Shanghai-Mayne
Well-Known Member
Thank you, Tie"At the launching of the naval training ship Horst Wessel on June 13, 1936, everyone raised their right arm in the “Hitler salute” at the climax of the big event when the ship was launched and the national anthem was played - except for one man. It is not clear who this man is. Irene Eckler from Hamburg thought she recognized her father August Landmesser, who was not allowed to marry his Jewish fiancée Irma Eckler because of the Nuremberg Race Laws of 1935. Their daughters Ingrid and Irene were born out of wedlock. August Landmesser was denounced in 1938, sentenced to two years in prison for “racial defilement” and then sent to the front as a soldier, where he was considered missing since 1944. Irma Eckler was sent to the Ravensbrück women's concentration camp in 1938 and murdered in 1942.
But Wolfgang Wegert, also from Hamburg, also believes that he can identify his father Gustav Wegert in the man with the folded arms, who demonstrably worked as a locksmith at Blohm+Voss and, as a devout Christian, refused to give the “Hitler salute” out of religious conviction that “you should obey God rather than man”.
August Landmesser - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
