The Nazis, the Rabbi and the Camera

I have received a new copy of the film in English (All the original English spoken text and all the needed subtitles). Perhaps this is the version you need?

For some reason, when trying to pull up the video, it says that the content cannot be viewed in my country.

I have watched this fascinating documentary – and followed it as best I could in German, and then in French! It would be great to have an English version, and soon’ish as we are hoping that Frank Dabba Smith, who has previously talked to the Leica Society, of which he is a distinguished member, on the subject (some 15 years ago), can attend the Society’s Annual Meeting next April and show the film to our members.
Tony Cole

Thank you, Mike, for making us aware of this film. I watched it and found it well done. Like most broadcasting institution, public funded Arte has a geoblocker active (same with the BBC for instance). This is usually for copyright reasons. There are more or less legal ways to outsmart this.

The lack of English subtitles is a pity but may be explaind by the fact that no English-speaking country is financially involved in Arte. But who knows, maybe they add it later or produce even a fully English version, it’s not that difficult or expensive.

JP

Unfortunately, arte blocks access to this documentary from Australia. At least I was able to read a review of the documentary in the FAZ newspaper: https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/medien/die-nazis-der-rabbi-und-die-kamera-auf-arte-18899059.html. Good article, although it relocates Dr Frank Dabba Smith from London to NYC.

Thanks for the hint to this arte documentary. If anyone is still looking for the link to watch it:
https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/108495-000-A/die-nazis-der-rabbi-und-die-kamera

Audio only available in german and french, unfortunately no english subs either, but most probably still worth watching.

Couldn’t locate the documentary at the link but looks like an interesting site for more exploration. Thanks for this, Mike. And thanks to the commenters for another set of great information.

I could not find the ‘link from the link’ for this. I will try again on Thursday. I did find a wonderfully French piece with English subtitles on the Lumiere brothers’ Autochrome method. I like this kind of thing from arts channels where they go all in from a preconceived perspective without the need for public service balance, which is fine once the viewers know what they are getting.

Frank Dabba Smith deserves the exposure he will get from this upcoming broadcast because of his tireless work on this topic over many years.

Speaking of ‘Leica Trains’ I heard a touching story today that the legendary shy Korean Leica mechanic, Mr Kim, is finally getting to go to Wetzlar in a couple of weeks from now and the company is organising a special welcome for him. Mike may recall that in 2018 George Furst showed his fully working Ur Leica replica, made by Mr Kim, to us in Wetzlar. We even brought the item to Barnack’s grave, to show it to Oskar.

Yes, Fazal, Leica/E Leitz New York made items which were sometimes different to those emanating from Wetzlar. About a decade later, Leitz set up Ernst Leitz Canada in Midland Ontario and again a somewhat different range of products emerged. So, the Wetzlar ex-pats did make a signification contribution to the Leica range over a considerable number of years.

William

Frank Dabba Smith already published a book on the Leica Freedom Train. I sometimes wonder if New York’s prominence in the camera trade owes something to those refugees sent to America by the Leitz family.

Thanks for calling attention to this. Along these lines — and also featuring The Rabbi, a short article in the Guardian, from which I pulled this:

“Only now have details of the Leica refugees come to light, thanks to the detective work of a London-based rabbi.

“Frank Dabba Smith, 51, rabbi of the Harrow and Wembley Progressive Synagogue in northwest London and a Leica enthusiast, has reconstructed their stories through photographs, documents and letters of thanks from survivors and their families. Yesterday his painstaking work culminated in a posthumous award for Leitz, who died in 1956, in recognition of the efforts that risked his life and those of his family.

“The Anti-Defamation League presented Leitz’s granddaughter, Cornelia Kuhn-Leitz, with its Courage to Care award in Palm Springs, Florida. The ADF credits Leitz with saving hundreds of lives – counting both the workers and their families – and has compared him to Schindler, believed to have saved more than 1,200 Polish Jews from death by employing them in his enamel factory in Cracow.
[…]
“Leitz’s simple ethos, Rabbi Frank Smith told Die Welt, was “that of old Jewish fathers – do a lot, speak little”. He spoke not at all to his family or friends about what he had done. “He didn’t want to distinguish himself from the other citizens of Wetzlar,” said Mr Smith. “It wasn’t in his nature to talk of his own good deeds and he thought he was only doing what any decent person would have done in his position.””

Boy that sounds like something not to miss! This side of pond just finished Gangsters and nazis, all about how a Jewish judge here in NY enlisted the aid of the Jewish Gangsters and gangs to push back against Fritz Kuntz and the BUND. These are true episodes NYC area even up my neck of the woods Syracuse. There was a ww2 propaganda movie made staring Humphrey Bogart and usual crew called. ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT.