August Landmesser, The Man Behind The Crossed Arms

http://all-that-is-interesting.com/august-landmesser

by Savannah Cox

     There is a picture at the beginning of this article of a group of Nazis saluting Adolf Hitler except for one man. This man was named August Landmesser whose life came to a devastating end. Although, most men in the crowd saluted out of fear, Landmesser could not bring himself to do it. He was deeply in love with a Jewish woman named Irma Eckler. Their engagement caused Landmesser to be expelled from the party and they had their first daughter the same year.  At the time, their marriage was not recognized because their application was denied due to the newly enacted Nuremberg Laws. The couple tried to flee to Denmark where they were stopped at the border and Landmesser was imprisoned for "dishonoring the race." Shortly after being released from prison, Landmesser was arrested again, and sent to work in a concentration camp for 30 months. He would never see his wife again. Irma would soon be captured by the Gestapos and sent to various prisons and concentration camps where she would give birth to their second child, Irene. Both children were sent to orphanages. Irma died in a gas chamber at Bernburg in 1942. Landmesser was released in 1941 and soon drafted into a penal infantry to Croatia where he went missing and presumed dead. In 1951, the Senate of Hamburg recognized the marriage of August Landmesser and Irma Eckler.

     This article has informed me about a few laws enacted at that time that I was not aware of. It also informed me of how corrupt their society was, although, the holocaust was a big indicator of that. Reading a personal story about a Jewish family during this time makes me feel more sympathy for the peoples lives that were ruined. Millions of families were ripped apart and brutally treated just like this one/