Max Schindler, a Holocaust survivor whose talks to students and civic clubs breathed life into a tragic chapter in history, died Saturday at his Del Cerro home. He was 87.

Deported from their native Germany to Poland, the Schindler family was dispatched to a forced labor group in 1942. Over the next three years, Max, then a teenager, was sent to six concentration camps.

As a slave laborer in a tank factory, he witnessed the Allies’ February 1945 firebombing of Dresden. Then he endured a forced march to Theresienstadt, a notorious camp run by the Nazi’s SS forces. He was liberated there in May 1945.

A San Diego resident since 1956, Schindler gave hundreds of talks about his experiences. He often joined his wife, Ruska “Rose” Schindler, an Auschwitz concentration camp survivor, whose presentations are said to number in the thousands.


“Mom somehow gains strength from telling her story,” said Ben Schindler, one of the couple’s four children. “Dad, it took his strength out of him when he told his story.”

In the camps, Max Schindler witnessed countless scenes of horror and suffered numerous losses. Among the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazi regime were Schindler’s sister, Cecilia, and his mother, Rachela. His father, Benjamin, died of typhus days after his liberation in 1945.

Yet those who knew him said Schindler was a cheerful optimist with an unshakable faith in humanity.

“He always saw the best in everybody,” said his daughter, Roxanne Schindler Katz. “He was a good soul.”


Family friend Paul Nestor said, “For a guy who had every reason to be bitter in life, he was the sweetest, kindest person on Earth.”

Related: Holocaust survivors return to Auschwitz »

Born in Cottbus, Germany, Schindler was among a group of 730 young concentration camp survivors sent to the United Kingdom. In 1947, he met his future wife when both were living in a hostel in Bedford. Married in 1950, the couple emigrated to New York in 1951. After five years in Brooklyn, they moved cross country to San Diego.

Here, Max Schindler spent nearly 30 years with General Dynamics, designing and developing software. With his wife, he also operated Roxy’s Fabrics in Allied Gardens. They invested in real estate, and he experimented with computer programming.


Their Del Cerro home, which children and grandchildren dubbed “The Schindler Country Club,” was the scene of numerous family gatherings.

“Everything was about family,” said Jeffrey Schindler, the couple’s youngest child. “Family comes first, the family connection is all that counts.”

When his children were grown, Max Schindler designed a small gold pin with a diamond chip and the word “Zachor” — “Remember.” For years, the children would wear these pins when visiting their parents on Holocaust Remembrance Day.

When Schindler’s children had children of their own, he made a fresh set of pins and gave them to his grandchildren as a bar mitzvah or bat mitzvah present.


Revisiting these memories were painful for both of his parents, said Steven Schindler, the couple’s middle son. But when Steven’s junior high school was preparing a production of “The Diary of Anne Frank,” his mother spoke to the students. It was her first public presentation.

“My mom was more active,” Steven said, “and will continue to be active, we suspect.”

But when Rose Schindler was diagnosed with cancer about 12 years ago, Max Schindler filled in for his wife and spoke of his own experiences.

“When she wasn’t able to speak,” Steven said, “he stepped up.”


Together, the couple traveled to Europe several times, revisiting former homes — and the sites of their imprisonment. In 2015, they were among 300 Holocaust survivors who traveled to Auschwitz, marking the 70th anniversary of the fall of that camp, where an estimated 1.1 million people died.

Now 87 and in remission, Rose Schindler expects to resume her speaking engagements soon. “They are both just incredibly powerful people,” Steven said.

Max Schindler died Saturday night as Rose held his hand. Jeffrey was reading aloud from “The Boys,” Sir Martin Gilbert’s nonfiction book about the band of young Holocaust survivors — a group that included Max and Rose — who were transplanted to the United Kingdom after the war.

Schindler is survived by his wife; children Roxanne Schindler Katz and Benjamin, Steven and Jeffrey Schindler; and nine grandchildren.


On Monday, Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal presided over a graveside service at San Diego’s El Camino Memorial Park.

Rather than flowers, the family suggests contributions in Schindler’s name to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum; the University of Southern California Shoah Foundation Institute; Jewish Family Service, San Diego; or Boys Town Jerusalem.

CORRECTION: The original version of this obituary had several errors, including Max Schindler’s age when he died. He was 87. The story has been updated with the correct age and these details: He met his future wife in a hostel in Bedford, England; Steven Schindler is the middle of his three sons; and Steven’s junior high school was addressed by Steven’s mother, Rose Schindler.






UPDATES:

11 a.m., Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2017: This article was updated to correct errors.

This article was originally published at 4:45 p.m., Jan. 17, 2017.