Max Lefébre
* 1898

Max Lefébre, born 4 Aug. 1898 in Brakel, deported 19 Jan. 1944 to Theresienstadt, date of death 21 Dec. 1944, Dachau Concentration Camp

Marienthaler Straße 124 (Marienthaler Straße 126)

Max Lefébre was deported to Theresienstadt. He had the status of a “privileged mixed marriage.” It is not known how he lost this protection, probably through divorce.

In 1928, when Max Lefébre became a member of the Jewish Community, he was living at Marienthaler Straße 126a as a lodger with the Lorenz family. At that time he was still unmarried and worked as a salesman. He repeatedly requested that the tax office exempt him from paying religious community taxes, since his income was very low in the years between 1929 and 1931.

In 1931 Max Lefébre began working as a sales assistant at Robinsohn Brothers, and requested only a deferral of his taxes, rather than a waiver. He married, changed jobs (Tietz), then returned to Robinsohn. His daughter Ina was born on 16 March 1934. He was arrested in 1938, probably in the wake of the November Pogrom.

In 1939 he got a job at the Jewish Home for the Elderly on Grünestraße in Altona. He worked there until it was closed down. His last address was Schmuckstraße 6, where he moved on 23 September 1942.

He was deported to Theresienstadt on 19 January 1944, then sent to Auschwitz on 29 September 1944. He was considered able to work, and was sent to the Dachau Concentration Camp. He died on 21 December 1944. According to the German Memorial Book 2006, he died in Kaufering, which means that he was assigned to a Todt Organization work detail.

(In the German Memorial Book 2006, Lefebre is spelled without an acute accent. Despite the same date of birth, it possible that these are two different people, since the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site has no record of Max Lefébre working in Kaufering.)

Translator: Amy Lee
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.