Supposedly, IG was Swiss-based. Nevertheless, being based in Europe, in a place where one of Kodak's factory was, may allow me to throw a bit more of light to a few events, some of them mentioned by Mr. John S. Friedman.
In Spain, between 1936-1939 there was a Civil War. Spain being a Republic by then, left and right wings entangled into the war, out of which the fascist branch was declared the winner. Because of Spain still recovering from its own war, we maintained ourselves as theoretically neutral. However, as the Dictator in charge of ruling the country was sympathetic to some people like Hitler or Mussolini, it's not strange that such deals appeared (curiously, one of the managers of Kodak Italy mentioned in the document was Kodak Spain CEO's son). In fact, between 1937 and 1942, Germany made films in Spain praising their presence and (under their own point of view) invaluable help during Spanish Civil War (i.e. Heinz Paul's Kameraden auf See(1938) or Karl Ritter's In Kampf Gegen den Weltfeind (1939). Other propaganda films were also made here, remarkably Reig's España Heroica from 1937.) Censorship manuals from that time encourage censors to turn a blind eye to those films from "friendly countries" (i.e. Italy and Germany). To begin with, Spain bought no less than 70 german nazi films in 1938, and that was just the beginning, with Germany Ambassador Stoher and Foreign Office Ministry Spanish General Gomez Jordana swapping gifts and presents and signing a "cultural agreement". Between 1939 and 1941, Spain premiered 155 german films, versus 178 from the US and about 75 produced in Spain. The NO-DO (spanish national propaganda newsreel) evolved from "Actualidades Ufa", the spanish version of its german counterpart.
After the WWII, however, things changed a little here. US gave money to rebuild Europe but not Spain (the [in]famous ERP, known in here as Marshall Plan). In fact, in 1944, Gerhardt Häuser (president of the Reich's Cinematographic Chamber) appeared at NO-DO's central offices to complain about the fact that unused film was being bought from Kodak US rather than to Agfa in Germany (that was a very funny episode, worth to have been there, maybe some other day we will discuss about it). By 1943, only 10 german films were premiered in Madrid. In the end, Spain surrendered with things like Rota's navy base in the 50s (still there), and finally Spain received some help from the outside, thanks in part to things like the Kennan Brief in 1947.
Of course, there are lots more to it than that. My point here is: money rules, independently of its origins 😉
About the actual question from FallisPhoto, my guess would be that they were made in the US, probably sharing the design and maybe some machines because of the merge. Do you think that moving several thousands of cameras from Europe to US in the 50s was cheaper or more cost efficient than having the machinery for each part?
