Donor Stories

Donor Stories:
Kurt R. Mayer

Kurt Mayer was born on January 14, 1930 in Nazi Germany. He was the only child to Joseph and Emmy Mayer. It was very difficult for Jews in Germany at that time. When Kurt was eight, his parents put him into a Jewish orphanage to keep him safe. They worked at getting visas to get out of Germany.

On November 9-10, 1938, Kurt was marched in the snow by Nazis to the police station. He watched as they burned his Torah scrolls and flooded the kitchen at the orphanage. Kristallnaucht, also known as the night of the broken glass when Jewish store fronts had their glass broken, businesses bombed, and even set a fire. It was a night that he recalled many times, unable to forget. It took them two years to secure Visas for all three of them to America.

It was very hard for Kurt to leave his grandparents, his friends, and his country. They got out in April of 1940 on one of the last boats from Genoa, Italy. They were scared, didn’t speak the language, had a handful of their belongings, and had to leave the rest of their family behind.

Once they arrived in New York, they headed for San Francisco where they had relatives. They needed to find a place to stay, they needed work to survive, and they needed to find a place for Kurt while they both worked. Even though they didn’t want to do this they had to put him into another orphanage so he would be safe. They would visit him only on the weekends.

Time went on and they enrolled Kurt in school. He was teased and bullied for speaking with a German accent, accused him of being a Nazi and not belonging. He attended Lowell High School and became a debater. He went on to win many awards. He would end up writing speeches for the then California State Attorney General Pat Brown and continued when he was elected Governor of California. After high school Kurt went to college at The College of The Pacific in Stockton and later to Hastings Law School. He was drafted into the US Army during the Korean War and served as an interpreter for the US Army in Germany. Once back on American soil he would go to work for the Red Cross in Anchorage, Alaska as a social worker.

In 1957, Kurt moved to Tacoma, Washington. He and his business partner, Curt Peterson opened a home building business, Mayer and Peterson. Then in 1964 he would go out on his own and opened Mayer Built Homes. He developed land into single-family subdivisions and apartments. Kurt would end up building thousands of affordable single-family homes, along with several hundred apartments in Washington, Idaho, and Colorado. He was a champion in desegregation by selling many homes to minorities in predominantly white neighborhoods. He understood the struggles that minorities had. He had his own struggles with intolerance and injustice.

Later in life, he would be asked to join the Board of Regents at Pacific Lutheran University. He lived close to PLU and was often a guest speaker for the Holocaust classes there. He would speak about what his life was like as child in Nazi Germany, what it was like to be an eight year old Jewish boy during Kristallnaucht, how he survived, and in the end how great his life had become.

In 2009, Kurt finished his autobiography, MY PERSONAL BRUSH WITH HISTORY. All of the proceeds go to PLU to help support the Holocaust Chair at PLU, which is named after Kurt Mayer. He and a handful of people raised two million dollars to fund this chair. It will teach about the Holocaust and other Genocides forever. PLU just made their Holocaust program into a minor in Holocaust and Genocide studies. Kurt Mayer passed away before seeing this happen on November 13, 2012 at the age of 82.

He taught his children how to give back, how to make a difference and how to never forget what happened to the six million Jews. He believed in giving back and making this world a better place. He fought for the underdog, he was proud to be an American and ‘Lived the American Dream’.

He gave to many causes throughout his lifetime, but PLU’s Holocaust Program was such a big part of what he believed in, “ Justice For All”