here is a remarkable photograph taken in Hamburg in 1936. It shows a crowd of shipyard workers gathered for the launch of a ship. All except one are enthusiastically raising their arms in the ‘Heil Hitler’ salute. Yet there is one man with his arms firmly folded across his chest. He is defiant. He refuses to go along with the crowd, refuses to do what is expected of him. This is August Landmesser. He had been engaged to a Jewish woman, Irma Eckler, but the Nazi Nuremberg Laws of 1935 prevented him from marrying her; nonetheless they went on to have two daughters. Tragically, Irma later died in the Ravensbrück concentration camp. Landmesser was also imprisoned, charged with ‘dishonouring the race’, sent to a
