Heppner, Max Amichai, 1933-

Max Heppner was born in 1933 in Amsterdam, the only son of Dr. Albert and Irene Heppner. Albert and Irene had sought refuge in Amsterdam, leaving Berlin just before Max's birth to escape the Nazis. The Heppners lived comfortably in Amsterdam until Aug. 1942 when Irene was arrested by the Nazis. Irene was freed, but the family decided it was time to leave Amsterdam. However, during their attempt to leave Amsterdam, the Heppner family was stranded in southern Holland with another family, the Graumanns. The two families were hidden in southern Holland by farmers Johannes (Harry) and Dina Janssen and their nine children in the town of Voorpeel. The Heppners and Graumanns lived in a chicken house on the Janssen farm until liberated by British forces in Sept. 1944. The two families did not emerge from hiding without tragedy, however. Jakob Kramer, Max's grandfather, was taken to the Sobibor concentration camp where he was killed on 13 Mar. 1943 at age seventy-four. Michael Graumann, the son of Heinze and Elli Graumann, was killed by a Nazi informant just before liberation. Shortly after liberation, Albert Heppner died of natural causes and Elli Graumann committed suicide.

In 1946, Max Heppner and his mother Irene left Holland and settled in Cleveland, Ohio. Max earned an economics degree from Ohio State University and a Masters degree in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin. He was a public affairs specialist for the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. He is married to Shana Rosefeld. Irene Heppner died in 1997 at age 93. As a way to pass the time as a boy in hiding, Max Heppner created many drawings documenting his time living in the chicken house. His drawings are of everyday objects on the farm, the people he encountered, and events that were important to him. These drawings have been published with commentary by Heppner in the book, "I Live in a Chicken House" (2005).

Heinz Graumann moved back to Amsterdam after the war and remarried. He and his wife Lou moved to Topeka, Kansas and had two children, Peter and Marianne. Heinze died in Topeka in 1990 at age ninety. Harry and Dina Janssen and their children left Holland in 1950 after their farm buildings were destroyed by fire. They moved to a remote farming community in Brazil where they lived for a number of years. After Harry retired, the family returned to Voorpeel, Holland. Harry died in 1975. Dina continued to live in Voorpeel until her death in 1998 at age ninety-two.