The Man who refused to salute

[DamianM]

Is there a thread about how awesome this man is??

 

[SHOWSOMECLASS]

Probably a Jehovah's Witness.
If you have been to the Holocaust Museum In Washington D.C. these folks refused to buy a party card, salute or say, "Heil Hitler" The individuals of this group could easily have "publicly renounced" their religion and practiced their faith underground.
How would you feel as you were being seperated from your wife & children and boarded the train for Auschwitz and you knew all that you needed to do was to renounce being a Catholic and you get right off the train? The Holocaust Museum refers to them as a courageous stand of conscience.

 

[SHOWSOMECLASS]

On top of that no hat to shade his face or identity. Notice notice his head is held high. Standing firm in the faith.
Brother is a rock. Probably was interned or shot for that.

 

[lolly_loisides]

I was looking at a similar photo yesterday (This was taken in Sydney 1928. They were an Italian opera company touring Australia). The man in the front sitting down stands out.

 

[DamianM]

On top of that no hat to shade his face or identity. Notice notice his head is held high. Standing firm in the faith.
Brother is a rock. Probably was interned or shot for that.

His name is presumably August Landmesser.


Heres his wiki Page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Landmesser

 

[Stearmen]

Many of his Admirals would not do the NAZI salute!

 

[Fastuni]

@Stearman

Many of his Admirals would not do the NAZI salute!

The Wehrmacht branches retained the normal military salute until the assasination attempt of July 20, 1944.
Only after this event, the Nazi regime required the Wehrmacht to fully adopt the Hitler salute.
Now of course when greeting Hitler, they would also before be expected to make the Hitler salute...
whether this photo of Admiral Lütjens (of Bismarck fame) greeting Hitler in the military style implies a stronger political message... I doubt it.
It obviously didn't run him into deeper trouble. He probably regarded Hitler as his Commander and greeted him accordingly in the military manner (though a bit sloppy.)

...

Now to the original subject of the thread:

An internet search of August Landmesser yields more photos that support this identification.
This page on his Jewish fiance (the refusal of their marriage by the regime is assumed to be one reason of his behavior at the crowd photo) shows at the last photo the family - he certainly looks like the man in the crowd photo:
http://www.fasena.de/courage/album/f2.htm


My first thought was that he must be a worker - which he was. Most workers voted Social-Democrat or Communist before the "Third Reich", and even though the Nazis succeeded quite well in convincing, tricking, lying or buying off an overwhelming number of workers into submission (even Landmesser joined briefly the Nazi party - probably in hopes of a better job - before being expelled) many workers were steadfastly anti-Nazi and formed a large part of the persecuted leftist opposition.

Refusing the Hitler salute was not a seldom occurence in Nazi Germany, though. The SD (Party security service)-Reports on the "public mood" often noted frequent instances of people, often entire worker districts of large towns (leftist) and rural areas, particularly in Bavaria (strongly Catholic) not using "Heil Hitler" for various reasons (among those were also occasions of the regime doing some particularly unpopular measure or failing to meet some expectation). However these were mostly cases of people refusing the salute in their everyday routine (people were expected to greet each other always with "Heil Hitler"). Refusing the salute during a public rally, as Landmesser did, was certainly riskier. Especially since the crowd (note the faces looking towards the camera) seems to have been aware that they are being photographed.

BTW Jehovah's witnesses were a very small minority in Germany (ca. 30,000 in 1933) - so by law of probability alone it would have been unlikely that the guy in the photo would be one. Though they indeed were also refusers of the salute.

P.S.: Not directly related to the topic:

The occasion the photo was taken, the launch of the school-ship "Horst Wessel" (a killed Stormtrooper that was made a Nazi-icon) took place at the "Blohm & Voss" shipyard in Hamburg, which is one of the settings of the 1944 color film "Große Freiheit 7" which was discussed here: http://www.thefedoralounge.com/show...intage-fashion-in-colour-Wartime-German-film&

 

[TomS]

Interesting, thanks...

 

[Story]

Verbatim, from Max von Zatorski's diary (see link at bottom).

