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Historic Figures Who Set Out to Save Jews From the Holocaust

Khalid Elhassan December 15, 2020 32 min

Hanns Albin Rauter - World War II — A Dutch Resistance cell during WWII. For God and Country

25. August Landmesser’s Failed Attempt to Save His Family Was a More Typical Outcome of Efforts to Save Jews From the Nazis

August Landmesser, Irma Eckler, and their children. Pintrest

In 1937, Landmesser tried to save his family by fleeing with his infant daughter and pregnant wife to Denmark. Unfortunately, they were intercepted at the border and forced to turn back to Germany. Landmesser was charged with violating the Nuremberg Laws, but got off with a warning. However, when he refused to abandon his wife and family, Landmesser was sent to a concentration camp in 1938.

Irma Eckler was also sent to a concentration camp, where she was most likely murdered in 1942, with Landmesser able to do nothing to save her. He was released in 1941, and drifted in menial jobs until 1944, when he was drafted into the German army and placed in a penal battalion. He was killed in Croatia on October 17^th, 1944. Landmesser and Eckler were survived by two daughters, who lived through the war in an orphanage.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.