The Search for Major Plagge by Michael Good

Reader’s Guide

Author 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 of the mysterious German army officer, a certain “Major Plagge” who commanded her concentration camp and who 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 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 two 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 four, 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 the risk that it would be exposed 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 for?

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 Nazi Party 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 six, 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 with 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 have 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?