Join us to hear from Anna Scheumann Gallegos, who will tell her grandfather Max's story. Max Hilfstein was born in Kraków, Poland. By the time the war started, his father had died and Max was running the Hilfstein family business, a salon, with his mother. The family was later sent to the Kraków ghetto — where Max tried to subvert Nazism and in the process he saved several lives.

In the ghetto he married Erna Kluger, and when the ghetto was liquidated, Max was sent to Płaszów and then to a series of other concentration camps including Auschwitz.

You’ll hear more from Anna on this fascinating story, including Max’s journey surviving the war, what happened in the aftermath, and the many ways Anna is honoring her grandfather and following in his footsteps.

Anna Scheumann Gallegos
Anna was born and raised in New York. Her maternal grandparents, Max and Erna Hilfstein, and maternal
great-grandmother, Anna Kluger, were Holocaust survivors. Anna serves on the Board of Directors of the New Cracow Friendship Society, a non-profit international organization established in 1965 for survivors and subsequent generations with Holocaust ancestral roots from Krakow, Poland and the pre-war Polish Galicia Regions. She became involved in the 3GNY WEDU program in late 2017 and considers it a great honor to share her family's story. Following in the footsteps of her grandfather, who was a beautician, Anna became a makeup artist and stylist. Anna lives in the suburbs of New York City with her husband, Aidan, and their son, Max.