Sent to me by my great friend Kitty. Danka!
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Thank goodness there were so many kind people in the world during these horrific times!
The Leitz family, manufacturers of the famous Leica camera, were really good
guys during the Nazi era -- read on.
The Leica is the pioneer 35mm camera. From a nitpicking point of view, it
wasn't the very first still camera to use 35mm movie film, but it was the
first to be widely publicized and successfully marketed.
It created the "candid camera" boom of the 1930s.
It is a German product - precise, minimalist, utterly efficient. Behind its
worldwide acceptance as a creative tool was a family-owned, socially
oriented firm that, during the Nazi era, acted with uncommon grace,
generosity and modesty.
E. Leitz Inc., designer and manufacturer of Germany's most famous
photographic product, saved its Jews.
And Ernst Leitz II, the steely eyed Protestant patriarch who headed the
closely held firm as the Holocaust loomed across Europe, acted insuch a way
as to earn the title, "the photography industry's Schindler."
As George Gilbert, a veteran writer on topics photographic, told the story
at last week's convention of the Leica Historical Society of America in
Portland, Ore., Leitz Inc., founded in Wetzlar in 1869, had a tradition of
enlightened behavior toward its workers. Pensions, sick leave, health
insurance - all were instituted early on at Leitz, which depended for its
work force upon generations of skilled employees - many of whom were Jewish.
The 'Leica Freedom Train'
As soon as Adolf Hitler was named chancellor of Germany in 1933,Ernst Leitz
II began receiving frantic calls from Jewish associates, asking for his help
in getting them and their families out of the country.
As Christians, Leitz and his family were immune to Nazi Germany's Nuremberg
laws, which restricted the movement of Jews and limited their professional
activities.
To help his Jewish workers and colleagues, Leitz quietly established what
has become known among historians of the Holocaust as "the Leica Freedom
Train," a covert means of allowing Jews to leave Germany in the guise of
Leitz employees being assigned overseas.
Employees, retailers, family members, even friends of family members were
"assigned" to Leitz sales offices in France, Britain, Hong Kong and the
United States.
Before long, German "employees" were disembarking from the ocean liner
Bremen at a New York pier and making their way to the Manhattan office of
Leitz Inc., where executives quickly found them jobs in the photographic
industry.
The refugees were paid a stipend until they could find work. Out of this
migration came designers, repair technicians, salespeople, marketers and
writers for the photographic press.
Keeping the story quiet
The "Leica Freedom Train" was at its height in 1938 and early 1939,
delivering groups of refugees to New York every few weeks. Then, with the
invasion of Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, Germany closed its borders.
By that time, hundreds of endangered Jews had escaped to America, thanks to
the Leitzes' efforts. How did Ernst Leitz II and his staff get away with it?
Leitz Inc. was an internationally recognized brand that reflected credit on
the newly resurgent Reich. The company produced range-finders and other
optical systems for the German military. Also, the Nazi government
desperately needed hard currency from abroad, and Leitz's single biggest
market for optical goods was the United States.
Even so, members of the Leitz family and firm suffered for their good works.
A top executive, Alfred Turk, was jailed for working to help Jews and freed
only after the payment of a large bribe.
Leitz's daughter, Elsie Kuhn-Leitz, was imprisoned by the Gestapo after she
was caught at the border, helping Jewish women cross into Switzerland. She
eventually was freed but endured rough treatment in the course of
questioning.
She also fell under suspicion when she attempted to improve the living
conditions of 700 to 800 Ukrainian slave laborers, all of them women,who had
been assigned to work in the plant during the 1940s.
(After the war, Kuhn-Leitz received numerous honors for her humanitarian
efforts, among them the Officier d'honneur des Palms Academique from France
in 1965 and the Aristide Briand Medal from the European Academy in the
1970s.)
Why has no one told this story until now? According to the late Norman
Lipton, a freelance writer and editor, the Leitz family wanted no publicity
for its heroic efforts.
Only after the last member of the Leitz family was dead did the "Leica
Freedom Train" finally come to light.
It is now the subject of a book, "The Greatest Invention of the Leitz
Family: The Leica Freedom Train," by Frank Dabba Smith, a California-born
rabbi currently living in England.
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More interesting info:
http://www.nemeng.com/leica/index.shtml
Proud Daughter of Walter (Monday) Poniedzialek
540th Engineer Combat Regiment, 2833rd Bn, H&S Co, 4th Platoon
There's "No Bridge Too Far"
