Photographers recognize Leica as a maker of well designed, precision photography equipment. Did you know the family-owned Leica Company was also responsible for saving many lives during the Holocaust years? Evidently the story was withheld during the lifetimes of the people invovled.
To help their Jewish workers and colleagues, Leica 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 Leica employees being assigned overseas.
Here are some links to the story:
http://www.zonezero.com/magazine/articles/leica/
http://www.phsc.ca/gilbert.html
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=86006
A book was published in 2002 "The Greatest Invention of the Leitz Family: The Leica Freedom Train" by Rabbi Frank Dabba Smith. The book is now out of print, but copies could probably be found at any of the online used booksellers or ebay.
