August Landmesser

We have all seen the picture, i used a few hours ago to poke some fun at the dressgate thing



All the time I saw it I assumed it was an anonymous guy, an unnamed contrarian doing what he wants. It seems its not the case and his stance was with cause, August Landmesser was his name and the love of a woman made the nazis take everything from him.

In 1931, hoping it would help him get a job, he joined the Nazi Party. In 1935, when he became engaged to Irma Eckler (a Jewish woman), he was expelled from the party.They registered to be married in Hamburg, but the Nuremberg Laws enacted a month later prevented it. On 29 October 1935, Landmesser and Eckler's first daughter, Ingrid, was born.

In 1937, Landmesser and Eckler tried to flee to Denmark but were apprehended. She was again pregnant, and he was charged and found guilty in July 1937 of "dishonoring the race" under Nazi racial laws. He argued that neither he nor Eckler knew that she was fully Jewish, and was acquitted on 27 May 1938 for lack of evidence, with the warning that a repeat offense would result in a multi-year prison sentence. The couple publicly continued their relationship, and on 15 July 1938 he was arrested again and sentenced to two and a half years in the concentration camp Börgermoor.

Eckler was detained by the Gestapo and held at the prison Fuhlsbüttel, where she gave birth to a second daughter, Irene. From there she was sent to the Oranienburg concentration camp, the Lichtenburg concentration camp for women, and then the women's concentration camp at Ravensbrück. A few letters came from Irma Eckler until January 1942. It is believed that she was taken to the so-called Bernburg Euthanasia Centre in February 1942, where she was among the 14,000 killed; in the course of post-war documentation, in 1949 she was pronounced legally dead, with a date of 28 April 1942.

Meanwhile, Landmesser was discharged from prison on 19 January 1941. In February 1944 he was drafted into a penal battalion, the 999th Fort Infantry Battalion. He was declared missing in action, after being killed during fighting in Croatia on 17 October 1944. Like Eckler, he was legally declared dead in 1949.

August Landmesser

Most real tales dont have a happy ending, but perhaps his bitter end gives more significance to his small act during the launch of a nazi vessel, I tip my hat to you sir, you did well at following your ideas and not the mobs

a reply to: Indigent

Well done for finding a brilliant photo with a great back story.

That photo has become one of my favourite all time photos since you posted it!

a reply to: Indigent

Bloody good chap!

Having died the way he did, I wonder if he ever thought it might be worth shanking as many Nazis as he could get at before he died?

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: Indigent

Bloody good chap!

Having died the way he did, I wonder if he ever thought it might be worth shanking as many Nazis as he could get at before he died?

He probably thought that things would get better, that it was just a passing phase of mass hysteria.

That said, he joined the national socialist party on the promise of a good job, sound familiar?

Another link i forget to put in the OP

rarehistoricalphotos.com...