Leica and the Jews: A True Story about Freedom

I did a cut and paste of this article from the forum: Dgrin - www.dgrin.com  .......... Art Scott....................



I will probably get hammered for the title and probably this article ... but as an American I place a high value on freedom of speech.

This is a story well worth repeating ...

Gary

--- On Mon, 8/23/10, Greg Spadinger


Leica and the Jews

The Leica is the pioneer 35mm camera. It is a German product - precise, minimalist, and utterly efficient.

Behind its worldwide acceptance as a creative tool was a family-owned, socially oriented firm that, during the Nazi era, acted with uncommon grace, generosity and modesty. E. Leitz Inc., designer and manufacturer of Germany 's most famous photographic product, saved its Jews.

And Ernst Leitz II, the steely-eyed Protestant patriarch who headed the closely held firm as the Holocaust loomed across Europe , acted in such a way as to earn the title, "the photography industry's Schindler."

As soon as Adolf Hitler was named chancellor of Germany in 1933, Ernst Leitz II began receiving frantic calls from Jewish associates, asking for his help in getting them and their families out of the country. As Christians, Leitz and his family were immune to Nazi Germany's Nuremberg laws, which restricted the movement of Jews and limited their professional activities.

To help his Jewish workers and colleagues, Leitz quietly established what has become known among historians of the Holocaust as "the Leica Freedom Train," a covert means of allowing Jews to leave Germany in the guise of Leitz employees being assigned overseas.

Employees, retailers, family members, even friends of family members were "assigned" to Leitz sales offices in France , Britain , Hong Kong and the United States

Leitz's activities intensified after the Kristallnacht of November 1938, during which synagogues and Jewish shops were burned across Germany ...

Before long, German "employees" were disembarking from the ocean liner Bremen at a New York pier and making their way to the Manhattan office of Leitz Inc., where executives quickly found them jobs in the photographic industry.

Each new arrival had around his or her neck the symbol of freedom “ a new Leica.

The refugees were paid a stipend until they could find work. Out of this migration came designers, repair technicians, salespeople, marketers and writers for the photographic press.

Keeping the story quiet

The "Leica Freedom Train" was at its height in 1938 and early 1939, delivering groups of refugees to New York every few weeks. Then, with the invasion of Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, Germany closed its borders.

By that time, hundreds of endangered Jews had escaped to America , thanks to the Leitzes' efforts. How did Ernst Leitz II and his staff get away with it?

Leitz, Inc. was an internationally recognized brand that reflected credit on the newly resurgent Reich. The company produced range-finders and other optical systems for the German military. Also, the Nazi government desperately needed hard currency from abroad, and Leitz's single biggest market for optical goods was the United States .

Even so, members of the Leitz family and firm suffered for their good works. A top executive, Alfred Turk, was jailed for working to help Jews and freed only after the payment of a large bribe.

Leitz's daughter, Elsie Kuhn-Leitz, was imprisoned by the Gestapo after she was caught at the border, helping Jewish women cross into Switzerland . She eventually was freed but endured rough treatment in the course of questioning. She also fell under suspicion when she attempted to improve the living conditions of 700 to 800 Ukrainian slave laborers, all of them women, who had been assigned to work in the plant during the 1940s.

(After the war, Kuhn-Leitz received numerous honors for her humanitarian efforts, among them the Officier d'honneur des Palms Academic from France in 1965 and the Aristide Briand Medal from the European Academy in the 1970s.)

Why has no one told this story until now? According to the late Norman Lipton, a freelance writer and editor, the Leitz family wanted no publicity for its heroic efforts. Only after the last member of the Leitz family was dead did the "Leica Freedom Train" finally come to light.

It is now the subject of a book, "The Greatest Invention of the Leitz Family: The Leica Freedom Train," by Frank Dabba Smith, a California-born Rabbi currently living in England .

Thank you for reading the above, and if you feel inclined as I did to pass it along to others, please do so. It only takes a few minutes. Memories of the righteous should live on.

HappyFish Designs - - - - THANK YOU

Having come from the film era, I have been looking for an image processor to process my images from portraits and weddings......I found wedding processors but no one wanted to deal with small amounts of image files (12-75)...then I saw a forum post giving Praise to HappyFish Designs .......so I shot them an email , well several emails, asking all sorts of questions...then I needed to find a FTP transfer software and sent them files and still there was more dialogue and phone calls from them......They called me to ask more questions and also sent more emails.....it was they that wanted to make sure they did things to satisfy me.....it is hard to find a company of any sort that will go the least bit out of their way for the client but Karen and Chad went an extra 1000 miles for me it seems....
They are great to work with...I have my processor...I can now concentrate on shooting and not proofing........OH YEAH.....

If you prefer shooting over spending hours glued to a computer monitor then give HappyFish Designs a look over  ( http://www.happyfish.com   )  ......Karen and Chad are great to work with.................. The website is geared more towards album design...but email them with your questions and concerns .................

NON PHOTO RELATED BUT STIULL WORTH THE READ AVD THINK ABOUT

This is a cut and paste from an email sent to me by a friend of mine.

 One Light Bulb at a Time

Come on - Let's do it!

