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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

27. The Man Who Refused to Go Along With the Crowd

Among those who lacked the means to help Jews through any means other than moral example was August Landmesser, a German shipyard worker from Hamburg. He is best known for appearing in a photograph in which he conspicuously stood out from the crowd by refusing to perform the Nazi salute. It happened in 1936, at the launch of a new ship. A crowd can be seen raising their hand in the infamous gesture, except for Landmesser. He stood – and stood out from the crowd – with his arms crossed.

Closeup of August Landmesser. Rare Historical Photos

As seen below, August Landmesser’s actions then and afterward probably did not save a single Jew. He nonetheless set a moral example of a man who did what was within his power to do. He was willing to give it all up, including his life, rather than go with the crowd, and go along with evil.

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.