The Man Who Didn’t Salute Hitler
Joining the Nazi party purely in hopes of finding a job, German August Landmesser was eventually sentenced to two years at a labor camp for falling in love with a Jewish woman whom he tried to marry. But before he reached prison, this famous photograph captured Landmesser very public protest against the Nazi regime when he didn’t salute Hitler during a public rally in 1936. And so August Landmesser is now remembered in history as the man who didn’t salute Hitler.
Love overrode the anti-Semitism that swept throughout the country, though it wasn’t strong enough to save his would-be bride Irma Eckler from Nazi persecution. Like so many others, Eckler’s life came to a tragic and premature end at a death camp.