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May 3, 2011 · Last week we briefly wrote on how Leica played a role in saving Jews by helping them flee Nazi Germany. Turns out the effort was called the Leica Freedom Train, and this short 3-minute documentary ...
Jun 13, 2011 · Some find it suspicious that the Leica Freedom Train story has only come to light in recent years, but it's said the Leitz family wanted the story kept under wraps until after the deaths of ...
The Greatest Invention of the Leitz Family: The Leica Freedom Train: Author: Frank Dabba Smith: Publisher: American Photographic Historical Society, 2002: Length: 34 pages : Export Citation: BiBTeX EndNote RefMan
The Incredible Leica Freedom Train was a rescue effort in which hundreds of Jews were smuggled out of Nazi Germany before the Holocaust by Ernst Leitz II of the Leica Camera company, and his daughter Elsie Kuehn-Leitz. Ernst Leitz’s optics company, founded in Wetzlar in 1869, had a tradition of enlightened behavior toward its workers.
Nov 12, 2006 · The “Leica Freedom Train” was at its height in 1938 and early 1939, delivering groups of refugees to New York every few weeks. Then, with the invasion of Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, Germany closed its borders. By that time, hundreds of endangered Jews had escaped to America, thanks to the Leitzes’ efforts.
The 1947–1949 Freedom Train. #1776 was an ALCO PA-1 locomotive built specially for the first Freedom Train. The first Freedom Train was proposed in April 1946 by Attorney General Tom C. Clark, who believed that Americans had begun taking the principles of liberty for granted in the post-war years.
Ernst Leitz II. Ernst Leitz II (1 March 1871 – 15 June 1956) was a German business person and humanitarian. He was the second head of the optics company now known as Leica Camera and organized the Leica Freedom Train to allow people, most of whom were Jewish, to escape from Germany during Nazi times .
