Anyone ever heard of the Leica Freedom Train?

[pepperbear]

http://zonezero.com/magazine/articles/leica/index.html

The Leica is the pioneer 35mm camera. From a nit picking point of view, it wasn't the very first still camera to use 35mm movie film, but it was the first to be widely publicized and successfully marketed. It created the "candid camera" boom of the 1930s.

-snip-

Pensions, sick leave, health insurance - all were instituted early on at Leitz, which depended for its work force upon generations of skilled employees - many of whom were Jewish.

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.

-snip-

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.

Worth the read.

[rockymountaindem]

1. Good piece

Thanks for posting it.

[NYC_SKP]

2. Recommended.

Great cameras, great company, terrific story!

[MichaelHarris]

3. Not only great cameras

but a pretty darn good man as well. My M3:

[cascadiance]

4. For a bit I thought this a reference to the Sci-Fi Series Lexx...

But then it would have been the "Lyekka Freedom Train" instead... :)

[XemaSab]

5. Good to know!

I am the proud owner of a Leica Televid. It's my baby. :)

[Fumesucker]

6. No, I hadn't heard of that.. Thank you very much for posting..

While I don't own a Leica my camera does have a Leica lens.

Your post has made me even more happy with my purchase.