Max Glauben, a survivor of the Nazi invasion of Warsaw and who lost his family in concentration camps, has died at the age of 94 according to Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum.
25 News was one of the last interviews with him in January. It was in that interview that he had said he was diagnosed with cancer but wanted to keep it private.
"I tell my story for the purpose of improving humanity, drop by drop by drop. Like a drop of water falls on a stone and erodes it, so, hopefully, by telling my story over and over again, I will achieve the purpose of making the world a better place to live in."
Meet Max,94, a survivor of the Holocaust. I am concerned and saddened by a survey that shows 40 percent of people get information about the Holocaust on social media. They are getting false information. "We must never forget," max tells me. pic.twitter.com/opO7YQGaUU
— Nick Bradshaw (@nbradshawtv) January 28, 2022
Glauben shared what he wanted people to remember about him.
"Leave this world a better place," said Glauben.
The interview went on for an hour. The 94-year-old would speak about how he didn't want anyone to go through what he had to as a young boy.
"I describe my life like the stock market; up and down," said Max Glauben.
Glauben made it to Dallas in 1951. Before he was enlisted in the U.S. Army. He served at Fort Hood.
He wanted to tell the world what happened to him and other Holocaust victims, including his own family.
In 1977 Glauben took part in opening the Holocaust museum in the basement of the Jewish Community Center of Dallas.
"It's such an honor getting to know Max, I think of him as the energizer bunny," said Mary Pat Higgins, president and CEO of the Dallas Holocaust Museum/Center for Education and Tolerance. "But most important he’s taught me about love and strength."
In 2021, the museum designated Glauben as its Hope for Humanity honoree.
Robbed of his own education Max made it a point to educate and encourage youth.
"Sometimes things are dealt to you that you are unaware about," said Glauben.
Glauben’s mom, younger brother, and most of his family died in the gas chamber at the Majdanek death camp in Lublin, Poland.
Glauben and his father were sent by train to a labor camp. His father was killed. They left his shoes in the street and Max would call it his worst nightmare.
For 42 years, Max Glauben thought he was the only member of his family who had survived the Holocaust of World War II.
At the age of 55, his two aunts called the Dallas businessman, from Philadelphia after finding his name in a computer data bank.
″I started yippie-de-do-dahing it,″ he told The Dallas Morning News
The sisters found his name in a computerized data bank maintained by the National Register of Jewish Holocaust Survivors.
″I’ve been looking for him for 30 years,″ Hanna Steiman, the aunt who first telephoned Glauben, told the newspaper. ″Right after liberation, somebody told me he may have made it alive. I look for him in Israel and in certain computers, but I couldn’t find him. For years, I gave up.″
Glauben’s own story is permanent. The heartbreaking but inspirational story is part of a holographic image meant to last until the end of time. 19 interactive testimonies, taken from Holocaust survivors all over the world.
The holographic project is a partnership between the museum and the USC Shoah Foundation, founded by three-time Oscar winner Steven Spielberg.
Services for Glauben are pending. He is survived by his wife and he is survived by his children, Phillip Glauben and his wife, Linda Glauben; Shari Glauben Becker and her husband, Norman Becker; Barry Glauben, whose wife, Michelle, died of cancer last August; 7 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren.
Those who wish to honor Max Glauben’s memory are encouraged to make a donation to the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum.
Glauben’s testimony will be featured in the museum’s Dimensions in Testimony Theater each day through May and every Friday thereafter.
