaust history began in 1999 during a family trip to Vilnius, Lithuania and culminated in the writing of The Search for Major Plagge, his first book.

Plot Summary

In 1999, Michael Good, a family doctor from Durham, Connecticut traveled to Vilnius, Lithuania with his parents to explore his family origins and hear their tales of survival during the Holocaust. During this trip, his mother told him about the mysterious German army officer, a certain “Major Plagge,” who commanded her concentration camp and saved over 250 of his Jewish workers from the murderous intent of the Nazis. His mother told him that “Plagge saved us all.” His mother did not know what had become of the German officer after the war; Plagge had disappeared with the retreating German army in July of 1944 and vanished into the chaos of the war. Following this trip, Good set out to find this enigmatic officer, who his mother knew only as “Major Plagge,” trying to understand who this Major Plagge was and why a German officer would have acted so benevolently at a time when his countrymen were committing atrocities on a previously unthinkable scale. In this volume, the author shares his parents’ stories of survival and then tells how he embarked on a search for the man who saved his mother’s life. During this journey of exploration, he would build a team of camp survivors and researchers from Canada, France, Israel and Germany to answer the questions that haunted him. Good gradually reveals the story of a remarkable man of conscience, who transformed from an early supporter of the Nazi party into a covert rescuer of persecuted Jews.

Discussion Questions

Why do you think the author spent so many years avoiding the topic of the Holocaust even though it was so central to his family’s history? What kinds of social pressures do children of immigrants face regarding whether to embrace or distance themselves from their countries of origin?

In Chapter 2, the role of the Jewish Police is described. How would you judge the members of the ghetto police? Did Jacob Gens and the Jewish Police have any alternatives other than complying with the demands of the Nazis to supply them with victims? For populations under occupation, is it legitimate to cooperate in any way with the occupying authority?

What do you think of Hannah Gdud’s decision to turn herself in to the Lithuanian police so she could be with her son Mot’l when he died? Did the comfort she provided her younger son outweigh the pain she caused William?

Do you agree with Dov Gdud’s decision to share resources with the Beckenstein’s when they ran out of money? Is it right for a father to put his own children at risk in order to help others?

In Chapter 4, Samuel Esterowicz insists on allowing his seven-year-old nephew Gary Gerstein to hide in Zmigrod’s maline. This stance may have exposed 30 other Jews who would need to use this hiding place to extra risk that the maline would be revealed to the Nazis or their spies within the camp. Do you think this was a legitimate stand to save a child’s life? Was it worth putting 30 lives at risk?

Why do you think the author’s search to find Major Plagge succeeded after many of Plagge’s former prisoner’s previous attempts had failed?

What was the attraction of the Nazi party to average Germans during the 1920s and 1930s? Do you think they were attracted more to Hitler’s political and economic promises or his racial ideology? Do you think that people in democratic societies really understand candidates’ true intentions when they vote for them?

In Chapter 6, Plagge describes how he became Konrad Hesse’s godfather in violation of the Nuremberg Laws. How big a risk do you think he was taking? Have there been times in American history when interacting socially with a persecuted minority put a person at risk? Do you think there are persecuted groups with whom it is unwise to associate in America today? How willing are people to reveal to their neighbors or co-workers that they disagree with them politically?

Who in your life do you consider to be within your family or community, ie “one of your own”? Where does your personal circle of community

end, marking where someone outside it becomes an “other” or stranger?

Plagge describes his efforts on behalf of his prisoners as “inadequate,” saying that he only did what he was “allowed to do.” Do you think he could have done more? What were the risks of acting more vigorously?

How did Plagge use his position within the Wehrmacht to protect his Jewish prisoners from the SS? Did he violate any rules or put himself at risk when writing to SS commander Goeke and the HUV quartermasters office in his efforts to protect the women and children in the camp. Do you think he risked his life?

Looking at the groups and organizations you belong to, do you think that you could have an influence within these groups if you decided to try to change something within them?

Plagge was an early and enthusiastic supporter of the Nazi party. What influenced his transformation into a covert resister of the Nazis? How unusual is it for people to see that they have been working for a harmful cause?

Why did Plagge ask for the designation of “fellow traveler” at his trial in 1947? Can you think of any time in your life that someone has accepted responsibility for a wrong even though they could have escaped blame?

