By Josh Grossberg

Unwilling to acquiesce to the demands of a shameful ideology, a German Nazi rescues a group of Jews by putting them to work in a factory during World War II. He saves about 1,200 people, but by the end of the war, he despairs that he didn’t do enough. He returns to civilian life in anonymity, but is later recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations by the State of Israel.

It’s a story familiar to anybody who knows about Oskar Schindler, who has become a symbol for choosing an honorable path in the face of evil (And whose story was told in the film “Schindler’s List,” which ultimately led to the creation of USC Shoah Foundation”)

But it also describes a man named Karl Plagge, whose life matched Schindler’s in incredible ways, but whose bravery and sacrifice in Lithuania were kept secret by the Soviet Union for decades.

It’s a secret that Simon Malkes is eager to share, even though the story ended badly for most of the Jews that Plagge rescued. After getting wise to his attempts, the Nazis hunted down and killed most of the Jews at the factory. Only about 100 of them survived the war, but the 87-year-old Malkes credits him with saving his own life in the town of Vilnius.

“Thanks to him, I survived,” said Malkes, who now lives in France after settling there after the war.

Malkes’ book, “The Righteous of the Wehrmacht” was recently translated into English from the original French. There is also a German version available. It is available through Amazon and other online retailers.

Although he discusses his youth in the testimony he gave to USC Shoah Foundation nearly 20 years ago, Malkes wanted to delve deeper into his own life and his experience with Plagge – and to give the man his historical due.

“What can you say during an hour?” he said. “The book is much more detailed and describing politics what happened with the Russians. They put my father in jail.”

He has traveled to the United States and across Europe promoting the book, and the reception has been overwhelmingly positive. He has even made two trips to Darmstadt, Germany, where Plagge was born in 1897 and where he died in 1957.

“I received a lot of mail thanking me,” Malkes said. “You have no idea how interested people are.”