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MILLIGAN COLLEGE, TN (January 14, 2010) – Dr. Ted Thomas, a Milligan College professor who spent his sabbatical last year studying the life of a little-known German who saved the lives of thousands of Jews during the Holocaust, will present a lecture titled “Hermann Maas, an Under-reported Holocaust Hero” on Tuesday, Jan. 26, at 7:30 p.m. in Milligan’s Gregory Center for the Liberal Arts. The event is free and open to the public.
Little is written or known about Maas, a Christian Zionist pastor who began ministries of reconciliation between Jews and Gentiles and German and Israelis during the tumultuous times during and after World War II. There are no books written about him in English, and just three short German books are dedicated to his life and work.
“Maas was a man who had a social conscience for the poor and the Jewish people,” said Thomas, associate professor of humanities, history and German at Milligan. “People who needed to get out of the country went to Maas and he was an advocate for them.”
Thomas came across Maas’s name in the 1990s, while researching his dissertation on Christian women who resisted Hitler’s control of the Protestant church in Germany. “As I tried to find out more about (Maas), he became conspicuous by his absence,” Thomas said.
Thomas and his wife, Jane-Anne, traveled to Heidelberg, Germany, where Maas pastored the Holy Spirit Church from 1915 to 1943. The Thomases lived and worked in Heidelberg for a semester, interviewing dozens of people and researching materials from the Jewish Archives, Holy Spirit Church and the University of Heidelberg, where they served as international scholars. While in Heidelberg, Ted also taught an international studies class of 35 Pepperdine University students.
Due to his extensive research, Thomas has become a leading expert on Maas. He was invited to lecture in Heidelberg for the Hermann Maas Foundation last year. He also presented a lecture at the Christian Scholars’ Conference at Lipscomb University last June and will read a paper at the Annual Scholars’ Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches in March. His next step is to write a book.
“It’s interesting how quickly a good person’s story can disappear,” Thomas said. “Maas’s story needs to be told.”
For more information, visit www.milligan.edu/arts.