Hey Thoughty2 here.
Some photos can tell rich, detailed stories.
Other inspire a thousand questions, and cause the most benign of minds to race with intrigue.
Such happened when this photograph went viral on the internet after it resurfaced in 2011.
It’s not a new photograph by any means, taken in 1935, it has bewildered many an onlooker
for generations.
It seemingly depicts a brave, solitary man refusing to salute Hitler during his speech,
an act that if noticed at the time, would surely bring some horrendous punishment upon
him.
People have long asked “who is that man” and “what or who drives him to risk his
life in being so defiant”.
I mean it’s evident by the gentleman’s body language that he didn’t just forget
to hail Hitler, he’s out to cause some trouble.
This badass was German shipyard worker August Landmesser and August’s brave act of disobedience
was born out of love.
You had better prepare yourself because we’re about to embark on a love story that makes
The Notebook look like a Twilight fan-fiction.
Flash back to 1931.
Germany’s economy is in tatters; your family can’t afford a sauerkraut sandwich between
them.
Hitler’s rise to power is just getting going, handing out leaflets saying “come to our
Nazi rally on Friday night, there’s free beer all around, and do bring a friend…
as long as they’re German.”
So what does August do?
Well he joins the Nazi party of course, in hope of a better job.
Three years later he met his forbidden love, a Jewish woman named Irma Eckler.
Just a year later they got engaged.
Because of this August was expelled from the Nazi party.
The betrothed couple were registered to be married in Hamburg but a month later the Nuremberg
laws were enacted which made their union illegal.
A few months later they had a baby girl named Ingrid.
The now famous photo was taken soon after, when Hitler unveiled a new military vessel
at the shipyard where August worked.
His crossed arms and steely gaze directly into the face of the Fuhrer himself are an
expression of his anger towards the way his wife, child and he had been treated by the
political party that he hoped would help him.
But I’m afraid this isn’t a love story with a happy ending, things only got worse
for August Landmesser and his family.
Irma fell pregnant again and fearing what would happen to their family, August, Irma
and baby Ingrid attempted to flee to Denmark but they were apprehended at the border.
August was charged for “dishonoring the race” and imprisoned for a short time.
The Gestapo ordered August to have no further relations with Irma.
Obviously he refused to follow orders and only a month later was arrested again and
sentenced to two years at a concentration camp.
At the same time the Gestapo seized Irma and sent her to various concentration camps over
the next few years where their second child was born.
August would never see Irma again.
She eventually met her end in the gas chambers at Bernburg.
The two children were sent to orphanages and went into hiding several times until the war
ended.
Luckily they survived but our poor protagonist August Landmesser wasn’t so lucky.
When his span in the concentration camp came to an end, he was drafted into a penal battalion
and ordered to fight in Croatia against the allies.
These were basically poorly armed and poorly trained units assembled from German prisoners
of war and forced to fight for the Germans in what were often suicide missions.
August was killed in action in Croatia in October 1944.
But August’s legacy will never die, for the photograph which captured his bravest
moment will live on for eternity, inspiring thousands more to fight against seemingly
unstoppable evils.
If you want to make a difference you have to be the difference.
Thanks for watching.