Max and Fanny Finer

Max and Fanny Finer were among the many immigrants who had stalls on Chapel Market in the early 20th century. They were from Hertsa, Romania, and had arrived about 1900. They lived in nearby Risinghill Street.

From their early beginnings with the stall, selling fruit and vegetables, they were able in time to rent a shop at 17 Chapel Market dealing in drapery. They appear to have prospered and given their six children a good start in life. Their eldest son, Herman (1898-1969), became a political scientist at the University of Chicago.

Their youngest, Samuel Edward (1915-93), who stayed in Britain, eventually went into the same field, and with considerable distinction, but had first served, during the Second World War, in the Royal Signals, where he attained the rank of captain.

Both Samuel and Fanny, by a tragic irony, fell victim to the Nazis in the closing months of the war, when they were killed by V-rockets – having come so far to escape oppression, and what became the Holocaust, in eastern Europe.