As we are led towards a progressively socialist society, I have been thinking about how I would fare in the future. A good place to start is with a famous socialist country, so I thought about Germany and its short, disastrous experiment with National Socialism (Nazism). I have seen pictures like this before, but until today, never knew who the circled individual was. So, I looked him up on Wikipedia and that information is listed below...
August Landmesser
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
August Landmesser (born 24 May 1910; missing and presumed dead 17 October 1944; declared dead in 1949) was a worker at the Blohm + Voss shipyard in Hamburg, Germany, best known for his appearance in a photograph[1] refusing to perform the Nazi salute at the launch of the naval training vessel Horst Wessel on 13 June 1936.[2]
Biography
August Landmesser was the only child of August Franz Landmesser and
Wilhelmine Magdalene (née Schmidtpott). In 1931, hoping it would help
him get a job, he joined the Nazi Party.
In 1935, when he became engaged to Irma Eckler (a Jewish woman), he was
expelled from the party. They registered to be married in Hamburg, but
the Nuremberg Laws enacted a month later prevented it. On 29 October 1935, Landmesser and Eckler's first daughter Ingrid was born.
A now-famous photograph, in which a man identified as Landmesser refuses to give the Nazi salute, was taken on 13 June 1936.
In 1937, Landmesser and Eckler tried to flee to Denmark but were
apprehended. She was again pregnant, and he was charged and found guilty
in July 1937 of "dishonoring the race"
under Nazi racial laws. He argued that neither he nor Eckler knew that
she was fully Jewish, and was acquitted on 27 May 1938 for lack of
evidence, with the warning that a repeat offense would result in a
multi-year prison sentence. The couple publicly continued their
relationship, and on 15 July 1938 he was arrested again and sentenced to
two and a half years in the concentration camp Börgermoor.
Eckler was detained by the Gestapo and held at the prison Fuhlsbüttel, where she gave birth to a second daughter Irene. From there she was sent to the Oranienburg concentration camp, then the Lichtenburg concentration camp for women, and then the women's concentration camp at Ravensbrück.
Their children were initially taken to the city orphanage. Ingrid was
later allowed to live with her maternal grandmother; Irene went to the
home of foster parents in 1941. After her grandmother's death in 1953,
Ingrid was also placed with foster parents. A few letters came from Irma
Eckler until January 1942. It is believed that she was brought to the
so-called Bernburg Euthanasia Centre
in February 1942, where she was among the 14,000 killed; in the course
of post-war documentation, in 1949 she was pronounced legally dead, with
a date of 28 April 1942.
Meanwhile, Landmesser was discharged from prison on 19 January 1941.
He worked as a foreman for the firm Püst, a haulage company. The company
had a branch at the Heinkel-Werke (factory) in Warnemünde.[3] In February 1944 he was drafted into a penal battalion, the 999th Fort Infantry Battalion. He was declared missing in action, and presumed killed during fighting in Croatia on 17 October 1944. Like Eckler, he was declared legally dead in 1949.
The marriage of August Landmesser and Irma Eckler was recognized retroactively by the Senate of Hamburg in the summer of 1951, and in the autumn of that year Ingrid assumed the surname Landmesser. Irene continued to use the surname Eckler.
The thing is, this man seemed to be quite ordinary, but in his society, he was a criminal, however. His crime was a race crime. Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? All he did was to try to innocently marry a woman who was Jewish (and they didn't even know it). He must have loved her greatly, for he was willing to go to a concentration camp rather than break it off. Eventually he was released and later drafted into the army and subsequently died in Croatia.
For some, history is boring. Many people will simply not care about someone who died about 70 years ago. However, when a person understands what is correct to do and does it for the right reasons, is he a criminal? Technically, that is defined by the laws of the nation- so yes, he was a criminal. But, what if the laws are simply WRONG? Consider- just because someone is in prison, does that automatically make them an evil person? Let the Scriptures speak for themselves...
Genesis, Chapter 39
20 Joseph’s master took him, and put him into the prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were bound, and he was there in custody. 21 But Yahweh was with Joseph, and showed kindness to him, and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.
1 Kings, Chapter 22
26 The king of Israel said, “Take Micaiah, and carry him back to Amon the governor of the city, and to Joash the king’s son. 27 Say, ‘Thus says the king, “Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in peace.”’”
Jeremiah, Chapter 37
15 The princes were angry with Jeremiah, and struck him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe; for they had made that the prison. 16 When Jeremiah had come into the dungeon house, and into the cells, and Jeremiah had remained there many days;
Ephesians, Chapter 3
1 For this cause I, Paul, am the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles,
Philemon
23 Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you,
Colossians, Chapter 4
10 Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you, and Mark, the cousin of Barnabas (concerning whom you received commandments, “if he comes to you, receive him”),
Revelation, Chapter 2 (to the church at Smyrna)
10 Don’t be afraid of the things which you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested; and you will have oppression for ten days. Be faithful to death, and I will give you the crown of life. 11 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. He who overcomes won’t be harmed by the second death.
Daily, I see our freedoms being eroded and our government becoming more antagonistic towards Christians. It seems to me that it just a matter of time before a Christian becomes a "criminal". If that does happen, it happens- so what? Look at the above list for a few of your companions. The highlighted portion of verse 10 tells of your reward. Believe it, because it is true!!!!!