Max Walter Weg

Max Walter Weg was born in November 1928 in Leipzig, Germany, the eldest of three children in a middle-class Jewish family. His parents, Fritz and Senta Weg (née Breslauer), lived at 58 Kantstraße in southern Leipzig, an area with a mixed but largely non-Orthodox Jewish population. Weg’s mother came from the Breslauer family, proprietors of a well-known printing business in Leipzig founded by his grandfather Max Breslauer, which specialised in high-quality offset printing and advertising materials. His father came from a family associated with publishing, linked to the Insel Verlag.

Weg attended a local primary school from 1934, where pupils of all religions were accepted. He described his early school years as positive, with dedicated teachers such as a Mr Fricker. However, the situation changed rapidly after 1935, when antisemitic measures intensified following the consolidation of Nazi rule. Jewish pupils, including Weg, began to face exclusion and public humiliation. He recalled being singled out by a teacher as “the Jew” in front of classmates and being assaulted by other pupils. Following an incident in which he was attacked with stones on his way home, his parents transferred him to the Carlebach Schule, a Jewish school in northern Leipzig, where his sister Renate was already a pupil.

The Weg family identified as liberal Jews and attended the Liberal Synagogue on High Holidays. The family maintained religious observance during major festivals, including Simḥat Torah which Max remembers vividly. At home, Weg’s parents employed both Jewish and non-Jewish domestic help. He recalled a period when Jewish families were required to dismiss non-Jewish staff, after which only Jewish maids were permitted.

Weg’s childhood before 1938 included family holidays to Graal-Müritz on the Baltic Sea, to Mölle in Sweden, and to Alassio in Italy. His grandparents owned a summer house outside Leipzig, which was used both for family recreation and occasionally by employees of the printing firm. The family’s social life centred on close relations among the extended Breslauer and Weg families, who lived in nearby apartments.

The events of November 1938 (Kristallnacht) marked a decisive rupture. On his way to school, Weg witnessed the destruction of Jewish property, including the burning of the Bamberger & Hertz department store and the Leipzig synagogue. Arriving at the Carlebach Schule, he found the building closed and the street covered with burned books. A bystander warned him to return home. Later that day he saw police vehicles collecting Jewish residents from neighbouring buildings. His father was arrested a few days later during the mass round-up of Jewish men and was briefly held in a concentration camp before being released through the intervention of Weg’s mother, who secured his discharge papers from the local SS office.

After Kristallnacht, the family sought emigration. A former employee, Fräulein Gelernter, of the family had married a Jewish Englishman and worked for Bloomsbury House. She told them that a boarding school in Hastings offered a place for a Jewish child for four years and Max was chosen. The grandmother asked an English businessman, Mr. Harley, she knew doing business in Leipzig in Berlin to take Max to England; he agreed and in early January 1939 Max left Leipzig. He remembers crossing the Dutch border and being seasick on the passage but finally being welcomed at Liverpool station by a distant relative.

Shortly after, he came to Hydneye House School, directed by Mr and Mrs Maltby, where he was educated until 1942. Weg credited the Maltbys with providing a stable environment in which he learned English and adjusted to British life. His sisters Renate and Gabriela (Gabi) followed later the same year on a Kindertransport, the youngest being temporarily cared for at the Wellgarth Nursery Nurses’ Training School organised by Dr Ormerod, who had previously helped the family.

His parents also succeeded in reaching Britain and re-establishing themselves in London. His father found employment in publishing, including work with Thomas Murby & Co. and later Foyles, while his mother worked in domestic service before the family was reunited. Weg attended East Sheen Grammar School in Richmond and later undertook scientific studies.

In the post-war period, Weg worked for the Research Association of the British Rubber Manufacturers (RABRM) in Croydon and studied at Birkbeck College, University of London, where he read chemistry and mathematics. He later worked as a chemical pathologist in different hospitals. He met his wife and they married in 1965. In later years, Weg spoke on Holocaust Memorial Day at Northwood and Pinner Synagogue and to school children.

Key words: Leipzig. Weg. Breslauer. Insel Verlag. Carlebach Schule. Hydneye House School. Wellgarth Nursery Nurses’ Training School. Thomas Murby & Co. Foyles. East Sheen Grammar School. Research Association of the British Rubber Manufacturers (RABRM).