A Man Who Refused To Salute Hitler

Tragically powerful love story of Landmesser and Irma Eckler.

Some photos can tell vibrant and detailed stories, while others urge a thousand questions and cause the most benevolent of minds to race with fascination.

Something like this happened when a photograph of a man named August Landmesser went viral on the internet after it appeared in 2011.

The picture is not new by any means. It was taken in June of 1936 in an act that the Nazis carried out, and it has baffled many observers for generations.

The snap depicts a brave solitary man refusing to salute Hitler during the induction ceremony of the new German ship, an act that, if noticed at the time, would have brought some horrific punishments upon him.

People have been asking questions about this man, like what or who drove him to take such a step, a step that would surely put his life to an end.

Joining The Nazi Party, Was Regretted By August Landmesser

August Landmesser became part of the Nazi party in 1931, and like many other Germans, his love and respect for the Nazis and Hitler was to the brim.

He was in the party for long enough that he was considered a loyal member of the party.

However, it was not long before August Landmesser started feeling out of place, what was once his love now became a regret.

It was only a matter of time before he would renounce his oath because of his differences with the party.

1935, Was The Year When Landmesser Was Kicked Out Of The Nazi Party

August Landmesser’s clash with the Nazi Party began when he fell in love with Irma Eckler in 1933. Their romance lasted for two years before Landmesser proposed to Eckler, a proposal which she accepted wholeheartedly.

The only problem was that Irma Eckler was a Jewish woman — we all know which party Landmesser was from and what that party stood for.

When Landmesser and Eckler got engaged, the party was already settled along with its policies which were thoroughly Anti-Semitic.

August Landmesser was kicked out of the Nazi Party when others found out about his engagement with a Jewish woman in 1935.

Law At The Time, Didn’t Even Allow Them To Get Married

Love has no limits, well, at least in the case of August Landmesser and Irma Eckler. Landmesser decided that no matter what happened, he would spend the rest of his life with his true love, Eckler.

Even after being kicked out of the party, he continued his relationship with Irma Eckler. Knowing the reality of hate against the Jews at the time and the laws in place, he and his future bride-to-be applied for a marriage license.

But the wish to live together under an official marriage license by the government was soon declined by Nuremberg’s law.

The law, which was made to protect the German blood and honour, didn’t allow any German to marry a Jewish person.

There Were Many Reasons to Hate Hitler

The couple of August Landmesser and Irma Eckler was not willing to stop; they were willing to pay any price to secure their future together.

Even when they were denied marriage licenses, they continued pushing themselves for a better future. The couple had their first daughter in late 1935, named Ingrid.

After becoming a dad, August Landmesser knew that this regime would not bring any good for him and his family; thus, he stood still with his arms crossed to record his protest and refused to salute Hitler.

It is hard to understand the emotions of the father whose daughter is born in a country he served and loves, but the same government refuses to accept her as a citizen.

Fleeing Was The Only Option Left

Tired of the problems which they had to face on every step, the couple lost all their hope in the system and decided to flee from Germany to Denmark along with their daughter Ingrid.

The family wanted a place where they could live in peace and without the hate that they had to face constantly — but only if they knew what would happen on the border.

The Landmesser family never made it across the Danish border. The family was stopped and detained at the border, where August Landmesser was charged according to some absurd law of dishonouring the German race.

The charges against August Landmesser were dropped because there was insufficient evidence to prove it.

However, he was ordered by the court to end the relationship with Irma Eckler, which Landmesser refused. He didn’t come all this way to leave her wife and child.

The Couple Was Detained Again In 1938

The Landmesser couple decided to live together even after the court ordered them to separate their ways.

In 1938 Irma Eckler got pregnant with their second child, but their happiness was short-lived, and the German authorities again detained them.

This time the court wasn’t willing to let August Landmesser go freely with a Jewish woman, so they convicted him with the exact charges as before and sentenced him to three years of camp.

Irma Eckler was also sent to prison, where she gave birth to their second daughter Irene, Eckler was sent to another camp soon after giving birth to her newly born child, and this was the last time she ever saw her daughters.

It is believed that Irma Eckler was most likely transferred to camp, where she was sent to a gas chamber to die along with 14,000 Jews. Horrible.

Landmesser Was Freed In 1941, But Another Forced Task followed it

August Landmesser was released in 1941. However, it didn’t bring any happiness to him because he didn’t know how to find his wife and daughters. This was the most disturbing time of his life.

Not knowing where his family was or in which state they were in was heavy on his heart. He never saw his wife, Ingrid and his second child Irene again.

Not long after being released from the camp, he was called again by the German forces. Landmesser was forced into service in which he saw action for a few months. August Landmesser was declared missing while he was in Croatia.

August Landmesser was a man who died for a regime that didn’t let him live in peace and took his family away from him.

Final words

If cruelty had limits . . .

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