What role did religion play in Plagge’s decisions and actions? When you look around your life and the world at large, do you think religion brings people together or pushes them apart?

Do you think that the story of Karl Plagge and the Good family, which occurred during the horrors of the Holocaust, has meaningful lessons for us when we look at the more ordinary problems we face today? Do you think a “solitary” person inside the “blind multitude” can make a difference?

Book Discussion Dates

Monday, April 24, at 7:30 p.m. at Perk on Main in Durham Village, led by Hedda Kopf

Thursday, May 4, at 7:30 p.m., book talk led by Michael Good at Levi Coe Library

Tuesday, May 16, at 7:30 p.m. at the Middlefield

Federated Church, led by Hedda Kopf

Monday, May 22, at 7:30 p.m., book talk by Michael Good at the Durham Library

If you want to read more…

Denenberg, Barry. Shadow Life: A Portrait of Anne Frank and Her Family.

Scholastic Press, 2005

The author follows the Frank family from Frankfurt, Germany, to Amsterdam, Holland, where they hoped to live a normal life but were forced into hiding. Written in the format of a diary by Anne’s sister Margot (an oral history created from numerous primary source materials) it tells of the last months of the family’s lives, including a glimpse of Anne’s and Margot’s final days in Bergen-Belsen.

Gies, Miep. Anne Frank Remembered.

Miep Geis’ relationship with the Frank family began in 1933, when she came to work for Mr. Frank. In 1942 after the Nazi occupation of Holland, the Frank family went into hiding. Miep Gies and her husband provided food, news, and emotional support to the Franks for over two years, at great risk to themselves. She tells of the terrible day when the family was discovered, and of finding Anne’s diary.

Eman, Diet. Things We Couldn’t Say.

W.B.Erdmans, 1994

This is the true story of Diet Eman, a young Dutch woman, and her EMA fiancé, Hein, who risked their lives to rescue Dutch Jews from Nazi persecution in Holland during World War II.

Epstein, Helen. Children of the Holocaust: Conversations With Sons and Daughters of Survivors.

Penguin Books, 1988

This is an account of how the children of Holocaust survivors were affected by the horrific experiences of their parents. The psychological damage, along with the health problems suffered by the survivors, was in many cases detrimental to the metal health of their own children. Many survivors denied their

heritage and were never able to adjust, while others were eventually able to live fairly normal lives.

Wiesel, Elie. Night.

Hill and Wang, 2006

In Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel's memoir Night, a scholarly, pious teenager is wracked with guilt at having survived the horror of the Holocaust and the genocidal campaign that consumed his family. His memories of the nightmare world of the death camps present him with an intolerable question: how can the God he once so fervently believed in have allowed these monstrous events to occur? There are no easy answers in this harrowing book, which probes life's essential riddles with lucid anguish.

Witness : Voices From the Holocaust.

Free Press, 2000

These are first-person accounts of 27 witnesses, including Jews, Gentiles, Americans, Hitler Youth, Jesuit priests, and child survivors. They tell of life under the Nazis in the ghettos, concentration camps, death camps, and of the mixed emotions that accompanied the liberation and persisted in the years following the Holocaust.

Paldiel, Mordecai. Sheltering the Jews: Stories of the Holocaust Rescuers.

Fortress Press, 1996

Highlights the role of non-Jews in extending aid and assistance to Jews inside Nazi-dominated Europe. From the testimonies and files housed at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust martyrs and heroes memorial in Jerusalem, Paldiel presents dozens of stories of the circumstances and odds facing Jews and those who would help them.

Kranzler, David. The Man Who Stopped the Trains to Auschwitz: George Mantello, El Salvador, and Switzerland’s Finest Hour.

Syracuse University Press, 2000

Kranzler reveals the unknown story of the greatest single rescue effort during the Holocaust – the rescue of more than 140,000 Jews of Budapest, the last reservoir of Jews in Nazi occupied territories.

Schwarz-Bart, Andre. The Last of the Just.

R. Bentley, 1981

In 1185, in the old Anglican city of York, the Jews of the city were brutally massacred by their townsmen. As legend has it, God blessed the only survivor of this Medieval pogrom, as one of the Lamed-vov, the thirty-six Just Men of Jewish tradition, a blessing which extended to one Levy of each succeeding generation. This terrifying and remarkable Legacy is traced over eight centuries, from the Spanish Inquisition, to expulsions from England, France, Portugal Germany, and Russia, and to the small Polish village of Zemyock, where the Levys settle for two centuries in relative peace. It is in the twentieth century that Ernie Levy emerges, the Last of the Just, in 1920s Germany, as Hitler's sinister star is on the rise and the agonies of Auschwitz loom on the horizon. Considered by many to be the single greatest novel of the Holocaust.

