That man refused to perform the Nazi salute.
In that 1936 photograph taken in Hitler's Nazi Germany, everyone greets their Führer.
All but one! But why is this man taking such a risk?
The man who crosses his arms in the middle of the greeting crowd is called August Landmesser.
He's a German worker at a shipyard.
The photo was taken on June 13, 1936, when Hitler attended the inauguration of a sailboat in Hamburg.
August Landmesser is the only one who doesn't perform the fascist salute.
At the time, he could have been arrested for such a provocation.
But he is surrounded by workers whose left-wing culture is not very favourable to the Nazi regime.
It is then not denounced.
But why does he refuse to greet the Führer?
Five years earlier, August Landmesser joined the Nazi party, hoping to find work sooner.
In 1934, he fell in love with Irma Eckler, young, beautiful... and Jewish.
The regime, in the name of racial purity, forbids them to marry.
However, the illegitimate couple decided to have children.
In the summer of 1937, August tried to bring the family to Denmark.
He was arrested by the police.
In September, the traitor was accused of "Rassenschande" (racial pollution). He was finally acquitted, but ordered to leave his family.
Unthinkable! He then returns to his family.
In 1938, August was arrested again.
This time, he was sent to a labour camp.
Irma died in the gas chambers of Bernburg in 1942.
Their two daughters were then placed in an orphanage.
In the fall of 1944, the eternal opponent was forcibly enlisted on the Eastern Front in a battalion of former prisoners.
He disappeared on October 17, 1944, near Ston, Croatia.
But his legend survives him.
In 1991, his second daughter Irene recognized him in a photo published in a German newspaper.
She then tells her story in a book, helping to make this picture the symbol of the "courage to say no".
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