Holocaust Survivor Oral Histories

Werner Marx was born on December 14, 1924 in Buttenhausen, Germany as the youngest of four children. While his family was not especially rich, Werner recalled having fond memories of living in the countryside as a child, free from anti-Semitism. He attended a Jewish school and worked alongside his father in horse dealership. When Werner was 9 years old, his parents sent him to live with his aunt and uncle in Munich to pursue more educational opportunities in Buttenhausen. It was in Munich that he encountered anti-Semitism for the first time. In 1938, when Werner was 14 years old, he received an affidavit to join his older sisters in the United States. He lived in New York City and Baltimore for a time before enlisting in the Army in 1942. Following the war’s end, Werner worked as a designer and met his future wife, Rosa Werzer, in 1946. The two married less than a year later and relocated to Baltimore, where Werner worked for I.C. Isaacs & Company for the next 38 years. Werner passed away in 2014.