Frank Dabba Smith follows My Secret Camera, the story of the Lodz Ghetto photographer Mendel Grossman, with another account of the crucial wartime role of the lens. Elsie’s War tells how the Leitz camera factory near Frankfurt (makers of Leica cameras) helped Jewish workers and Ukrainian slave labourers.
Elsie Kuhn-Leitz, daughter of the founder, Ernst Leitz, was imprisoned by the Gestapo, but released after a ransom was paid.
Elsie’s War: a story of courage in Nazi Germany by Frank Dabba Smith, with an introduction by Henri Cartier-Bresson, is published by Frances Lincoln (pound;10.99) in time for Holocaust Memorial Day (Monday, details of events on 020 7222 6822; www.holocaustmemorialday.gov.uk)
