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Max Brahn

Max Brahn was an older brother of Benno Brahn, a business associate of Otto Frank.

Person

  • Max Brahn
  • Born on: June 15, 1873
  • Born in: Laurahütte
  • Died on: Oct. 30, 1944
  • Died in: Omgeving Auschwitz

Max Brahn was a former lecturer in psychology in Leipzig.[1] At the end of the 1930s, he became managing director of Thelopharm, a sister company of Sangostop, where his younger brother Benno was supervisory director and vice-chairman of the Supervisory Board.

Max Brahn was born as the second of six children of merchant Gustav Brahn in the small Upper Silesian mining village of Laurahütte, between Katowice and Königshütte. After high school he studied medicine at the universities of Erlangen, Munich, Berlin, Kiel and Heidelberg, after which he focused on psychology and philosophy. He obtained his doctorate in 1896 in Heidelberg with a dissertation on the development of Kant's concept of the soul.[2] Brahn held various academic posts, but as a Jew, he lost them under the National Socialist regime after 1933.[3] After Kristallnacht, he moved to Amsterdam. There he became a director of Thelopharm, a company that traded in pharmaceutical and chemical products.[4] He was also a supervisory director and vice-chairman of the company's Supervisory Board.[5]

Because German Jewish emigrants accused the Amsterdam Jewish Council of neglecting the interests of non-Dutch Jews, Brahn was given the opportunity to attend council meetings without voting rights. He formed a Beirat (Advisory Coucnil) of ten, later twenty members, including two representatives of the Polish and Russian Jews.[6] Hans Goslar was also a member of this Beirat.[7] As a member of the Beirat, he had two rooms at 366 Lijnbaansgracht. But despite written guarantees from the Nazis, he and his wife were deported to Theresienstadt in January 1944 via camp Westerbork.[8] They werde murdered in Auschwitz in October 1944.[9]

 Jacques Presser, who met Brahn several times, remembered him 'with deep respect'.[10] Ursula Zürcher-Brahn, Max Brahn's daughter, wrote down her father's life story. This document is located at the Leo Baeck Institute in New York.[11]

Source personal data.[4] Addresses: Pommersche Straße 15, Berlijn-Wilmersdorf (1931);[12] Vijzelstraat 60-I, Amsterdam (dec. 1938), Prinsengracht 1043 (maart 1943).[4]

Footnotes

  1. ^ Wikipedia: Max Brahn.
  2. ^ Hans Gundlach, “Max Brahn (1873 – 1944). “In memoriam”, in: Psychologie und Geschichte, 6 (3/4), p. 223-232.
  3. ^ Gundlach, “Max Brahn”, p. 229.
  4. a, b, c Stadsarchief Amsterdam (SAA), Dienst Bevolkingsregister, Archiefkaarten, toegang 30238: archiefkaart M. Brahn.
  5. ^ “Handelsregister. Wijzigingen November 1939”, Pharmaceutisch Weekblad. Orgaan van de Nederlandsche Maatschappij ter bevordering van de Pharmacie, 6 januari 1940.
  6. ^ L. de Jong, Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de Tweede Wereldoorlog VI. Juli ’42 – Mei ’43, Den Haag: Martinus Nijhoff, 1975, p. 5; Joods Monument: Max Brahn.
  7. ^ SAA, Dienst Bevolkingsregister, Archiefkaarten: Archiefkaart H. Goslar.
  8. ^ Memorial Book - Victims of the Persecution of Jews under the National Socialist Tyranny in Germany 1933 - 1945: Brahn, Max & Brahn-Cahn, Johanna Hedwig.
  9. ^ Universitätsarchiv Leipzig: In Auschwitz ermordete Universitätsangehörige: Max Brahn, Lucy Beck, Siegmund Hellmann.
  10. ^ J. Presser, Ondergang. De vervolging en verdelging van het Nederlandse Jodendom 1940-1945, Den Haag: Staatsuitgeverij, 1985, Deel I, p. 422.
  11. ^ Ursula Zürcher-Brahn, Max Brah: Lebenslauf, nach den spärlichen übriggebliebenen Quellen zusammengestellt von seiner Tochter (1956).
  12. ^ Jüdisches Adressbuch für Gross-Berlin, Ausgabe 1931, Berlin: arani-Verlag GmbH, 1994, p. 45.