Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/11/24

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Subject: Re: Leitz and Nazis
From: "Joe B." <Joe@azurite.demon.co.uk>
Date: Sun, 24 Nov 1996 23:36:24 +0000
 
In article <199611241751.SAA11552@mailbox.swip.net>, Hans Pahlen
<hans.pahlen@mark.komvux.se> writes
>But I think it is unfair to connect the Leica camera with the nazis. It is
>well known that the Leitz family was anti-nazi, and that Elsie Kuhn-Leitz,
>daughter of Dr. Ernst Leitz II spent several months in jail in 1943 because
>of helping Jewish people to escape to Switzerland.

There is some information on this in the Leica Collector's Guide in one
of the early chapters. From memory, I recall that it says that during
WWII the Leitz family used to listen to Allied radio broadcasts in a
soundproofed room (so as to escape detection as this would not have gone
down well had it been discovered). They also sent out a messenger to
welcome the first Allied troops into the town.
- -- 
Joe B.