Large sepia diazo print of Congress Hall in Nuremberg acquired by a US soldier

Max W. Goodman was born on February 8, 1913, in Waukegan, Illinois, to Jewish parents, Bertha and Eisie Goodman. He had a younger sister, Mildred. His parents were Russian immigrants who opened a department store, Goodman Furniture, in 1910 in Waukegan. Max began working there when he was nine years old. He graduated from Waukegan Township High School in 1931. In 1935, he graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he participated in the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) and was commissioned in the United States Army Reserves. He also was a member of a military fraternal organization, the Pershing Rifles. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, he requested to serve in active duty. He served for five years in the Quartermaster Corps with the Third United States Army under General George S. Patton in England, France, and Germany. The Third Army assembled in France in July 1944 and, by May, had crossed the Rhine River into Germany and liberated Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camps. The Third Army was in combat for 281 days and crossed more territory in less time than any army in history. Max was stationed in Nuremberg, Germany, in May where he oversaw the supplies being housed in Congress Hall and the Nazi Party rally grounds. He attained the rank of Colonel, and was awarded several medals and commendations. After the war, Max returned to Illinois to help his father manage the store. He married Margaret Haas, and the couple had three children. He inherited the store in 1963 after his father’s death. He remained in the Army Reserves until 1965. In 1976, he retired to Florida, where he helped form the Key Biscayne American Legion Post. Max passed away, age 90, on December 15, 2003, in Miami Beach, Florida.

The reproduction of an architectural drawing was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2010 by A.J. Goodman, the daughter of Max Goodman, on behalf of the Estate of Colonel Max Goodman.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Estate of Colonel Max Goodman

Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.