Koonz, Claudia. The Nazi Conscience.

Belknap Press, 2003

To speak of a Nazi conscience "is not an oxymoron," the author states. The party had a philosophy and an ethic-an idea of right and wrong-however repugnant today's readers may find it. It was a relativist morality, valuing the well-being of the Volk over that of outsiders. Hitler promised “to rescue old-fashioned values of honor and dignity" by offering a secular faith to replace lost religious certainties. Koonz explores the promotion of these beliefs in German culture and law, and how they led to the catastrophe of the Holocaust, adding much to our understanding of how a civilized society could reach such infamous levels of violence.

Gilbert, Martin. Final Journey.

ibooks, 2006

Spanning the whole spectrum of deportations and experiences during the Holocaust years, this is a cautionary tale for what can happen when tyranny takes command, and when the secrecy that is inevitable in war enables an evil regime to seek the destruction of a whole people.

Roth, John. Ethics During and After the Holocaust: The Shadow of Birkenau.

Palgrave Macmillan, 2006

The author argues that the Holocaust continues to cast a disturbing shadow over basic beliefs concerning right and wrong, human rights, and the hope that human beings will learn from the past. This book explores those realities and the issues they contain. The book's thesis is that nothing human, natural or divine guarantees respect for the ethical values and commitments that are most needed in contemporary human existence, but nothing is more important than our commitment to defend them, for they remain as fundamental as they are fragile, as precious as they are endangered.

Hallie, Philip. Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed: The Story of the Village of Le Chambon and How Goodness Happened There. Harper & Row, 1979

Dr. Philip Hallie, a professor of philosophy at Wesleyan University, was in the midst of a lengthy study of human cruelty. Hallie had narrowed the scope of his research: he was studying the horrifying medical experiments the Nazis conducted on children in the death camps. Included in the documents which Dr. Hallie was reading was a brief article about a small village, Le Chambon, in the south of France. The article recounted how the people of this mountain village, under the leadership of their courageous Protestant pastor, saved untold numbers of Jews from the Nazis. Hallie realized that the brave people of Le Chambon would now be reaching old age, and soon their story would be lost. Determined to make certain that did not occur, within a year Dr. Hallie was in Le Chambon, and Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed is the result. It is a story of faith and courage, of ordinary Christians who lived lives of integrity, even at great cost. The people of Le Chambon believed in the preciousness of human life, that every person was made in God’s image, and they put that belief into practice. Though written by a philosopher after careful study, this is a not an academic exercise in ethics, but a well-written, compelling story of Christians who lived out what they believed. It is a story of ordinary people who became extraordinary, not by attempting something spectacular, but by being faithful in the ordinary of their lives. (Book review by Denis Haack)

For younger readers…

Byers, Ann The Holocaust Camps

Enslow, 1998

This book describes the establishment of the concentration camps throughout Europe and their eventual use as a means to eliminate the Jewish people. The labor camps were established to aid the German war effort and include Mauthausen and Dachau. The extermination camps included Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, and Auschwitz.

Giddens, Sandra. Escape: Teens Who Escaped the Holocaust to Freedom.

Rosen Publications, 1999

This book focuses on four Jewish teenagers who survived the horrors of living under Nazi occupation during World War II.

Meltzer, Milton. Rescue: the Story of How Gentiles Saved Jews in the Holocaust

Harper&Row, 1988

This book tells of individual acts of heroism by righteous gentiles who sought to rescue Jews from extermination during the Holocaust. Some of these were individuals such as Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat, Oskar Schindler, factory owner, Aristedes de Sousa Mendes, Portuguese Counsel. Perhaps the most impressive rescue of Jews happened in Denmark where the entire nation cooperated in helping the Jewish population flee to neutral Sweden.

Sender, Ruth Minsky. The Cage.

Alladin, 1997

A teenage girl narrates the true story of her family’s suffering under the Nazis – in a Polish ghetto, through deportation, and in concentration camps.

