Max Lesser and Mary Lesser, née Block

Max Lesser was born on May 31, 1878 in Schwersenz (near Poznan). He grew up in an important Jewish family of entrepreneurs. The Lessers had been building agricultural machinery since the late 19th century. The Lesser brothers' factory in Poznan, which at times employed 400 people, was considered the largest manufacturer of potato harvesters in Europe.

After the First World War, Poznan became Polish and the factory was sold.

Max tried to transfer the company to the German Reich or to establish a new one. He found a suitable site in Brandenburg an der Havel and the family left Poznan in 1921. However, the attempt to set up a new factory was unsuccessful. The business had to be closed in 1928 and Max moved in with his sister in Leipzig. Here he married Mary Block (*20.6.1892 in Leipzig), divorced Berger, for the second time. She was a partner in the family company Julius Block, a commercial agency for textiles founded in 1878.

Not much is known about the couple's life in Leipzig. Around the mid-1930s, they lived in Elfenweg (Alexander-Klein-Siedlung) in Bad Dürrenberg. They returned in 1938 and rented a room in the Schu’heim’schen Altersheim“ in Wahren.
Max Lesser was arrested in connection with the Pogrom Night on November 14, 1938 and was probably sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp. He was released by the end of the year on the condition that he leave Germany.

From 1940, the Lessers had to move into a so-called „Jews' house“. Initially they lived at Humboldtstr. 31 and before their deportation at Keilstr. 5. On January 21, 1942, they were deported to the Riga ghetto. They were both murdered in March 1942.