[rollei_list] Re: Rollei TLR - The History by Ian Parker
- From: "Jeffery Smith" <jls@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2006 15:03:51 -0500
Parker made it seem more than lukewarm. But I have never blamed civilians
for the follies of their political leaders. :-)
Jeffery Smith
New Orleans, LA
http://www.400tx.com
http://400tx.blogspot.com/
-----Original Message-----
From: rollei_list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:rollei_list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Marc James Small
Sent: Monday, September 04, 2006 9:21 PM
To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [rollei_list] Re: Rollei TLR - The History by Ian Parker
At 10:00 PM 9/4/2006, Jeffery Smith wrote:
>Rollei, like many other corporations in the 30's, were supportive of
>the Nazi party prior to the war. When the war was over, they resented
>the British occupation at first, but warmed up to them after
>interacting with the British for a while. I think that Rollei was
>embarassed over having utilized a Jewish photographer for Hitler's
>photo shoot as it would raise eyebrows.
Jeffery
To the contrary, Franke & Heidecke, as was the
case with almost the entire German optical and
camera industry, were lukewarm towards the Nazi
Party and government from 1933 to the end. F&H
and Voigtländer both attempted to avoid taking
slave laborers and were so nice to the ones they
were forced to take that the local Nazi Party
investigated the companies for lack of commitment
to the New World Order. (Elsi Leitz in Wetzlar
was thrown into a concentration camp for her
outspoken opposition to the Nazis, and the head
of the German optical industry, Heinz
Küppenbender of Zeiss, was tried by the Nazis for
his sheltering of slave laborers -- he was only
acquitted through the direct intervention of
Speer.) The German metallurgy, chemical,
ship-building, and automotive industries all
played closely with the Nazis, but not F&H or the
other camera companies other than KW (owned by an
American who had got it at a fire-sale price when
the former Jewish owners were forced out -- both
Jewish families, though, DID make it to the US
safely, one to Cleveland and the other to LA,
where some of the descendants still ran a camera
store as recently as a decade back). (The one
German auto company to distance itself from the
Nazi regime, oddly enough, was Volkswagen,
actually owned by the Party, though Ferry Porsche
was a frequent visitor to Hitler because of his
tank designs, even though the Mercedes designs
were more commonly accepted for service production.)
And, Parker to the contrary, F&H welcomed the
British occupation. I interviewed the US
representative on the Inter-Allied Council on
Optical Reparations, and he was very sour in
recounting how closely F&H worked with the
British -- "I wish we had had that sort of spirit
at Zeiss", he said. But, then, he REALLY
disliked and distrusted the British, so maybe that flavored his remarks a
bit.
Parker tells interesting tales but they are
anecdotal, disjointed, and generally not to be
trusted unless otherwise authenticated from an
independent source. His books are necessary
reads, but hold them at arm's length and keep the salt-shaker at close hand.
Marc
msmall@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Cha robh bàs fir gun ghràs fir!
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