Novac, Ana. The Beautiful Days of My Life: My Six Months in Auschwitz and Plaszow

Henry Holt, 1997

Ana Novac started keeping a diary when she was young. Four years later when she was taken to Auschwitz and Plaszow she used scraps of paper, bits of newspaper and backs of posters to record what she felt and saw and thought. Ana survived the war and preserved her diary, the only account to emerge from Auschwitz with its author surviving.

Pausewang, Gudrun. The Final Journey.

Viking, 1996

Since Hitler came to power, Alice, a young Jewish girl, has hidden in the basement of her former home. The family has been betrayed, and now Alice is on one of the cattle car trains her grandparents had whispered about heading towards an unknown destination. A novel of Hitler’s Germany and its treatment of Jews. (Fiction)

Bachrach, Deborah. The Resistance.

Lucent Books, 1998

Discusses the efforts of Jews and non-Jews in various countries to stop the deadly persecution of Germany’s Jewish population by the Nazis.

Opdyke, Irene. In My Hands.

Knopf, 1999

Recounts the experiences of the author, who as a young Polish girl, hid and saved Jews during the Holocaust.

Rosenberg, Maxine B. Hiding to Survive.

Clarion Books, 1994

First person accounts of fourteen Holocaust survivors who as children were hidden from the Nazis by non-Jews.

Strahinich, Helen. The Holocaust: Understanding and Remembering.

Enslow, 1996

Outlines the history and the crucial issues, including the roots of anti-Semitism, the rise of Hitler, the roundups, the ghettos, the death camps, and the Nuremberg trials. There is a detailed chapter on the non-Jewish victims and an inspiring account of the rescuers.

Schroeder, Peter and Dagmar. Six Million Paper Clips: The Making of a Children’s Holocaust Memorial.

Kar-Ben Publishing, 2004

This book tells the inspiring and touching story of the teachers, students, and community of Whitwell Middle School in Tennessee, and their quest to understand and teach about the Holocaust. In rural Whitwell, all 1,600 residents are alike, "white, Anglo-Saxon, and Protestant." When the community middle school decided to teach diversity by focusing on the Holocaust, the students did not believe that the Nazis had killed six million Jews and five million others. To help them grasp the numbers, they collected 11 million paper clips, which they placed in a memorial made from a German World War II railcar.

Lowry, Lois. Number the Stars.

I think that Number the Stars is an amazing book. It's about ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen and her best friend Ellen Rosen. All they want to do is to have fun and play together. But, they can't. The Nazis marching all over town searching for Jews. Ellen and her family must be "relocated" and fast. Her family must leave Ellen in the care of AnneMarie and her family, in order to hide themselves. Ellen has done a great many things for AnneMarie and her family. Can they repay her by keeping her safe? This book is wonderful. It will keep you reading with page-turning suspense. If I rated this book from 1 to 5, I would give it a 5, because once you start reading it, you'll never put it down until you've finished it! (Student review from Amazon.com)

For the youngest...

Dr. Seuss, Horton Hears a Who. Random House, 1954

My favorite Dr. Seuss book as a child, and now a favorite of my kids. There are so many messages in this book, but they are never forced upon the reader. You are free to read it as a gentle story, a discussion of politics, a moral tale about the role of the individual in a community, or simply some of the catchiest poetry ever written. This fabulous story deserves to be in the center of any family's children's collection...and should be in with the grown-up books too. (Amazon review)

Dr. Seuss. The Sneetches and Other Stories. Random House, 1961

The Sneetches, written by Dr. Seuss, is an outstanding story. In this story the plain belly Sneetches are left out of all the activities that the Sneetches with stars on their bellies get to do. All the plain belly Sneetches want to do is join in and feel welcome, to have fun, and not be left out. Dr. Seuss's story of the Sneetches is descriptive, giving the reader a clear image. Even though I am in seventh grade and the reading is easy, there is a profound moral to this story. I would rate it 5 out 5 stars. (Student review from Amazon)

Cohn, Janice. The Christmas Menorahs: How a Town Fought Hate. Albert Whitman & Company 1995

It’s Hanukkah, and menorahs glow in the windows of the Schnitzer home in Billings, Montana. Then suddenly, a rock crashes through the window of Isaac Schnitzer’s bedroom. “But why?” Isaac wants to know. “Because we are Jews,” his father tells him. “A fine book for parents and teachers who want to discuss prejudice and hate crimes with their children.” (Booklist review)