Who is Max Osias Kormann from An Interrupted Life: The Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943 and what is their importance?

Max Kormann was a close friend of Etty Hillesum. The two met after Etty arrived at Westerbork. At one time, Kormann had worked as a traveling shoe salesman. Kormann, who was known as Max up until the time of his capture by the Germans in October of 1938, became Osias, a name which Etty used affectionately. Kormann was one of the refugees who sailed for Cuba on the SS St. Louis. He was eventually sent to the Netherlands for internment. At Westerbork, Kormann gave Jewish history and ritual lessons to the other prisoners at the camp school. Kormann survived the war and joined his family in the United States in 1946. He died in 1962.