HKP 562 forced labor camp

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HKP 562, located on Subocz Street in Vilnius, Lithuania, was the site of an unusual glimmer of humanity during the dark days of the Holocaust. The camp was officially owned and administered by the SS, but run on a day to day basis by a Wehrmacht engineering unit, HKP 562 (Heeres Kraftfahr Park 562,) stationed in Vilna. HKP 562's commanding officer Major Karl Plagge was sympathetic to the terrible plight of his Jewish workers. Plagge and some of his men made efforts to protect the Jews of the camp from the murderous intent of the SS.

The HKP camp was hastily erected in September 1943 when Major Plagge learned of the impending liquidation of the Vilna Ghetto and with considerable difficulty gained permission to move his Jewish workers and their families to a free-standing labor camp on the outskirts of Vilna. The camp housed approximately 1,000 Jewish men, women and children. Due to the sympathies of Major Plagge, it was largely free of the abuse, hunger and brutality found in most slave labor camps in Nazi-occupied Poland. In spite of the generally benign attitude of the officers and men of the HKP unit, the SS did enter the camp on several occasions and committed atrocities. Most notable was the Kinder Aktion (an action against the camp's children) on March 27, 1944, during which the SS removed the vast majority of the 250 children living in the camp, who were then taken to their deaths. During the final days before Vilna was liberated by the Red Army in July of 1944, Plagge warned his Jewish workers of the impending arrival of SS killing squads. This warning allowed many of the camp's inhabitants to enter previously-constructed hiding places. Ultimately, 250 of the camp's 1,000 Jewish inhabitants survived the final camp liquidation. This group represents the largest single group of Jewish survivors of the Holocaust in Vilna.