HISTORY FORUM (Winter 2008)

Dr. Thomas Meyer spoke to a packed History Forum on February 29.  Indeed, many left disappointed because they could not get into the crowded room.  Dr. Meyer spoke about his father, Karl Meyer, a photo-journalist in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s.  Karl Meyer’s skills in capturing everyday life in rural and small-town Germany (and elsewhere) earned him the name “Mr. Lens” (in German), and he was greeted with great excitement when he arrived to take his pictures.  Dr. Meyer’s several examples of his father’s beautiful photographs brought the Bakersfield audience, composed of community members, faculty and many students, into a world which looked deceptively normal and peaceful.  This in itself would be an interesting story.  However, there was a more serious element to Dr. Meyer’s presentation.  His mother, Ilse, was Jewish, and, therefore, his parents had a precarious time trying to steer clear of the wrath of the anti-Semitic Nazi regime.  While under the pressure of protecting his wife and family from anti-Jewish persecution, Meyer senior provided a visual chronicle of Nazi expansion--to the point of taking striking pictures of the German occupying army in Paris. The Meyer family did survive the Nazi period (at least the immediate family), but their troubles were not over. The family lived in Eastern Germany after war, and made their escape to Western Germany in 1948 (New Year’s Eve). There were a number of further twists and turns in Dr. Meyer’s story, but eventually he emigrated to the United States, and earned his doctorate in physics.  His three brothers also earned PhDs, and one historian of Germany Michael Meyer, recently retired from CSU Northridge.