Cantor Leopold Szneer

Cantor Leopold Szneer was born on December 21, 1921, in Munich, Germany. From a young age, he knew he wanted to become a Chazzan (Cantor). He studied chazzanut and performed as a soloist in his synagogue's choir. Nazism's rise to power threatened to end his dream. His Jewish school was closed, he and other Jewish children had to attend public schools, where they were confronted with anti-Semitism. In 1935, Leopold left Munich to attend a theological seminary in Frankfurt. However, under Nazi pressure, it closed in 1938.

On November 9, 1938, the incident Kristallnacht erupted throughout the country, Leopold was arrested and sent to Dachau concentration camp at the age of sixteen. After spending five weeks, the Jewish Federation and Red Cross were able to free him because he was underage. On December 20, 1938, Szneer joined the Kindertransport to Belgium. The transport was a rescue effort to get Jewish children safely out of the country. His sister Ester got a visa to go to England in early 1939. His parents and another sister, Hanna, stayed in Munich until July 1939, and later joined Szneer.

Unfortunately, German troops invaded Belgium on May 10, 1940, and the family was in grave danger once again. The family hid in a dog shelter but were discovered and sent to the transit camp Malines. Since it was days before Rosh Hashana, Szneer gathered his father and ten men to form a High Holiday service in a hidden bunk. Denounced by a fellow prisoner, Szneer and the entire camp were ordered to confess who had dared to pray. Szneer stepped forward, and the S.S. officer warned him, "Here we do not pray." In the next years, Szneer was located in the Breendonck concentration camp, including a time of solitary confinement. Eventually, with the help of the resistance, he escaped, joined the partisan, and returned to Brussels, hiding for nine months in a small attic until the city was liberated by the Allies. Only then did Szneer learn that his parents had been murdered at Auschwitz in early 1944.

In 1946, Szneer met fellow survivor Isabelle Lubinewski who he married a year later. In 1952 the couple came to Los Angeles, United States, and in 1953 Cantor Szneer led his first High Holiday service in his new home. He led services throughout the L.A. region and was cantor at Congregation Mogen David in Los Angeles for more than 20 years. He also held High Holiday services at the Writer's Guild for 25 years. The Szneers have worked with local universities, synagogues, and schools to further Holocaust studies. Cantor Leopold Szneer passed away on May 26, 2016.

Isabelle Szneer

Isabelle Szneer was born in Brussels, Belgium, on May 26, 1924. Her parents Charles and Hinda Lubinewski, had emigrated to Belgium after World War I. Her family was considered stateless because the Belgian government refused to grant them citizenship. Following the Nazi German invasion of Belgium on May 10, 1940, the Lubinewski family attempted to flee to southern France but were unable to escape. Compelled to register as Jews, the family experienced growing harassment and isolation.

On August 3, 1942, Isabelle, then eighteen years old, received a summons to report immediately to the transit camp Malines for deportation. If she failed to obey, her father would be taken in her place. Desperate to keep his family together, Isabelle's father devised a solution. If his daughter immediately married a Belgian citizen, she would no longer be subject to the order. An 80-year-old resident of a retirement home agreed to the sham marriage, and the ceremony took place the following day. Isabelle was spared. Sometimes separated, the family would spend the ensuing years in a succession of hiding places. The support from the Belgian resistance enabled the family to survive until liberation in September 1944. In 1947, Isabelle wed Leopold Szneer. Isabelle Szneer passed away on November 26, 2019.

Max Webb was born Menashe Weisbrot on March 2, 1917, in Lodz, Poland. He grew up in a large family with six siblings, including five sisters and one brother. Max's schooling ended after only a few years since his help was needed to support the family. He became a popular dance and ice skating instructor.

This life ended when the Germans marched into Lodz on September 8, 1939. Shortly after, Max was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to the Sieradz prison. He spent the next five years in 18 different camps. In one camp, he was ordered to dig graves in the frozen ground before filling them with the bodies of his fellow Jewish prisoners.

In 1943, Max was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Here he met a fellow prisoner, Nathan Shapell, who would become his lifelong friend, and business partner. Max and Nathan escaped death in one of the final Auschwitz selections in the winter of 1944. They survived five Auschwitz sub-camps and a brutal death march that took them to camps at Fürstenstein, Reichenbach, and Gross-Rosen before their liberation.

Max and Nathan returned to Reichenbach to find Nathan's sister Sala who Max married in December 1945. The three traveled by foot to the displaced persons Muchberg in the American zone, where Max discovered his twin sister Lola. He would be reunited with his brother Isaac a year later at another displaced person camp in Germany.

In 1951, Max and Sala immigrated to the United States, settling in Los Angeles, where they were joined by Nathan, his brother David, and their families. Max, Nathan, and David founded S and S Construction, which became one of California's largest and most successful land development companies.

Max and Sala had two daughters, Rose and Chara. His financial success enabled him to found the Max Webb Family Foundation. In addition, Webb made charitable contributions to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was a founding donor of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. He endowed a chair for David Wolpe, the Senior Rabbi of Sinai Temple. Webb died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, on October 23, 2018. He was 101.

Leon Weinstein was born on May 13, 1911, in the village of Radzymin, Poland. At twelve years old, Weinstein became an apprentice to a local tailor. But he would then travel to Warsaw, without telling his parents to seek better employment opportunities. Continuing to work as a tailor, Weinstein saved money to return to his hometown at the age of eighteen. Weinstein joined the Polish Army and served two years in the cavalry.

When Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, Leon fought on the front line. Captured, he was sent a prison camp in Kovel, Ukraine. He managed to escape, walking 500 miles back to Radzymin. In the Radzymin ghetto, he joined the underground, smuggling arms to the resistance. Altered by German soldier's offhand remark, Leon fled with his wife, Sima, and infant daughter, Natalie, born in 1940, just before the ghetto was liquidated and its Jews sent to the death camp Treblinka. Of his large family, only he survived.

The couple now focused their efforts to save their child. Homeless, and with no money, they abandoned their daughter to save her life. Natalie was dressed warmly and had a cross placed around her neck, a sign proclaiming she is the daughter of a war widow unable to feed her. Then they left her on the steps of a police station. Sima went into hiding, Leon returned to the Warsaw ghetto, fighting in the upspring. He was among the few to escape through the rat-infested sewers. He would never learn what happened to his wife.

At war's end, his single hope was to find Natalie. For six months, Leon traveled across Poland on his bicycle, searching one convent orphanage after another. After visiting many, he spotted Natalie and immediately recongized her. He was able to confirm the identification by her birthmark above her hip. Natalie was four years old. A few months later, Leon met Sophie, a survivor of Auschwitz. They married and in 1952 came to the United States. Natalie, as an adult, married, had two children and became a psychotherapist. Leon died in Los Angeles, California on December 28, 2011.