A physics teacher in high school, once told the students that while one grasshopper on the railroad tracks wouldn't slow a train very much, a billion of them would. With that thought in mind, read the following, obviously written by a good American.

Good idea .. . one light bulb at a time . . . .

Check this out . I can verify this because I was in Lowes the other day for some reason and just for the heck of it I was looking at the hose attachments . They were all made in China . The next day I was in Ace Hardware and just for the heck of it I checked the hose attachments there. They were made in USA . Start looking.

In our current economic situation, every little thing we buy or do affects someone else - even their job . So, after reading this email, I think this lady is on the right track . Let's get behind her!

My grandson likes Hershey's candy . I noticed, though, that it is marked made in Mexico now... I do not buy it any more. My favorite toothpaste Colgate is made in Mexico ... now I have switched to Crest. You have to read the labels on everything ..

This past weekend I was at Kroger. I needed 60 W light bulbs and Bounce dryer sheets . I was in the light bulb aisle, and right next to the GE brand I normally buy was an off-brand labeled, "Everyday Value ... " I picked up both types of bulbs and compared the stats - they were the same except for the price .. The GE bulbs were more money than the Everyday Value brand but the thing that surprised me the most was the fact that GE was made in MEXICO and the Everyday Value brand was made in - get ready for this - the USA in a company in Cleveland , Ohio .

So throw out the myth that you cannot find products you use every day that are made right here ..

So on to another aisle - Bounce Dryer Sheets... yep, you guessed it, bounce cost more money and is made in Canada . The Everyday Value brand was less money and MADE IN THE USA ! I did laundry yesterday and the dryer sheets performed just like the Bounce Free I have been using
for years and at almost half the price!

My challenge to you is to start reading the labels when you shop for everyday things and see what you can find that is made in the USA - the job you save may be your own or your neighbors!

If you accept the challenge, pass this on to others in your address book so we can all start buying American, one light bulb at a time! Stop buying from overseas companies!

(We should have awakened a decade ago...)

Let's get with the program... help our fellow Americans keep their jobs and create more jobs here in the U . S . A..

I Passed this on... will you?  

IN GOD WE TRUST

Acid Free Paint Pens for Signing Photos

A few weeks back I posted a short blog on signing photos with a Acid free Paint marker pen by Sanford ....the Sharpie Company.........well I have found that my art store now carries
extra fine acid free archival paint pens by Pilot........ I love Pilot pens for writing...so i bought 2 of these paint markers.....1 silver and 1 gold....for the small price of $3.49 each + tax........that was 1/4 of what I paid for my last acid free paint markers and they weren't this fine........
These will write on all sorts of surfaces........check out this link by CLICKING HERE ......

Have a great week............

Shooting Raw as Insurance against CopyRight infringement

There is an absolutely astonisihing amount of people that shoot only jpg's and then they are asking on various forums how to stop theft of their images from their websites and the other forums they love to post on....and the answer is........YOU CAN"T........if you can see it on your computer screen it can be stolen.....It is just a fact of in the age of the internet and the WWW................

Question pop up all the time like: Can i sue so and so for copyright infrinment or for using without permission???? the answer is yes...but is most like going to be a huge waste of your money, as the theif will lie and say they did not know it it was stealing they had been told anything on the net is fair game...fair use and anyone can use anything they want anythingme they want and I'll have the web guy remove it and promise never to do it again.......and the thief willnot even cross his fingers as we were taught to do if you did not intend to keep your word........
The judge will rule in your favor but only require the thief to remove your images...no cash award ...not even to pay for your lawyer........if you can prove the image(s) is yours........
Since all camera can produce a jpg image it could be hard..especially if the thief has a piece of software that allows him to change the data in the exif portion of the jpg image.......all he needs to change is the date the image was taken........now prove it is yours.............

Did you register your image with the US Copyright Office (or the copyright office in your country), if not then the battle could bode ill for you..........

SO....................................................................................

shoot raw.......do not want to process your images, you're perfectly happy with them as camera generated jpgs....that is cool then shoot raw + jpg and use the camera generated jpg for what ever you do with your images.................

I shoot  raw+jpg (small) for quick sorting of images, especially from weddings.....I sort using windows photo viewer.........but I do process the raw files and then delete the jpgs that the camera made........I can afford to shoot raw+jpg becasue I have more than 1 memory card...they go on sale and I buy 2 or 3 or more....right now I won 12 - 8gb Transcend cards....they have been as good for me as Lexar and SanDisk, both of which I have owned and used.....Transcend is quite a bit less expensive and just a reliable..........

Anyway the bottom line is the raw file can be insurance against image theft as it cannot be uploaded or viewed on online forums or galleries...it can be attached to emails or transferred by ftp.....I use FTP to transfer my raw files to my image processor in Phoenix Az........HappyFish.com.......then they transfer my finished files back to me..........
I never let anyone have my orignal files I transfer copies.........................

RAW files can be PROOF of OWNERSHIP in court as to who really owns and image.........

BlueGrass Visions - The Lexington Ky. Project

Well I just received notification that the BlueGrass Visions book has been printed and the contributor copies will be arriving very soon......can't wait to see which ones of mine are in it.......Actually I am waiting on the email that has the contact sheet of published photos to add to my portfolio........and the check of course. LOL....LOL...LOL... :-}}