“作为一个德国企业,Leica在二战时期名义上是纳粹政府的重要合作伙伴,当时的Leica主席——Ernst Leitz二世却在暗中不断帮助犹太人逃离纳粹的魔掌。从Adolf Hitler 1933年成为德国总理大臣开始,Ernst Leitz二世便不断接到来自犹太员工的电话,请求他帮助自己全家离开德国。
”After the war, Elsie Kuhn-Leitz received numerous honors for her humanitarian efforts, among them the Officier d'honneur des Palmes Académiques from France in 1965 and the Aristide Briand Medal from the European Academy in the 1970s and Courage to Care Award from the Anti-Defamation League. According to Norman Lipton, a freelance writer and editor, the Leitz family wanted no publicity for its heroic efforts. Only after the last member of the Leitz family was dead did the "Leica Freedom Train" finally come to light. It is the subject of a book, The Greatest Invention of the Leitz Family: The Leica Freedom Train (American Photographic Historical Society, New York, 2002) by Frank Dabba Smith, a California-born rabbi currently living in England. In 2007, Ernst Leitz II was awarded posthumously the Courage To Care Award by the Anti-Defamation League.[5]“