Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/08/28

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Leica and Nazis
From: Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1998 19:58:16 -0400

At 07:17 PM 1998-08-28 -0000, Robert wrote:
>Did anyone see the segment on CBS news about the group of holocaust
>survivors suing Leica and other German companies for using slave labor
>during WWII? 

Well, according to the US Strategic Bombing Survey, Ernst Leitz used no
slave labour.  Carl Zeiss did use some, but primarily this was a ruse to
shield folks from the gas chamber -- Heinz Kuppenbender was MUCH more
successful than Spielberg's Schindler at this, to the point where he got
himself accused of treason and was tried for the same, and acquitted.

In any event, slave labour and the holocaust are different things on a
broad level.  The German slave-labour system, the process which eventually
sent Sauckel to the gallows, involved non-Jewish personnel.  There was a
similar system using Jewish labour, but that was done at SS-owned factories
which were closed down in '45.

Marc


msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
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