The Man Who Didn’t Salute Hitler

Joining the Nazi party purely in hopes of finding a job, German August Landmasser 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 Landmasser very public protest against the Nazi regime when he didn’t salute Hitler during a public rally in 1936. And so Landmasser 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.