On a Day of Celebrating So Much That's Truly Evil, Remember This Man ...

August Landmesser was declared a disgrace to his race for trying to marry a Jewish woman. He never left her. And he didn't salute Hitler.

The man refusing to salute said to August Landmesser, though others claim it is a man named Gustav Wegert. The photo taken a Nazi rally at a German shipyard, where Landsmesser worked, in 1936.

The man in this photograph is identified by his children to be August Landmesser. Dr. Imtiaz Ahmed, writing for The Financial Express. gives the short version of his story:

August Landmesser was once a proud member of the Nazi party who thought they were the answer to his economic troubles. He even had a membership card.

All changed when he met Irma Eckler, a Jewish girl. They fell in love with each other and got engaged in 1935.

As soon as it was discovered, he was kicked out of the party. They applied for a marriage license in Hamburg. But the Nuremberg laws were enforced just then, prohibiting such a union; so the license was denied.

Meanwhile, Irma Eckler became pregnant, and Irma and August stayed together despite the threats. August was kicked out of the party for being with a Jewish girl but continued to work at the shipyard in Bremen. Landsmesser was on the docks on June 13th, 1936, when Hitler came to christen a new ship. Workers were mandated to deliver a vigorous Sieg Heil salute to the Führer, but the man thought to be Landmesser refused. The Nazi Party took this propaganda photograph, but apparently the image editors missed this remarkable “silent statement” by a very brave man.

As conditions for dissenters—and threats to Jews—became worse and worse, Landmesser tried to get Irma, now pregnant again, and his daughter out of Germany. But they were stopped at the Danish border. Landmesser was put on trial for his relationship with Irma and charged with the allegation of dishonoring the race.

He escaped conviction (lack of evidence) but was ordered not to see Irma. He did not comply, and both were arrested in 1938. A pregnant Irma was sent to a concentration camp [Ravensbruck], where she died in a gas chamber after giving birth to Irene, their 2nd child. August was released from jail to be impressed into the German army. He was sent to the front in Croatia in 1944 and died in combat. He is buried in a mass grave there.

Dr. Ahmed:

Both Landmesser and Irma were officially listed as dead in 1949, and two years later, the senate of Hamburg recognised their marriage retroactively.

August and Irma’s two daughters, Ingrid and Irene, survived the war and were eventually reunited with the members of their family who survived.

Today, in Arizona, 100,000 Americans will commemorate the absolutely inexcusable murder of a man many of them adored. Charley Kirk’s murder—a undeniably political murder for reasons we don’t yet completely understand—is despicable, unacceptable, and absolutely un-American. Every American should feel outrage at this act of debased violence.

However, the political rally that today will be attended by Donald Trump and J.D. Vance—hoping to capitalize in the most craven of ways on the rabid fury that has surfaced over Charley Kirk’s murder—celebrates a man who stood for white supremacy, male supremacy, the application of eugenics profiling of blacks, the excision of gay and trans rights from U.S. laws, no-guardrails gun rights despite massive losses of innocent lives (including those of children), and the establishment of a Christian nationalist state in America, which is an act of overthrowing the government, and by virtue of it, an act of advocating treason. He also ordered his followers to harass professors he thought of as “woke.” Doing so, as Trump is now doing, is essentially enlisting American citizens in an act of EXTRAJUDICIAL PUNISHMENT which violates the civil liberties and rights of everyone they target. Everyone who advocates such extrajudicial action and everyone who engages in it should be in prison. And one day they will be.

This rally will be streamed lived by ABC, CBS, CNN, and Fox—every major television network in this country—all of whom caved on this despite the record of Charley Kirk, which arguably ticks every single check box for an exclusionary racial-privileging religious state. NFL “ moments of silence” commemorating this thoroughly dishonorable man have been encouraged by the president of the United States, like it’s his right to order this travesty to be shoved down the throats of Americans on National TV.

Meanwhile, Mr. Trump is also threatening every journalist that if they tell the truth about Charley Kirk, they are going to canceled or tried for some unspecified crime. Mr. Trump is apparently taking names. And the canceling of Jimmy Kimmel, coming on the heels of the firings of journalists, TV commentators, and Stephen Colbert, bear tangible witness to the fact Trump is at war with the media.

Jimmy Kimmel has just sued ABC and Trump for a billion dollars. Go, Jimmy!!

I will not watch this memorial. I will boycott Disney, ABC, Hulu and every other corporate worshiper of Mammon who sells out this country.

I will instead dedicate this dark, dark day to August Landmesser—who died at age 34—and Irma Eckler Landmesser—who died at age 29—and their two daughters.

And I dedicate this day to every one of you who stands up in this mad, mad time. Thank you from the bottom of my soul.