Max Liebster


Max Liebster was a German-born victim of Nazi persecution during World War II due to his Jewish race and religion. During his imprisonment in four concentration camps 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.

Family

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.