Irma Eckler

Passions

German holocaust victim. She met August Landmesser (see Wikipedia link below) in October 1934 and when they wanted to marry in August 1935 their banns were not accepted by the registry office because Irma was Jewish, even though 'The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour' was not to come into effect until 15th September 1935. On 29 October 1935, Landmesser and Eckler's first daughter Ingrid was born. 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. A few letters came from Irma Eckler until January 1942. It is believed that she was taken 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. 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 their daughter Ingrid assumed the surname Landmesser. Irene continued to use the surname Eckler. Sources: Wikipedia page of August Landmesser and memorial site http://www.fasena.de/courage/english/ Link to Wikipedia biography