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Lipton wrote: "After being hired by the New York Office of Leitz in 1938, on alternate weeks, I witnessed the arrival and processing of thirty or more Leitz-sponsored refugees who were lined up along the wall of our office waiting to be interviewed by Alfred Boch, Executive Vice President of E. Leitz, Inc. Boch put them up at the nearby Great Northern Hotel and spent the succeeding days on the telephone finding jobs for them throughout New York and the nation."
These refugees were Jews, trained in the camera business by Leitz in Germany so that upon immigration, they could find jobs in the U.S. Many were Leitz employees or photo dealers. But written testimony of others expressing their appreciation in writing directly to Ernst Leitz II, described how the company trained and sent over many Jews from a wide area of Germany with the full cooperation of top Leitz management. A daring move. Other letters of thankful appreciation to Ernst Leitz II indicated that the firm was aiding Jewish refugees as early as Hitler becoming Chancellor in 1933. And while Germany's borders were finally sealed in August 1939 with the invasion of Poland, the Leitz family was still aiding Jews as late as 1943 when Ernst Leitz II's daughter, Dr. Elsie Kuehn-Leitz was arrested by the Gestapo for attempting to help one woman to escape across the border into Switzerland. Leitz spent over two months in prison until a considerable ransom was paid.
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