Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/01/25
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Darron Hartas,Online Editor PPN and BJP Onlinemailto:bjp@2000net.com - ------------------------------------------ HEADLINE NEWS... HEADLINE NEWS... HEADLINE NEWS... - ------------------------------------------Leitz's role in defying Nazis The BJP has discovered that Ernst Leitz II, who put Oskar Barnak's Leica 35mm camera into production in 1925, like the now famous hero of Schindler's List, Oskar Schindler, worked actively to save Jews from Nazi persecution, writes Geoffrey Crawley. Following the arrest of a number of Jews, residents of Wetzlar, after Hitler's rise to power in 1933, Ernst Leitz II used his personal prestige and economic clout to have them freed. He then set up a training school near the Leitz factory in which young Jews were enrolled. At the end of the course they were given certificates, making them in effect Leitz employees. This gave them the opportunity as 'technical specialists' to travel abroad and so make their escape.(Read more in this week's printed issue of BJP) ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com