Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/11/24
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 12:43 PM 11/24/96 -0400, Dan C. wrote: >Furthermore, I have independently heard the story mentioned in an earlier >post concerning how Leitz would give cameras to emigrating Jews (when they >still could) because they were forbidden from taking currencies out of >Germany. Is there any evidence that high ranking officers of Leitz (or of >the Letiz family) were active Nazis? Well, I don't believe Leitz GAVE cameras to refugees: I believe refugees BOUGHT cameras to take with them as they were not allowed to take many of the more conventional forms of valuata (cash, art, watches, jewelry, specie, &c &c). As to Leitz bonzen and their political affiliations, none were members of the Partei to my knowledge and several of the family -- especially Ernst Leitz II and Else Kuehn-Leitz, who was imprisoned by the Gestapo for almost three months in late '43 -- were outspoken to the point of foolishness in their opposition to the Nazi regime. Some employees, most notably Benser and Kisselbach, served as propaganda photographers at the various front; Kisselbach's cross-channel shots of the Luftwaffe bombers returning over the cliffs of Dover are too well known to require more than a mention. Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!