Ernest Leitz -- Aid to Jewish Employees

[sircarl]

I seem to remember this story surfacing before, but apparently there is now new evidence -- presented in today's Guardian (UK newspaper) -- on the efforts of Ernest Leitz to save Leica's Jewish employees from Nazi persecution:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/germany/article/0,,2009987,00.html

 

[Bullwinkle]

Great story! Thanks for the link.

 

[rolleistef]

There's a video about this on Youtube. Very interesting indeed!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6j0ynkR8Ic

 

[kshapero]

Thanks for the read and the video.

 

[Pablito]

Best write-up I've seen on this in a long time:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/ee05b91e-b0f6-11db-b901-0000779e2340.html

 

[Joe Mondello]

I posted this on the DPReview . . .

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Back in the early 1960s my Dad had a graphic arts company and one of his clients was the ad agency Young & Rubicam. I went with Dad one Saturday over to Y&R where he introduced me to a photographer named Joe Eisenberg. I recall Dad asking Mr. Eisenberg to show me the number tattoed on his arm. I was probably 10 years old and didn't really comprehend what I was looking at for a few years.

Mr. Eisenberg had been presented with a Leica M3 (DS) with a DR Summicron 50mm lens by the Leitz company, as I understood it, as part of reparations for Mr. Eisenberg's interment in a Concentration Camp. The camera had "Joseph Eisenberg" engraved in block letters on the back under the shutter winder.

When Mr. Eisenberg needed to sell the camera due to illness, Dad bought it from him in 1962. He let me use this M3 on a class trip to Washington DC in 1963. It became "my" camera for the next several years. It was stolen from my NYC apartment in 1988.

I've always wondered where "my" M3 wound up, but the memory of Joe Eisenberg (who was always very kind to me over the years) is really what I find precious.

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So E Leitz was also involved in war reparations and I thought that should be told too.

 

[sircarl]

Pablito,

The Financial Times article you supplied is excellent, even better than the Guardian's! Many thanks.

 

[mike goldberg]

Frank Dabba Smith, born in California, is a Reform rabbi in the UK. In 2002, he published a 34 page booklet, The greatest invention of the Leitz family: The Leica Freedom Train. The Wehrmacht, dependent on the Leitz factory's range finder sights for weaponry, quietly looked the other way, when Ernst Leitz II sent Jewish colleagues and employees abroad on 'business trips.'

Each new arrival in New York, carried the symbol of freedom... a new Leica. Making their way to the Manhattan offices of Leitz Inc., they quickly found jobs in the photographic industry. See Link:

http://nemeng.com/leica/005eb.shtml

I met Frank Dabba Smith in the early 1990's, when he was doing a segment of his rabbinical studies in Jerusalem. An accomplished photographer and Leica fan, he has published over 150 photos in The Economist. Frank is a great guy, and I'm occasionally in touch with him via email.

Cheers, mike