Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/02/14
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]george day sked: How alone would I be, amongst Leica buffs, in finding that the tastelessness of collecting Nazi mementoes extends to cameras? The dour Scots compilers of my dictionary define a 'memento' as "something kept or given as a reminder". In the case of objects associated with political regimes which many people find abhorent, I suppose the what makes the collecting of them tastless or not is the motive behind the desire to have a reminder. The motives of the person who purchases a buying a Luftwaffe-engraved Leica to add to his collection of memorabilila of the Nazi era, are probably different from those of a Leica collector who buys a similar camera to join his collection of screw-mount Leitz cameras. I recently bought an 8.5cm f2 Sonnar (which not Nazi-engraved, but was almost certainly built as part of German's wartime production programme) because it's the the most affordable high-quality fast screw-mount lens of that focal length. At major camera fairs here in the UK, you can take your pick from the fake "Nazi-engraved Leicas" being offered by East European dealers - cameras which presumably were faked by citizens of a country which suffered appalling loss of life during the Second World War. That strikes me as tasteless, but it's possible that the persons who who manufacture these fakes may be young enough for the war to be for them just something which their parents (or even their grandparents) talk about. Regards, Doug Richardson