August Landmesser

August Landmesser (German: [ˈaʊ̯ɡʊst ˈlantˌmɛsɐ]; 24 May 1910 – 17 October 1944) is suggested to be the man appearing in a 1936 photograph conspicuously refusing to perform the Nazi salute. Landmesser had run afoul of the Nazi Party over his unlawful relationship with Irma Eckler, a Jewish woman. For this, he was imprisoned and eventually drafted into penal military service, where he was killed in action.

August Landmesser
Born24 May 1910 (1910-05-24)
Moorrege, Schleswig-Holstein, German Empire
Died17 October 1944 (1944-10-18) (aged 34)
Ston, Independent State of Croatia
Buried
A mass grave near Hodilje
Allegiancenone; forcible conscription by Nazi Germany
Service/branchDeutsches Heer
Years of service1944
RankSoldat
Unit999th Light Afrika Division
Battles/warsWorld War II
World War II in Yugoslavia
Spouse(s)Irma Eckler (a 1935 marriage illegal under the Nuremberg Laws, but retroactively legalized in 1951)
Children2

Years after his death, his daughter suggested that he was the man in the famous photograph. However, the identity of the man in the photograph is not known with certainty—another family claims that the man is Gustav Wegert.

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