Max Sievers

Max Sievers was born in Tempelhof near Berlin on 11 July 1887. On 1 October 1922 he became Managing Director of the Berlin Freethinkers League and then its chairman in 1927. In March 1933 he was arrested and brought to the SA Prison in General-Pape-Strasse. After his release in April 1933, he emigrated to Brussels. There he published anti-fascist newspapers that were disseminated illegally in Germany. When the Wehrmacht occupied Brussels on 17 May 1940, Max Sievers was arrested. He succeeded in escaping and attempted to hide under a false identity in the northern French town of Chéreng. However, on 3 June 1943 he was again arrested and deported to Berlin. There the Volksgerichtshof (People’s Court) sentenced him to death on 17 November 1943 for „dissemination of treason with aiding and abetting the enemy”. Max Sievers was executed on 17 January 1944 in the Brandenburg-Görden penitentiary.