Honors College Hosts Lecture on "The Shame of Survival: Working Through a Nazi Childhood"

February 12, 2010

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Dr. Ursula Mahlendorf, former women's studies professor at University of California, Santa Barbara, will present her memoir "The Shame of Survival: Working Through a Nazi Childhood" at 4:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 15, in the Alexander Reading Room on the Baylor campus.

The event is free and open to the public. The lecture series is hosted by Baylor's Honors College and features scholars and authors throughout the year. The series is designed to stimulate thought and discussion.

Her memoir is about her childhood experiences in the Hitler Youth.

"She worked for years to figure out how to tell the story," said Jennifer Good, assistant professor of German at Baylor.

Mahlendorf was born in 1929 and was swept up in Nazi ideology after 1933. After the war, the region she lived in became Polish and she was expelled from where she grew up. Her memoir touches on her experience as a refugee.

She won a Fulbright Scholarship and attended Brown University in Providence, R.I. After completing her studies she became a professor of German and women's studies at University of California, Santa Barbra and, is currently retired.

"We asked her to lecture because there are very few people who can and will share this experience with others," Good said.

Her memoir will be available for purchase. A book signing will follow Mahlendorf's presentation.

For more information, contact (254) 710-1523 or visit the Honors College Lecture Series website.

by Jessica Puente, student newswriter, (254) 710-6805