Gerhard Langer

From standing next to Adolf Hitler at a construction site, to cornering a bear in a Army Post Exchange in Maine, to flying through thunderstorms in a small airplane while study freezing ice nuclei, Gerhard Langer has always had an uncanny knack for finding adventure. His memoirs describe 90 years of adventure-first as a Jewish ＂Mischling＂ (person of mixed racial status) in Nazi Germany, and then as a cowboy, scientist, husband and father, and avid hiker in the US.This straightforward and captivating life story paints a detailed picture of the struggle of surviving and thriving during the World War 2 era. Once the war was over Gerhard found himself homeless and jobless, but a citizen of the US. Looking for more adventure-for instance, a sighting of Al Capone-led him to stop in Chicago. There he found a wife instead of a gangster. A few years later, a move to Colorado led Gerhard to work seeding clouds to modify weather and later tracking stray plutonium particles in the environment. His life in Colorado also allowed him to enjoy numerous adventures in the mountains as well as participating in mission trips around the world. Gerhard celebrated his 70th birthday with a hiking trek up Machu Picchu in Peru. Retirement brought more hikes, bike trips, bike accidents, and trips to Germany to reconnect with family and reconcile his past.

Gerhard Langer was born in 1923 in Jena, Germany, and came to the US when he was 15 years old to escape Nazi persecution. He finished high school in Washington DC and then, as WW2 progressed, got his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Purdue University. After serving in the US Army he completed his master’s degree at Purdue as well. Gerhard enjoyed a very successful career as an aerosol physicist, working in the fields of satellite counter-measures, weather modification and environmental protection. He authored well over 100 publications during his career, but ＂Memoirs of Gerhard Langer＂ is his first book. After suppressing the difficult memories of his early years for half a century, in the last 2 decades he has allowed them to surface and has recorded them, resulting in this significant contribution to the remembrances of Holocaust survivors.