Hitler’s Waldo: The German who didn’t care

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception 

Just a photograph of your average Nazi rally in Hitler Germany. Or is it?

At the launch of a German army vessel in 1936, attended by Adolf Hitler himself, the crowd of Nazi enthusiast salute Der Fuhrer but at a closer look, the photograph shows one unimpressed man.

Refusing to salute, his arm folded with a facial expression of a daring silent protest that could have cost him his life. Notice a few of the folks behind him seem confused and unsure of his actions as they try to create as much distance as possible from him as the crowd allowed. There are a few dirty looks too.

The man in the photograph was August Landmesser, a shipyard worker later arrested for breaking the law. His crime? Attempting to marry a woman who was part Jewish.

Landmesser and his wife did not survive the war but their daughters did, who identified him in the photograph. One of them recognized their father in the sea of Nazi saluters and began sharing the brave example he set.

Images via here, here and here via Cracked

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