London, September 16 (ANI): A Universal Studios celebrates its 100 years by re-mastering a slew of classics, the secret history that the studio's owner, Carl Laemmle, rescued more than 200 people from the threat of extermination camps and gave them new lives in the United States, has been unearthed.
The classics being re-mastered includes Oscar-winning 'Schindler's List', which detailed how a German factory boss saved about 1,100 Jews from going to the gas chambers.
Few at the studio realised the film had echoes of Laemmle's private mission to save as many people as possible from Hitler's lethal persecution.
"There are hundreds of people alive today because Carl Laemmle risked everything to save them," the Daily Express quoted Sandy Einstein, whose father Herman was rescued from southern Germany just as the Second World War broke out, as saying.
"My father got out just in time and Carl Laemmle saved his life because I have other relatives who went to the camps and were exterminated. He was a great humanitarian as well as one of the founding fathers of Hollywood.
"My father had been a teacher in Germany but became a production line worker in the States. He wasn't totally happy with his lot in life because he was so highly educated, but he had his freedom. Carl Laemmle made him a free man and that is more precious than anything," Einstien said.
As many as 1,000 people descended from the original members of "Laemmle's List" are alive today because of his foresight and generosity, historians believe.
To many, this human legacy is far greater than the film dynasty he established.
Universal's film credits include 149 Academy Awards and such cinematic landmarks as 'The Hunchback Of Notre Dame', 'Phantom Of The Opera', 'To Kill A Mockingbird', 'Psycho', 'Jaws', 'E.T'. and 'Jurassic Park'.
It has also been the proving ground of talented filmmakers, including Alfred Hitchcock, Robert Zemeckis, Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Spike Lee and Peter Jackson. (ANI)
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