Righteous Among the Nations

I've meant to do more with this category and this story is just why I created it. I want to share stories I hear about people who go out of their way, sometimes at great personal risk, to take care of someone else. From The Week magazine, April 22, 2005, in the "It Wasn't All Bad" section:

Israel has honored a World War II German army officer who saved about 1,200 Jews from the Holocaust. Maj. Karl Plagge ran a vehicle-repair facility for the army, using Jewish workers. When the SS began annihilating Jews in the nearby Vilnius ghetto, Plagge kept requesting more and more workers. He also convinced authorities to take along their families, supposedly to boost their motivation. The Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial group accorded Plagge its coveted "Righteous Among the Nations" title. Plagge joins 20,757 others who have been recognized for saving Jews from the Nazis. Only 410 are German, and just a handful were German soldiers.

BTW - If you've never heard of The Week, you should check it out. It's sort of like Cliff's Notes for other newspapers and magazines, a collection of snippets from all over. They pull in opinion pieces from different sides of issues in the news as well as things from overseas sources. Good stuff.