⚠️ VERY SENSITIVE HISTORICAL CONTENT WARNING ⚠️
This post mentions racism, violence and Buchenwald concentration camp under the Nazi regime. Shared only for historical education and remembrance.
Gert Schramm (1928–2016) – The Only Known Black German Prisoner to Survive Buchenwald
Born 29 November 1928 in Erfurt, Germany, to a white German mother and Jack Brankson, an African-American engineer. Under the 1935 Nuremberg Laws he was classified as “Mischling 1st degree” and denied apprenticeship, education and basic rights.
In May 1944, at age 15, he was arrested by the Gestapo “for the protection of German blood”. After weeks of beatings and starvation in various Gestapo prisons, on 20 July 1944 he was deported to Buchenwald concentration camp, prisoner number 49489 – believed to be the only Black German inmate in the entire Nazi camp system who survived to tell his story.
He spent nine months doing forced labour in the Gustloff-Werke II armaments factory, witnessing thousands die from exhaustion, disease and execution.
Buchenwald was liberated by the U.S. Third Army on 11 April 1945. Gert Schramm was among the survivors.
Life After Liberation – Revenge Through Testimony
Returned to Erfurt, trained as a car mechanic, lived quietly.
From the 1990s onward he spoke in schools, memorials and museums across Germany and Europe.
Published his memoir “Wer hat Angst vorm schwarzen Mann” (2009).
Became one of the last living witnesses of Nazi racial persecution against Black Germans.
Passed away on 19 April 2016 in Erfurt, aged 87.
Gert Schramm said: “I did not take revenge with a gun. I took revenge by telling the truth so that no one is allowed to forget.”
He remains a symbol of the power of memory and quiet courage.
Reliable sources:
Buchenwald Memorial Archives
Memoir “Wer hat Angst vorm schwarzen Mann” – Gert Schramm (2009)
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum – Black Victims of Nazism
Documentary “Schwarz in Buchenwald” (ZDF/Arte 2013)