The Little-Known Leica Freedom Train

Leica cameras aided the German war machine in World War II, but the family of Ernst Leitz II acted righteously. They were yet another group of strict Christians who performed humanely when violence threatened to rule the world - as it still does.  

As much as I admire and always wanted Leica and Leitz optics (especially the venerable M-series rangefinders and their outstanding and horribly expensive lenses), there was always that nagging worry about Nazi companies that supported the German onslaught against the world. Why, I wondered, should I, or can I, give money to the surviving war criminals who successfully killed tens of millions of people in the name of Aryan superiority? (Having said this, I now drive a Jetta even though most of my life was spent with Volvos (the Swedes were good guys, after all), and then my beloved Bronco.)

But in the world of photography the Germans have been in the forefront of precision, quality and near-perfection. Leitz, Schneider, Rodenstock, Rollei, Zeiss. They have personified the summit of photography. In a lifetime of considering cameras and pictures, enlargers and loupes, I had to grit my teeth over supporting European savagery just because of their optics. Shamefully, America has seldom made anything to compare and, when the cameras did, they had Schneider or Zeiss Tessar lenses attached.

Henri Cartier-Bresson was one of the most visible Leica shooters and great photographers in the last century. There were legions of others, but his is the image of the shooter, with the Leica to his eye, who comes to mind first.

Now there is a report going around and awards given for Ernst Leitz II, who headed the company in the 1930s as the Germans were opting for  killing and war, torture, slave labor and genocide. He managed his company in a manner that has earned him the title, "the photography industry's Schindler." He was recently described as acting as a gentleman with "uncommon grace, generosity and modesty."

Article Author: Howard Dratch

Howard writes on science, books, movies and news for Blogcritics and on his own blogs from the border of North and Central America.

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