Kurt S. Maier is in Kippenheim at the time of the November pogroms. His family's home is raided; his father and grandfather are incarcerated in Dachau concentration camp for several weeks. At the end of 1938, Kurt S. Maier has to leave his elementary school and attend the Jewish school in Freiburg.

On 22 October 1940, Kurt S. Maier and his family are deported to the Gurs camp in France with more than 6,500 other Jews from Baden and Saarpfalz. It is one of the first organised deportations from Germany.

Kurt S. Maier and his family are released from the Gurs camp in the spring of 1941. Emigration papers procured with the support of their relatives in the USA are waiting at the U.S. Consulate in Marseilles.

At the beginning of June 1941, Kurt S. Maier is able to board a ship with his family; on arriving in Morocco, they are interned once again, this time at the Sidi El Ayachi camp. On 26 July 1941, they are able to continue their journey to the USA and reach New York harbour on 9 August 1941. From the autumn of 1941, Kurt S. Maier attends an American school.

In September 1947, Kurt S. Maier is granted U.S. citizenship. He serves in the military from 1952 until 1954. As a soldier in the U.S. Army, he is stationed in Germany from 1953 until 1954 and also visits his home town of Kippenheim during this period.

He later studied German literature and history, graduating with a doctorate in 1969. From 1978 to the present day, Kurt S. Maier has worked at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. He was awarded the Order of Merit of the State of Baden-Württemberg in 2010 and the Federal Cross of Merit in 2019 for his commitment as a contemporary witness to the Shoah.