Sophie Mayer was a doctor. Since she was Jewish, she was no longer allowed to work in her profession from 1938.
In 1941 Mayer was taken to Berg am Laim assembly camp and had to perform forced labor in a battery factory. In July 1942 she faced a threat of deportation. She, her mother, and her sister managed to escape from the camp. Her acquaintance Maria Letnar found her a hiding place with Letnar’s sister Rosa Mayer and her husband Paul in Lenggries. She also found a place for Sophie Mayer’s sister and mother to hide.
Sophie Mayer stayed in the bedroom of the family’s ten-year-old son Günter. They were entering into great risk, especially since Paul Mayer was a police superintendent. Their apartment was directly above the police precinct, where SS officers frequently also spent time.
When a neighbor betrayed the hiding place shortly before the end of the war, Sophie Mayer managed to escape to safety in the home of farmer friends of the Mayers. She survived. Her mother and sister died by suicide out of despair in 1944.
After the war, Sophie Mayer returned to practicing medicine. On her initiative, Paul and Rosa Mayer were honored as Righteous Among the Nations.