LEICA AND THE JEWS

A "good" story for a change - truly remarkable.

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LEICA AND THE JEWS

The Leica is the pioneer 35mm camera. It is a German product -

precise, minimalist, and 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 in

such a way as to earn the title, "the photography industry's

Schindler."

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, Leitz's activities intensified after the

Kristallnacht of November 1938, during which synagogues and Jewish

shops were burned across Germany.

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 Each new arrival had around his or her neck the

symbol of freedom - a new Leica camera. 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 cameras, 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 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

Officer d'honneur des Palms Academic 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.

Thank you for reading the above, and if you feel inclined as I did to

pass it along to others, please do so. It only takes a few minutes.

Memories of the righteous should live on.