max
In 60 seconds
A Jewish lawyer survives Kristallnacht in 1938 Munich and hides in a cellar, waiting for the war to end. Twenty years later, in 1968, he is a broken man in New York, haunted by the family he could not save. His grandson Max, a young American who wants nothing to do with the past, is forced to sit with him and listen. What begins as an obligation becomes a reckoning with memory, guilt, and the price of survival.
Before you start
Why it matters
This is a play about the cost of surviving when no one let you. It matters because it refuses easy consolation: the dead do not return, and the living must carry them anyway. Readers drawn to Holocaust literature, family drama, and the question of what the second generation owes the first will find it devastating and precise.
Spoilers ahead
The story
- 1
Act 1
The Cellar in Munich
Munich, 1938. Max Eisen, a Jewish lawyer, hides in a cellar while Kristallnacht erupts above him. Glass shatters, synagogues burn, and his neighbors become a mob overnight. He survives the night, but survival is only the beginning. The pogrom teaches him that the country he served as a lawyer no longer recognizes him. He waits in the dark, listening, while the life he built is confiscated piece by piece. The scene establishes the wound the entire play will circle: a man who lived because he hid, and who will never stop asking whether hiding was living.
- 2
Act 2
New York, Twenty Years Later
1968. Max is now an old man in New York, estranged from his son and unreachable to his grandson. He lives inside rituals of grief and accusation, replaying the past because the present offers him nothing. His family has emigrated, rebuilt, and moved on; he has not. The tension between the generations sharpens: the son wants silence, the grandson wants distance, and Max wants witnesses. The apartment becomes a courtroom where the dead testify and the living squirm.
- 3
Act 3
The Grandson Arrives
Max's grandson, a young American named Max as well, is pulled into his grandfather's orbit and made to listen. The old man tells him what happened in Munich, what was lost, and who failed to act. The grandson resists, then cannot. The name they share becomes the hinge of the play: inheritance, burden, and command. The younger Max must decide whether carrying the story is a duty or a trap.
- 4
Act 4
Reckoning
The play drives toward a confrontation between memory and forgetting. The old Max forces the family to face what they have buried; the family forces him to face what his obsession has cost the living. No one is absolved and no one is discarded. The ending leaves the grandson holding the story, changed by it, as the old man's grip on the past finally loosens. The cost is stated plainly: survival did not end in 1945; it continues in every person who agrees to remember.
Who's who
Characters
- Max EisenA Jewish lawyer who survived Kristallnacht in a Munich cellar and never stopped prosecuting the world for it. Twenty years later he is a haunted patriarch demanding to be heard.
- Max (the grandson)The young American who shares his grandfather's name and wants none of its weight. He is made to listen, and the listening changes what he owes.
- The sonCaught between his father's grief and his own need for a normal American life. He chooses silence, and the silence has a price.
What it's really about
Themes
Memory as obligation
The old Max treats remembering as a duty owed to the dead, and he enforces it on his family. The play asks whether memory is a gift, a burden, or both at once. His grandson's reluctance is not callousness; it is the natural instinct of someone handed a weight he did not choose. The book's point: memory is not optional inheritance, it is the inheritance.
Survivor's guilt
Max survived by hiding while others were taken. The play never lets him, or the audience, treat survival as triumph. Every scene of his grief carries the unspoken question: why him and not them. The book's point: survival is not an ending, it is a sentence.
Generational rupture
The son wants to build a life in America; the father wants to hold a funeral that never ends. The grandson stands between them, inheriting the conflict as much as the history. The book's point: trauma does not skip generations, it renegotiates its terms with each one.
The name
Grandfather and grandson share the name Max, and the play makes that coincidence carry weight. A name is a command, a reproach, and a promise. The book's point: what we are called is part of what we are called to do.
Look closer
Symbols
- The cellar
- The shared name
- The courtroom
Spoilers
Ending explained
The ending refuses consolation. The old Max does not find peace in the conventional sense; what he finds is a listener. The grandson's acceptance of the story is the closest thing to resolution the play offers, and it is deliberately incomplete: carrying memory forward is not the same as healing it. Some readers will see the ending as hopeful, the survival of testimony into a new generation. Others will see it as bleak, a chain of grief passed down rather than broken. Both readings are supported. The ending lands because it is honest about the arithmetic: the dead cannot be repaid, and the living can only decide what to do with the debt.
For class or book club
Discussion questions
- 1.Is remembering a duty or a burden? The play stages the conflict between a man who cannot stop remembering and a family that cannot start.
- 2.How does trauma transmit across generations when the second generation did not experience the original event?
- 3.Can survival be separated from guilt when survival depended on hiding while others were taken?
A fair critique
Where it falls short
The play's single-minded focus on the grandfather's grief can flatten the other characters into positions rather than people; the son in particular risks becoming a symbol of denial rather than a full character. Some readers may find the structure repetitive, circling the same wound without escalation. The reliance on monologue places heavy demands on the performer, and on the page the rhythm can feel static. Readers looking for historical breadth beyond one family's experience will need to look elsewhere.
In one sentence
Surviving is not the end of a story; it is the beginning of the debt the living owe the dead.
Is it for you?
Who should read it
Readers drawn to Holocaust literature and family drama that refuses easy comfort. Also for anyone who has inherited a grief they did not witness and wondered what to do with it.
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FAQ
What is Max about?
"Max" by Sarah Cohen-Scali tells the story of Konrad von Kebnersol, a boy born and raised in a Nazi Lebensborn program. It chronicles his intense indoctrination into Aryan ideology, his unwavering loyalty to Hitler, and his eventual disillusionment as World War II progresses, forcing him to confront the horrific truths of the regime and embark on a search for his true identity.
Is Max worth reading?
Yes, "Max" is highly recommended for its powerful and unflinching exploration of a dark chapter in history. It offers a unique first-person perspective on the psychological impact of totalitarianism and propaganda, making it a thought-provoking and emotionally resonant read, particularly for young adults and those interested in historical fiction.
How does Max end?
Spoiler: Max survives the war and, after confronting the full horror of the Nazi regime and his own indoctrination, begins a painful journey of self-discovery. He seeks to understand his past, atone for his unwitting complicity, and forge a new identity free from the ideology that shaped his early life, embracing humanity and truth.
Who should read Max?
This book is ideal for young adult readers (ages 14+) and adults interested in World War II history, the Holocaust, and the psychological effects of propaganda and indoctrination. It's also suitable for those who appreciate character-driven historical fiction that explores complex moral dilemmas.
How long does it take to read Max?
"Max" is approximately 300 pages long. At an average reading speed of 250 words per minute, it would likely take about 4 to 5 hours to read the entire book.
What genre is max?
max is listed under Children & Young Adult.
More Children & Young Adult summariesWhere is max set?
max is set in Hawaii.
How many pages is max?
max is about 266 pages long (the median page count across its editions, per Open Library).