(Mirrors. This extract takes four minutes to read.)
Quoting Kristina Pilz’s ‘Writing Across Margins: Contemporary Afro-German Literature’, pages 163–6:
Gert Schramm’s Wer hat Angst vorm schwarzen Mann is the only memoir by a Black German concentration camp survivor; it approaches Black German memory through the subjects of resistance and remembrance. In eight chapters¹⁶⁸, the text turns to the life of Schramm, born in Erfurt on November 25, 1928, as the son of a white mother and an African American father of Cuban descent.
He is imprisoned after an initial confrontation with [Fascism] and in October 1943, at the age of fourteen, is sent to Buchenwald where he survives thanks to the communist-led underground. Schramm moves from passive observer of the communist underground to beneficiary of their action and finally to an active member of the post-war labor movement and a member of the prisoner’s advisory board of the Buchenwald Memorial Foundation.
One of the innovations of the memoir, apart from the main character Schramm as active agent, is the focus upon choice, and responsibility. In the memoir’s narrative, Schramm, one of the teenage minors saved in Buchenwald, is never recruited by, or obligated to collaborate with, the Buchenwald resistance; he willingly chooses to remain at the camp after liberation to help dissolve it.
His choices—personal and political—are tied to the persecution of political and racial groups, as well as the collaboration with the SS. The layering of personal agency, persecution, and collaboration unites in entangled moments that constitute the instance of palimpsestic writing.
From the first moments after arrival at Buchenwald, the banality of death is clear. Schramm witnesses the removal of dead bodies from his sleeping box where he spent the night prior.¹⁶⁹ Daily confrontation with dead bodies stacked outside his building reminds him that SS persecution is not the only source of death in the camp; hunger, diseases, and suicide claim the rest.
Schramm witnesses the killing of a Jewish inmate, a teenage boy only a few years older than him. The perpetrator is a leader of his block unit and a prisoner functionary, also known as a kapo. Kapos are assigned by SS guards to supervise forced labor in a system created to turn victims against victims. The encounter with a communist kapo, however, is the tipping point in Schramm’s imprisonment. Due to the communist resistance within the camps, this encounter does not lead to Schramm’s death but to his survival.
Wer hat Angst vorm schwarzen Mann explores the subjects of remembrance and resistance through the tying together of personal and multiple group memories. These knots are another variation of intersecting memories and are closely related to the concept of palimpsestic memory.
The textual performance of entangled personal and group memories is what constitutes the identity-forming effect for a Black German collective memory. Schramm creates textual knots and intersects memories that undermine any polarized reading of characters as victim, perpetrator, or collaborator as each group’s memory is read through and transformed by the other.
Diese Schonzeit nach der Schinderei im Steinbruch verdanke ich dem seit Jahren verantwortlichen Kapo des Baukommandos, Robert Siewert. Die Kapos waren Häftlinge, die den Arbeitskommandos vorstanden und dem jeweligen SS-Kommandoführer verantwortlich waren. Er ließ sie einsetzen und erteilte alle Befehle. Siewert war Maurer, hatte in den zwanziger Jahren als kommunistischer Abgeordneter im Sächsischen Landtag gesessen. Unter den Häftlingen genoss er großes Ansehen, denn er hatte bei der SS erreicht, dass in seinem Kommando polnische und jüdische Jugendliche eine Maurerlehre machen durften. Immer wieder setzte er sich für andere ein; die Jungen behielt er besonders im Blick, weil sie im Lager schnell eingehen konnten. (WhA 101)¹⁷⁰
[I owe this convalescence period after the drudgery in the pit the longstanding responsible kapo of the construction commando, Robert Siewert. The kapos were prisoners who were superiors to the work commandos and accountable to the SS detail leader. He assigned them and was in charge of all orders. Siewert was a bricklayer, in the 1920s he held a seat in the Saxon state parliament as a communist representative. He was held in high esteem amongst the prisoners, because he brought about with the SS that Polish and Jewish youth was allowed to apprentice to become bricklayers. Tirelessly, he advocated for others; he especially had an eye on the youth, since they could easily wither away in the camps.]¹⁷¹
Schramm’s memories of Buchenwald intersect with memories of forced labor and survival, the communist underground resistance, and the destiny of Polish and Jewish camp youth. The description of Robert Siewert ties Schramm’s personal memory — “Unter den Häftlingen genoss er großes Ansehen […]” (He was held in high esteem amongst the prisoners) — to the collective Jewish and Polish Holocaust memory: “[…], dass in seinem Kommando polnische und jüdische Jugendliche eine Maurerlehre machen durften” (that Polish and Jewish youth was allowed to apprentice to become bricklayers).
The text also evokes German cultural memories of individuals within the SS kapo system. Instead of staging such individuals as SS collaborators, the text presents kapo Siewert as a member of organized resistance. Siewert facilitates Black German, Polish, and Jewish survival based not only on his individual actions but on the organized communist resistance network of Buchenwald.
The text ties together Siewert’s various rôles as private individual, SS collaborator, professional, and political activist—“Siewert”, “kapo”, “bricklayer”, “communist representative”—that respectively intersect Schramm’s private memories with German cultural memories, as well as Polish and Jewish group memories.
These textual intersections constitute an act of remembrance of the communist underground movement within the death camps as that of a support system of political activism. As such, Schramm describes Siewert as a communist activist with a focus on male camp youth: “Immer wieder setzte er sich für andere ein; die Jungen behielt er besonders im Blick, weil sie im Lager schnell eingehen konnten“ (Tirelessly, he advocated for others; he especially had an eye on the youth, since they could easily wither away in the camps).
On one hand, this extends the memory that comes immediately before, which celebrates Siewert in his activist accomplishments, “[…] er hatte bei der SS erreicht, dass polnische und jüdische Jugendliche eine Maurerlehre machen durften” (because he brought about with the SS that Polish and Jewish youth was allowed to apprentice to become bricklayers); on the other, this reads as a limitation of all activist activity by remembering the continuous presence of death within the camps. Such intersecting structures are used to connect and tie together memories related or opposed.
(Cheers to The Holocaust Historian for informing me of this.)
Further viewing: German interview with Gert Schramm.