On July 20th, Radio Belgrade broadcast the news of the assassination attempt on the Führer. We were honestly upset by Count v. Stauffenberg’s action, because we find it unthinkable that anyone could murder our Commander in Chief at a time when our nation was engaged in a desperate struggle.
We were equally upset about the order that the Wehrmacht, to show its solidarity with the Reich’s political leadership, will henceforth give the Party salute instead of the traditional military salute. Although most of us have been brought up in the era of the Third Reich and support its leaders we were, as members of the Wehrmacht, aware of our constitutional commitment to political inactivity and neutrality, and find the order incompatible with this obligation.
On our next return to the base, we are estranged to find, that the flotilla had been assigned a “Political Guidance Officer”. It soon became evident that Lieutenant Theo Harms had few ambitions beyond staying alive and going home as soon as possible to resume his dairy products distribution business.


Note that while Max was in the Kriegsmarine, in this context he uses Wehrmacht as an overall term for the German armed forces.

 

[Stearmen]

@Stearman

Now of course when greeting Hitler, they would also before be expected to make the Hitler salute...
whether this photo of Admiral Lütjens (of Bismarck fame) greeting Hitler in the military style implies a stronger political message... I doubt it.
It obviously didn't run him into deeper trouble. He probably regarded Hitler as his Commander and greeted him accordingly in the military manner (though a bit sloppy.)

I think you will find this interesting, and I know he was not the only Naval officer to do so. "Admiral Lütjens was the fleet chief for the Rhine Exercise, the name of the operation the Bismarck was sunk on, was a stern and stubborn man. He was strictly military, refusing to wear the sword of the Kriegsmarine with its swastika in favor of his dirk from the Imperial German Navy, and even refusing to salute Hitler himself in the familiar party “heil” salute, instead making a military salute." Don't forget the Graf Spee's Captain, Captain Langsdorff took his own life in a hotel room in Montevideo, lying on an old "imperial" German navy flag, a calculated insult to Hitler.

 

[Fastuni]

Thanks. Yes there was quite a number of officers with conservative, "pre-1918" proclivities, that didn't hesistate in showing them.

 

[Luftwaffles]

The National Socialists were always at odds with the Wehrmacht... well, except maybe the Luftwaffe (Goering). Many senior officers had high contempt for that "little corporal" that led them. I guess that's what happens when you try to lead a bunch of conservatives with a radical.

 

[Fastuni]

There was much resentment between the old conservative army elite and Nazi party, but they shared also key goals.
The 1933 "power grab" of the Nazis- or "National Resurrection" as it was called - was an alliance of conservative elites (among them the upper "military class") and the NSDAP. The "Day of Potsdam" and the elimination of the "radical elements" (SA leadership) of the NSDAP further cemented this conservative/military alliance with Hitler. The "Third Reich" of the 1930's was based on the "twin pillars" of Wehrmacht and Party. While the conservative military leaders resented many aspects of the NSDAP, (which they considered as an uncultured bunch of proletarian upstarts), from a (Prussian) aristocratic-elitist point of view, they shared many goals and policies with Hitler: rearmament, revision of the Versailles treaty, expansion of Germany, German hegemony in Europe, a powerful state of "law & order" within and anti-Marxism. Where they inscreasingly disagreed with Hitler (and one of the chief causes of military opposition and resistance circles) was his ever increasing meddling in military affairs and what they saw as his reckless push towards wars of aggression and "dangerous adventures" without proper preparation.
After Stalingrad it was primarily the looming defeat that turned a larger number of highranking Wehrmacht officers against Hitler.
Of course some of them eventually reached the point where they entirely broke with the Nazi-system (also from a moral position), despite being highly supportive of it in the past... often well into the war.

 

[Renault]

Von Lettow-Vorbeck. I was always impressed with not only his record in Africa during the Great War, but also by his alleged statement to Hitler when offered a position in the nazi regime. His comment was not very flattering.

Postscript. To give the man his due, he should be named the Father of modern guerrilla warfare!!! The man was a genius in this regard.

 

[this one guy]

Admirable defiance.