Historical Photos To Blow Your Mind: New Release!

Californian Lumberjacks vs. Giant Redwoods

This photo from the 1950s era shows Canadian lumberjacks cutting down giant redwood trees. The size of the trees made them prime lumber. Some of these trees were over 1,000 years old when they were harvested. It is so sad to see the majestic beauties cut down.

Logging was (and still is) dangerous work. The loggers used axes and saws to bring down trees. Today, technology allows logging companies to bring down much more lumber in a shorter amount of time, and they don’t need horses and oxen to haul the lumber to a different location. Today the Redwood National Forest contain only 133,000 acres of redwood forest; nearly 90 percent of the original trees have been logged.

The Man Who Refused to Give the Nazi Salute

He has now been identified as August Landmesser, who was a member of the Nazi Party which he thought would help him get a job until 1935 when he married a Jewish woman, Irma Eckler. Landmesser was a worker at the Blohm + Voss shipyard in Hamburg, and he refused to salute at the launch of the naval training vessel Horst Wessel on June 13, 1936.

Landmesser and Eckler tried to flee to Denmark but they were apprehended. Landmesser was sentenced to two and a half years at a concentration camp, and Eckler was detained until she gave birth to their second daughter, then was sent to another concentration camp. She was killed at the Bernburg Euthanasia Center.