Kurt Mayer | Holocaust Conference

Mainz-Wiesbaden area of Germany on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2015, with Natalie and Pamela Mayer, daughter and wife of Kurt Mayer, a holocaust survivor, who lived here with his family before escaping the Nazi's . (Photo/John Froschauer)

Kurt Mayer (b. January 1930; d. November, 2012)

First introduced to PLU when he was invited to speak to Professor Christopher Browning’s Holocaust class. In his personal Memoir he wrote, “The fact that a university founded by Norwegian Lutherans would teach the evils of Nazism and spare no one who was guilty from being exposed was for me the key.”“PLU is a place where faith and reason meet, where truth and ethics are honored where young minds are models to make the world a better place,” he wrote.
He also lectured in the School of Business on the risks and rewards of being an entrepreneur.
Served on the PLU Board of Regents from 1995-2005.
In 2007 the Kurt Mayer Professorship was created.
In 2010, the professorship was fully funded as the Kurt Mayer Chair in Holocaust Studies and first held by professor of History, Robert P. Ericksen ’67.
His children Natalie and Joe and Joe’s wife, Gloria, continue to be active supporters of the Holocaust Studies program at PLU.
His memoir, My Personal Brush with History, was published in 2009; it was translated to German and published in 2012.