'Nazi who saved Jews' honoured

A German military officer who became known as the "Nazi who saved Jews" was honoured yesterday by Israel's Holocaust memorial for rescuing hundreds of Jews during World War II.

Major Karl Plagge, who served as a Nazi officer in Lithuania from 1941-1944, was named "Righteous among the nations".

Plagge was in charge of a factory that employed hundreds of Jews. He employed unqualified people to save them from deportation, and warned his workers in June 1944 that they would be handed over to the Nazis. That enabled about 200 people to escape and survive.