RIDING THE LEICA TRAIN.

RIDING THE LEICA FREEDOM TRAIN

(ED. I cannot vouch for the veracity of this story. I just received it this AM from a good friend. If you have further information about the train please add to the "comments" section. I used this vintage Leica camera  for gathering data during the Korean "War".) 

"Each new arrival (in New York) had around his or her neck the symbol of freedom - a new Leica."

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."

The 'Leica Freedom Train'

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.

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 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, Alfred Turk, 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 Officier 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.