The famous photo of the German who refused to pay tribute to Hitler

Paying tribute to someone can be done in almost any way. But in the Nazi regime, the most common way to pay tribute to Hitler was with a salute, specifically „seig heil“, where the right hand was raised. This salute was obligatory for everyone. As we wrote at the beginning, this salute was a way of paying tribute to Hitler, of expressing respect and loyalty to his party. And since this salute was an obligation, it was considered a kind of law that could not be broken. In 1936, however, this „law“ was broken, and by someone from whom few would have expected it.

August Landmesser was a young man who belonged to the Nazi Party, but who nevertheless refused to pay tribute to Hitler at a meeting (the only person of all) and did not raise his right hand. The year was 1931 and August joined the Nazi Party. But something happened that he had not counted on. While in the Nazi Party, he fell in love with a Jewish woman named Irma Eckler. It was a great love, and so in 1935 he proposed to her. But as soon as it was revealed that he wanted to marry a Jewish woman, he was expelled from the Nazi Party. He did not marry her, however, because the Nuremberg Law meant that the authorities refused their marriage proposal. In October 1935, his first daughter was born. Due to the rejection of their marriage, August began to feel a great dislike for Nazism. And so, one day, exactly what the headline of this article proclaims happened.

 June 13, 1936 Nazi convention. Hitler arrives, and to show his disgust in the crowd, August is the only one not to raise his right hand. For him a sign of defiance, for the others a sign of disrespect. This act was not dealt with at first, but it did not go unresolved for long. In 1937, he and his family were arrested at the Danish border. He was charged with racial defamation and resisting the Nuremberg Law.

 

A year later he was released, but he was forbidden to see his daughter. Thanks to this, he showed further resistance, which led to his arrest again in 1938. He refused to obey the order not to see his daughter. This time, however, his action was punished severely and he was sent to a concentration camp for 3 years, where he was to do all kinds of work. This punishment caused him never to see his daughter and wife again. His wife was also arrested later, just as she was pregnant with his second child. This was immediately sent to a women’s concentration camp after its birth.

 

The fate of his wife is still unknown, but there is information that she was sent to be euthanized in 1942 and was killed along with 14,000 other people. August was released in 1944 but was subsequently sent to war. He was lost on a mission in Croatia and was declared missing. He was subsequently declared dead five years later.