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's PLU Connection
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.