Righteous gentile

German Major Karl Plagge sheltered 1,200 Jewish men, women and children at a Lithuanian garage that repaired German vehicles. Plagge's actions were discovered by Michael Good, an American who began searching for the Nazi who had saved his mother.

It is unusual for Yad Vashem to bestow the "Righteous Among the Nations" title on a German who was part of the Nazi war machine, the memorial's chairman Avner Shalev told the BBC News website.

"He asked for more and more workers and tried his best to keep the conditions relatively more humane," Mr Shalev said.

...

Mr Shalev said some of Plagge's key letters to the German high command were discovered in archives only recently.

"We wanted to be sure he hadn't committed any crimes against humanity - that's why it took so long... All the survivors said he had saved their lives."