Elsie Leitz came from a family of businesspeople. She studied law, completing a PhD at Frankfurt University in 1936. In 1935 she married Kurt Kühn; the couple had three children.
The German Labor Front employed Kühn-Leitz as a sub-camp leader in a barracks camp for the Leitz works in 1942. Kühn-Leitz supported the Soviet forced laborers there by ensuring they had sufficient food and clothing. In May 1943 she planned the Jewish Hedwig Palm’s escape across the Swiss border. However, Palm failed to cross the border.
Elsie Kühn-Leitz was arrested on September 10, 1943, and interrogated due to an accusation of aiding a Jew’s escape and “excessive humanity” toward forced laborers. She was held in Klapperfeld police prison in Frankfurt am Main for three months.
After the war, Elsie Kühn-Leitz joined the CDU and was a city councilor from 1948 to 1952. She founded the Working Circle of German-French Societies in 1957, and was awarded honorary citizenship of the cities of Avignon and Wetzlar. Elsie Kühn-Leitz received the federal cross of merit in 1984.
Ernst Leitz Jr. with his daughter Elsie, Wetzlar, 1926. Source: Ernst Leitz Stiftung, Wetzlar
Soviet forced laborers in the sewing room, Leitz works Wetzlar, 1940s. Source: Ernst Leitz Stiftung, Wetzlar
Hedwig Palm (right) and her daughter Helene Irle, undated. Source: Ernst Leitz Stiftung, Wetzlar
