25. August Landmesser’s Failed Attempt to Save His Family Was a More Typical Outcome of Efforts to Save Jews From the Nazis
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 17th, 1944. Landmesser and Eckler were survived by two daughters, who lived through the war in an orphanage.