Max Poznanski collection

The Max Poznanski collection contains documentation acquired by Poznanski, in an effort to gain reparations for his medical conditions. Poznanski suffered from bronchitis and severe nervousness, gained from his time working in the coal mines while a prisoner in several concentration camps. The majority of the collection contains medical reports and diagnoses in English, German, Czech, Russian, and Polish. Also included are photographs of Max and his wife before the war, and news clippings in German. The Max Poznanski collection contains documentation gathered over many years in order to prove medical illnesses which resulted from Poznanski’s imprisonment in several concentration camps during World War II. Included are medical reports and diagnoses filed by doctors who treated Poznanski in Czechoslovakia, following his liberation from Theresienstadt; at the displaced persons camp in Amberg, Germany, following the war; and in Washington, D.C., following Poznanski’s immigration to the United States. This documentation was gathered in order for Poznanski to gain reparations for his treatment during the Holocaust. Also included are news clippings in German, and photographs of Max and his wife Sherle before the war. Max Poznanski was born on 8 May 1911, athough he was later assigned a birthdate in 1917 by Soviet authorities when he was issued identification papers following his liberation from Theresienstadt in 1945. Originally from Warsaw, he was interned in the Warsaw Ghetto from 1940-1942, and then imprisoned in a succession of concentration camps as a forced laborer, including Majdanek (July 1942-June 1943), Auschwitz (June 1943-January 1945), Krahwinkel (January through March 1945), and then Theresienstadt. After being treated in a Soviet-operated hospital in Theresienstadt following liberation, he moved to a displaced persons camp in Amberg, Germany, where he was treated in a sanatorium for tuberculosis from September 1945 until June 1946. He remained in Amberg until he immigrated to the United States in 1949, where he settled in the Washington, DC area. He suffered from chronic bronchitis, in addition to severe nervousness, as a result from his time in the camps working as a coal miner.