Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/02/15

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: Nazi Paraphernalia
From: Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>
Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2001 11:04:43 -0500
References: <200102150404.UAA13841@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>

At 01:14 AM 2/15/2001 -0500, Douglas Cooper wrote:
>Couldn't agree more.  In fact, I used to feel more than a little
>uncomfortable about using a camera from a company so strongly identified
>with, for instance, the Luftwaffe.  I've heard stories recently, however --
>I hope their true -- about Leica supplying "sample" Leicas to Jews trying to
>escape, and that these expedited things at the border.  Now if only I could
>find evidence that Franke & Heidecke had behaved honorably, I might feel a
>bit better about carrying a Rolleiflex.

Doug

PLEASE!  The stories about the "sample" Leicas are true.  And Elsie
Kuehn-Leitz spent some time in a Concentration Camp for her anti-Nazi
activities.  And the Manager of Leitz, Henri Dumur, played up his Swiss
citizenship so that he could tell off Nazi bigwigs on occasion.  (And he
flew the Swiss flag when the American troops approached, so they wouldn't
shell the plant -- this went clear up to Ike, who said, "hands off until we
find out what's going on!", thus saving Wetzlar from a conflagration.)

Zeiss shielded more than 3,000 slave laborers from the camps on the grounds
that they were "vital to the German war effort".  The Nazi Party had the
head of Zeiss, Heinz Kuppenbender, arrested and tried him as a traitor
because of this -- it took the intervention of Speer to get the proceedings
quashed, as Kuppenbender was also head of the entire German optical
industry at the time.  (And then the Allies tried Kuppenbender as well --
his former slave laborers testified in his behalf, thanking him for saving
their lives.  Even the US Army official in charge of Allied Optical
Reparations, Colonel Dr Carl Nelson, testified in behalf of Kuppenbender.)

Voigtlander refused all efforts by the Nazis to make them use slave
laborers.  Franke & Heidecke refused government contracts and attempted
(rather successfully) to avoid manufacturing military items, making medical
lab gear instead.

I cannot think of a German camera or lens firm which DID co-operate
willingly with the Nazis.  Certainly, the ones listed above did not, nor
did Jhagee nor Steinheil nor JSK.  

Marc

msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!

Replies: Reply from "Dan Post" <dpost@triad.rr.com> (Re: [Leica] Re: Nazi Paraphernalia)
Reply from Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net> (Re: [Leica] Re: Nazi Paraphernalia)
Reply from S Dimitrov <sld@earthlink.net> (Re: [Leica] Re: Nazi Paraphernalia)