Max Liebster

Max Liebster (15 February 1915-28 May 2008) was a victim of Nazi persecution during World War II due to his Jewish race and religion. During his imprisonment in four concentration camps (Sachsenhausen, Neuengamme, Auschwitz, Buchenwald) he studied the Bible with fellow inmates that were Jehovah’s Witnesses and converted to their religion, baptized in a bathtub at Buchenwald. Liebster is also notable as the author of the book Crucible of Terror: A Story of Survival Through the Nazi Storm.

Liebster was born to Beirech “Bernhard” Liebster and Bertha Oppenheimer in Reichenbach, a part of Lautertal, Hesse. In 1947, Liebster emigrated to America and petitioned to become an American Citizen in 1953. In 1956, he married Simone Arnold, another survivor of Nazi persecution.