Gert Schramm

Gert Schramm

Gert Schramm was just 15 years old when he was arrested and imprisoned in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp.

He was born on November 28, 1928 in Erfurt, Germany to Marianne Schramm (a White German Mother) and Jack Brankson (a Black American Father working as an Engineer for an American Steel Company in Germany.)

According to the Nazi Nuremberg Laws, he was denied the right to any vocational training as a Mischling ersten Grades, (Mixed Race of the First Grade). He was also living evidence of illegal Interracial "incest" that carried a Death Penalty for his Father and himself.

His Father, Jack, made several trips back to Germany after his Work Contract ended. In 1941 he was arrested for violating the Nazi Racial Laws (Rassenschande Laws) and eventually deported to the Auschwitz Death Camp where he was killed, despite being an American Citizen.

In 1944, when Gert was 15 years old he was arrested by the Gestapo for being a "Negermischling," a derogatory term that referred to him as “a Mixed- Race Nigger.”

On July 20, 1944 he was deported to the Buchenwald Concentration Camp, where the Number 49489 was tattooed onto his left arm. His sentence was an unspecified time, to be not less than fifteen years.

After the liberation of Buchenwald and the end of the Second World War, Schramm returned to his Mother in Bad Langensalza. He then worked at the Wismut Uranium Mine in the Soviet Occupation Zone.

From 1956 to 1964, he worked in Essen in a Coal Mine, but then chose to move to East Germany, three years after the construction of the Berlin Wall. There, he worked at the Barnimer Busgesellschaft (Barnim Bus Company) in Eberswalde, Brandenburg and resumed his education, becoming a certified Mechanic and later, a Meister.

In 1985 he started his own business, "Schramms Reisen," a Taxi Company.

Schramm, a Widower, lived near Family Members in Eberswalde. He had four grown Children, was a Grandfather and Great-Grandfather. He was involved with the local Volunteer Fire Brigade and was a Lay Judge. He visited schools to talk about Buchenwald and he was on the Prisoners' Advisory Board of the Buchenwald Memorial Foundation.

He died in Erfurt, Germany on April 18, 2016 at the age of 88.