Max Webb (1917-2018) was born Menashe Weisbrot on 2 March 1917 in Szydłowiec, Poland to Abraham and Sheva (née Blumenfeld) Weisbrot. He had six siblings: his twin sister Lola, Preva, Faiga, Sima, Toba, and Isaac. Max grew up in Łódź where his father owned a grocery store. The family was Conservative and spoke Yiddish and Polish at home.
After the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, Max was sent to several forced-labor camps including Inowrocław (Hohensalza). In July 1943 he was deported to Auschwitz II-Birkenau. While a prisoner in Auschwitz, Max met Nathan Schapelski (later Nathan Shapell), who would become a lifelong friend and business partner. They were transferred to the Günthergrube sub-camp in March 1944. In January the Red Army approached Auschwitz and Max and Nathan were sent on a death march to Waldenburg, a sub-camp of Gross-Rosen. They were liberated 8 May 1945. Max learned that of his immediate family, only Lola and Isaac survived the Holocaust.
Max and Nathan fled the Soviet Occupation Zone for the American Zone. They went to the displaced persons camp in Münchberg, Germany. Max’s surviving siblings and their spouses joined him there, as well as Nathan’s brother David and sister Sala. Max and Sala (1920-1990) married in January 1946, and lived in Münchberg for seven years. Max and David formed the firm David Schapelski & Max Weisbrott, Textilgrosshandlung. Max and Sala had two daughters: Charla (later Charla Schreyer, b. 1947) and Rose (later Rose Webb Roven, b. 1952). The family immigrated to the United States in June 1951, and by 1952 they had settled in Los Angeles, California. Max and his brothers-in-law formed a real estate development firm, Shapell Industries, that built thousands of houses in California. Max and his family changed their surname to Webb in 1957. Sala died in 1990 and in 1993 Max married Anna Hitter. Max was an active philanthropist, and was a founding donor for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Selma Sala Shapell (1920-1990) was born Sala Schapelski on 31 October 1920 in Wolbrom, Poland to Benjamin Schapelski (d. 1942) and Hasa (Hela) Gelbert (d. 1943). She had two sisters, Yadja and Rochelle (d. 1943), and two brothers, David and Nathan. Her father was a farmer and the family grew up poor.
In May 1942 Sala was deported from the Sosnowiec ghetto to the Gross-Rosen subcamps of Faulbrück, Reichenbach, and Langenbielau. She was liberated from Langenbielau on 8 May 1945. Sala was reunited with her brothers David and Nathan at the Münchberg displaced persons camp. The rest of her family perished during the Holocaust.
While in the DP camp she met Max Weisbrott (later Max Webb, 1917-2018), who survived the Holocaust with Nathan. Sala and Max married in January 1946, and lived in Münchberg for seven years. Max and David formed the firm David Schapelski & Max Weisbrott, Textilgrosshandlung. Max and Sala had two daughters: Charla (later Charla Schreyer, b. 1947) and Rose (later Rose Webb Roven, b. 1952). The family immigrated to the United States in June 1951, and by 1952 they had settled in Los Angeles, California. Max and her brothers formed a real estate development firm, Shapell Industries, that built thousands of houses in California. Sala and her family changed their surname to Webb in 1957.
