This is an amazing story, I know it's not "bird oriented" but I think it
will make all you Leica owners proud.
James Auer E-MAIL | ARCHIVE
I
I carry my Leica camera a bit more proudly these days. The reason? A story
had never heard before - a tale of courage, integrity and humility that isa
only now coming to light, some 70 years after the fact.
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
creati! ve tool was a family-owned, socially oriented firm that, duringthe
Nazi era, acted with uncommon grace, generosity and modesty.photographic
E. Leitz Inc., designer and manufacturer of Germany's most famous
product, saved its Jews.way
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
as to earn the title, "the photography industry's Schindler."at
As George Gilbert, a veteran writer on topics photographic, told the story
last week's convention of the Leica Historical Society of America inPortland,
Ore., Leitz Inc., founded in Wetzlar in 1869, had a tradition ofenlightened
behavior toward its workers. Pensions, sick leave, health insurance - allwere
instituted early on at Leitz, which depended for its work force uponLeitz
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
II began receiving frantic calls from Jewish associates, asking for hishelp
in getting them and their families out of the country.the
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
guise of Leitz employees being assigned overseas. Employees, retailers,family
members, even friends of family members were "assigned" to Leitz salesoffices
in France, Britain, Hong Kong and the United States.Bremen
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
at a New York pier and making their way to the Manhattan office of LeitzInc.,
where executives quickly found them jobs in the photographic industry. EachLeica.
new arrival had around his or her neck the symbol of freedom - a new
The refugees were paid a stipend until they could find work. Out of thisdelivering
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,
groups of refugees to New York every few weeks. Then, with the invasion ofHow
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.
did Ernst Leitz II and his staff get away with it?desperately
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
needed hard currency from abroad, and Leitz's single biggest market forworks. A
optical goods was the United States.
Even so, members of the Leitz family and firm suffered for their good
top executive, Alfred Turk, was jailed for working to help Jews and freedonly
after the payment of a large bribe.questioning.
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
She also fe! ll under suspicion when she attempted to improve the livinghad
conditions of 700 to 800 Ukrainian slave laborers, all of them women, who
been assigned to work in the plant during the 1940s. (After the war,them
Kuhn-Leitz received numerous honors for her humanitarian efforts, among
the Officier d'honneur des Palms Academic from France in 1965 and theAristide
Briand Medal from the European Academy in the 1970s.)Lipton,
Why has no one told this story until now? According to the late Norman
a freelance writer and editor, the Leitz family wanted no publicity for itsTrain,"
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
by Frank Dabba Smith, a California-born rabbi currently living in England.Archive
The book ($5 plus postage) is available from the American Photographic
Historical Society, 1150 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10036. I
recommend it.
Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Oct. 9, 2002. James Auer
