Review of The Search for Major Plagge -- Highland County District Library

The Search for Major Plagge by Michael Good

227 p. Fordham University Press, 2005

Reviewed by Brenda Fisher

It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book this good. I first picked it up because I had heard a book talk by the author on C-Span2 Book TV.

The book is partly the story of Major Karl Plagge, a Nazi and the commander of a concentration camp in Poland who is credited with saving the lives of at least 250 Jews during the holocaust. His story is one of an ordinary man trying to do the right thing and quietly turning into the kind of hero that any one of us could strive to emulate. He wasn’t a strong man with amazing skills as many heroes of fiction are portrayed. He was in fact crippled by polio and burdened with guilt that as an early member of the Nazi Party he had helped to bring about the atrocities he eventually fought against.

If the book was only Major Plagge’s story, it would still be a good book. However, The Search For Major Plagge is also the story of a modern American child of two Holocaust survivors. His search for the man that his mother and grandfather credit with saving their lives is an inspiring story of healing and reconciliation. The cooperation between Jews of many nations and modern Germans in this search and the bonds that build between the author and those who help him on his quest are one of the beautiful parts of this story. The story of Good’s father and paternal grandfather and their survival also enriches the book.

Lastly this book is about basic values and carrying them on in the face of adversity. Good discusses the value of friendships, moral principles and gratitude. He quotes Major Plagge as saying in a letter to another survivor who managed to contact him after the war, “Just the fact that you remember with gratitude the (alas!) much too slight, inadequate help that I could give, shows me your noble character. Gratitude is a much rarer flower on this desolate earth than, for instance, the doing of so-called “good deeds,” for which one can impute a great variety of motives. There is only one motive for gratitude, namely a good heart.” This was a good book that did good to my heart and I hope will touch and encourage you as well.

For more about Major Plagge the author has also placed the memoirs of his grandfather and mother and the travelogue of their journey to Poland on his website at : http://www.hometown.aol.com/michaeldg/