For most people the name Leitz or nowadays Leica is a synonym for the invention of the 35mm camera. But that’s not the whole story.

Ernst Leitz II the patriarch of the family owned company saved a lot of Jews from the Nazi Regime in Germany with what historians name “The Leica Freedom Train”. George Gilbert, a veteran writer on topics photographic, tells the story on zonezero:

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

All of the refugees had a Leica camera around their neck when they arrived in New York and elsewhere. Not so much for to take pictures, but to be able to sell it for some cash money when needed.
A movie directed by Mark De Paola about this piece of not so well known history is in the making. A short trailer by Film Film Inc. can be watched here (click on Trailers and then on One Camera, One Life)

[ratings]