Max Kleiner

Max Kleiner was born in Galicia in 1910. His family belonged to the population known as “Eastern Jews”, who were driven into the western regions of the monarchy during World War I. The Kleiner family found refuge in the Kleinmünchen refugee camp and was then able to settle in Linz after the war.

They established a small textile business, where people like Ernst Kaltenbrunner came to shop. The family tried in vain to change their citizenship from Polish to Austrian.

Max Kleiner discovered his ideological home in Revisionist Zionism. He became involved in its youth league “Betar” and was able to illegally evacuate a number of friends and relatives to Palestine via this organization soon after the German annexation of Austria.

Because of their Polish citizenship, Max Kleiner and his family were among the first Jews to be driven out of Linz. He was forced to leave his fiancée Grete Pollak behind in Linz and accompanied his father to Lemberg, where all trace of them was lost. He and his father became victims of the Nazi regime.