Re: [Leica] Leitz and the Holocaust

["Joseph Codispoti" <joecodi@thegrid.net>]

What a thoughtful, passionate and wholly civil opinion of a sordid subject;
thank you.
Joseph Codispoti

- -----Original Message-----
From: Afterswift@aol.com <Afterswift@aol.com>
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Cc: joecodi@thegrid.net <joecodi@thegrid.net>; 100043.3005@compuserve.com
<100043.3005@compuserve.com>
Date: Wednesday, September 02, 1998 8:14 AM
Subject: [Leica] Leitz and the Holocaust


>Why do we not talk about these, at least not with the intensity with which
we
>refer to the Jewish holocaust? is it because we have no excuse for standing
>idle while people are being massacred with impunity? Or is it because the
>Jewish vote in the USA is very powerful while there is little
representation
>by the other respective
>nationalities? --Joseph Codispoti
>---------------------------------------------------------------
>Joe,
>
>I think the reason the European Holocaust is foremost in Western minds is
that
>it occurred at all in Christian Europe. It strikes at the very heart and
soul
>of everything we believe in. It comes down the generations to us like a
>running sore.
>We ask ourselves, why did our moral institutions fail us? Why didn't
Western
>values prevent this horrendous crime? Why didn't Westerners as individuals
>meet the test? An even deeper fear underlies the Holocaust: What effect
will
>it have on Christianity? Why did it fail in the crunch? Is Christianity
dead?
>Did it die in Auschwitz? If so, what will replace it?
>
>The difference between the Holocaust and the other genocidal acts is also
one
>of scale and methodology. The Holocaust was carefully prepared. Hitler used
>the lives  of innocent people as ransom. It was cold-blooded political
murder
>carried out in an industrial operation. The Germans carefully robbed and
then
>murdered their victims. Compared to the Holocaust the other persecutions
never
>had the deadly organization of concentration camps designed to rob, murder
>millions efficiently, and before the end to reduce their humanity by
working
>and starving them to death.
>German doctors, lawyers, engineers and private corporations were used to
make
>the process as total as possible.
>
>The Germans used anti-semitism as the legitimizing force that would further
>their goals throughout Europe. Their propaganda was designed around anti-
>semitism to mobilize and create a movement which they could lead. No other
>persecuting entity did that to such a degree.
>
>Joe, it isn't merely Jewish people who are calling German corporations to
>account.
>Something deep in the spiritual roots of Westerners is trying to come to
terms
>with what happened.
>
>How sad that Leitz was involved in the Holocaust. And how ironic that Swiss
>banks  brokered the victims' loot for war materials, and the Swiss state
>denied haven to those victims.
>
>It is the dimensions and moral bankruptsy of the West that we are
struggling
>with, Joe. The lawsuits and the settlements are merely symbols of a
collective
>shame. Great as Leicas are, I still regard my M3 with fear and trembling
for
>what it represented in the ever recent past.
>
>Best,
>Bob
>