Max Schindler. Collection

Max Schindler was born in Leipzig, Germany, on 5 July 1932 as the only child of Polish electrician Adolf alias Abraham Schindler (born on 28 January 1900 in Wojnicz, Poland) and his wife Jetty Kern (born on 16 July 1902 in Bohorodchany, then Poland, today Ukraine). Mid-August 1939 Max and his mother Jetty clandestinely fled to Belgium by train. In Antwerp they were reunited with Max’s father Abraham who had arrived in Belgium a few weeks earlier. The family settled at Sterlingerstraat 54 in Borgerhout, Antwerp. Max attended the religious Jesode Hatora school. His parents Abraham and Jetty arranged for Max’s cousins Max alias Bubi Hausmann (born on 14 June 1925 in Leipzig, Germany) and Manfred alias Manny Hausmann (born on 23 June 1926 in Leipzig, Germany), sons of Jetty’s deceased sister Hani Kern, to come to Belgium too. The brothers arrived in February 1940 and lived with Max and his parents for a while. The Schindler-Kern family lived at Marinisstraat 3 in Borgerhout when Nazi-Germany invaded Belgium on 10 May 1940. They subsequently obeyed the anti-Jewish decrees and registered themselves in the municipal Jewish register at the end of 1940. On 11 January 1941 the Schindler-Kern family was forced by the occupying authorities to relocate to Limburg. Max, his parents Abraham and Jetty, and his cousins Max and Manfred Hausmann were sent to the municipality of Alken. In July 1941 the Schindler-Kern family was allowed to leave Limburg. They relocated to Brussels, where they first settled at Rue Gaucheret 52 in Schaerbeek and later at Place Gaucheret 26 in the same district. In 1942 cousins Manfred and Max Hausmann were able to clandestinely travel via France to Spain from where they sailed to Venezuela, where they were reunited with their sister Anita. In Brussels Max Schindler’s father Abraham took on a job at the Lustra factory, a fur manufacturing business working for the Wehrmacht. Being a Sperr-Betrieb, all Jewish Lustra employees and their families, including the Schindlers, were protected against arrest and deportation. Max and his parents therefore continued to live at their official address in the Belgian capital and did not go into hiding. In May 1944 they moved to Rue de Cureghem 17 in Brussels. Max and his parents survived the war there. They later emigrated to the United States. Max Schindler married and built a family.

Max Schindler was interviewed by Dorien Styven, archivist at Kazerne Dossin, during a virtual meeting on 22 August 2022. Contact with Max was established via researcher Jackie Schwarz, while looking for survivors who had taken classes at the Jesode Hatora school in Antwerp in 1941-1942.

Max Schindler, 2022