Max Lerner - Commodity trading

Max Lerner was born on June 2, 1874 in Krakow.

He probably grew up speaking German and had an Austrian passport when he emigrated to Uelzen in 1893 at the age of 19. He got work in the business of his later father-in-law Jakob Kupferstein. In 1899 he married Antonie Kupferstein (1877-1942) in Hanover, and from 1904 onwards ran Antonie's father's raw products and metal goods business in Achterstra<e.

The couple had five children, of whom Jenny and Herta survived.

In 1913 Max Lerner bought the house at Lüneburger Str. 56 and ran the raw products business there. Later, a petrol station and 14 garages were added, and in 1935 the entire business came to a standstill.

After the pogrom on November 9, 1938, Max Lerner was taken to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. He remained in Sachsenhausen concentration camp for six weeks until his wife was released on the condition that he sell the property and business to the car mechanic Karl Witthuhn, which was carried out in 1939. The purchase price was confiscated by the tax office and Lerner had no free disposal over the proceeds of the sale. Jews were only entitled to 300 RM a month from their blocked accounts for their daily needs; they had to make do with that. Until their deportation in 1942, the Jewish couple lived in their own house on the upper floor, subletting from the buyer of their property and business.

Lerner's house was now the ›Jews' house‹ designated by the NSDAP or Gestapo, where the last remaining Jews in Uelzen lived until their deportation. The ›Judenhaus‹ was evacuated on July 20, 1942, the contents of the house were confiscated for the benefit of the German Reich and made available to the N.S.V. local group in Uelzen«.1

Max Lerner and his wife Antonie were declared dead on May 8, 1945.

https://juedisches-leben-uelzen.de/max-lerner/