He would never see his beloved wife again.Įckler was detained by the Gestapo and held at the prison Fuhlsbüttel, where she gave birth to a second daughter Irene. The couple publicly continued their relationship and a month later August Landmesser would be arrested again and sentenced to hard labor for two years in a concentration camp. The source of Landmesser’s protest, like many great tragedies, starts with a love story. He argued that neither he nor Eckler knew that she was fully Jewish, and was acquitted on for lack of evidence, with the warning that a repeat offense would result in a multi-year prison sentence. Their engagement a year later got him expelled from the party, and their marriage application was denied under the newly enacted racial Nuremberg Laws.Īugust and Irma had a baby girl, Ingrid, in October of the same year, and two years later in 1937, the family made a failed attempt to flee to Denmark, where they were apprehended at the border.Īugust was arrested and charged for “dishonoring the race” under Nazi racial law. In 1934, Landmesser met Irma Eckler, a Jewish woman, and the two fell deeply in love. Little did he know that his heart would soon ruin any progress that his superficial political affiliation might have made. Believing that having the right connections would help land him a job in the pulseless economy, Landmesser joined the Nazi Party in 1931. The story of August Landmesser’s anti-gesture begins, ironically enough, with the Nazi Party. What made this photo and Landmesser’s defiance unique is that it represented the protest of one man, in its most sincere and pure form. Everyone in attendance is showing their undying support for Der Führer by throwing out their very best “Sieg Heil”.Īugust Landmesser, grimacing with arms crossed, stood strong and defiant as he showed his disapproval by not displaying support for the Nazi Party. Within the picture, a lone man stood with arms crossed as hundreds of men and women around him held up their arms in salute and allegiance to the Nazi Party and its leader, Adolf Hitler. The photo was taken at the launch of a German army vessel in 1936, during a ceremony that was attended by Adolf Hitler himself. August Landmesser, the man who folded his arms.
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