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An Afro-Caribbean in the Nazi Era: From Papiamentu to German
An Afro-Caribbean in the Nazi Era: From Papiamentu to German is the true story of Lionel Romney’s wartime experiences as told by his daughter, Mary L. Romney-Schaab. He was one of relatively few Black people to be imprisoned in the Nazi concentration camp system and even fewer who survived to tell about it. Lionel Romney was an Afro-Caribbean (West Indian) merchant sailor who by chance was trapped in the politics, chaos, and deadly violence of World War II. As a non-combatant, he spent the four years from 1940 to 1944 in Italy, and the final year of the war, 1944-45, in the notorious Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. There, he was subjected to inhumane treatment and near-starvation. He routinely witnessed atrocities that traumatized him so deeply that he was virtually silent about the experience for over four decades. After over 20 years of trying, Mary was finally able to get him to talk about it during a series of oral history interviews. These form the centerpiece of the book, which also chronicles her experience of visiting Mauthausen and Italy after her father passed away. Framed within the context of Lionel Romney’s Caribbean origins, World War II and the Nazi camp system, as well as Mary’s own thoughts, this volume is part oral history, part memoir, and part history. As such, it is a story of an ordinary man caught in extraordinary circumstances; a father’s survival and a daughter’s journey.
- GenresGermanyNonfiction
206 pages, Paperback
First published February 3, 2020
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994 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 13, 2020
Thirty five years ago, I was at work sitting next to the author in her office when she made a startling revelation: Her father had been a POW during WWII and survived captivity in a NAZI concentration camp. All of the notions I had at the time about WWII, its combatants, and NAZI concentration camps didn’t comprehend Mary’s revelation. Her father was Black. He was from St. Martin. How could that be? While I expressed my surprise, she expressed her determination to learn more about her father’s experience.
Through dedication, unmatched determination, and extensive research, including conducting oral history interviews with her father, Lionel Romney, Mary Romney has brought her father’s story and epic journey to life. As I read An Afro-Carribean in the Nazi Era, I felt as if I were again sitting next to Mary and now her father, listening to them in their own voices, telling Lionel Romney’s incredible story.
Not only does Mary recount her father’s odyssey, but her own journey in researching and writing this rich and compelling book. She takes us through her father’s life growing up in the Caribbean before World War II and his formative experiences before setting out on a merchant ship across the Atlantic Ocean. She takes us with her as she retraces her father’s 4-year odyssey up the Italian peninsula and into the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria.
I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in learning and understanding more about 20th century history, origin stories, race and ethnicity, not to mention World War II. It illustrates the power of people’s stories and the vital role they play in our understanding of history and world events. Individuals hearing other’s stories can reframe and enhance our understanding of a time as complex as leading up to, afterwards, and including World War II. Lionel Romney was a strong, brave, and tenacious man. Mary inherited those qualities and as an author she used those qualities combined with curiosity and the ability to ask questions and listen to give us the gift of her father’s incredible story and the incredible journey she took to tell it.
Through dedication, unmatched determination, and extensive research, including conducting oral history interviews with her father, Lionel Romney, Mary Romney has brought her father’s story and epic journey to life. As I read An Afro-Carribean in the Nazi Era, I felt as if I were again sitting next to Mary and now her father, listening to them in their own voices, telling Lionel Romney’s incredible story.
Not only does Mary recount her father’s odyssey, but her own journey in researching and writing this rich and compelling book. She takes us through her father’s life growing up in the Caribbean before World War II and his formative experiences before setting out on a merchant ship across the Atlantic Ocean. She takes us with her as she retraces her father’s 4-year odyssey up the Italian peninsula and into the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria.
I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in learning and understanding more about 20th century history, origin stories, race and ethnicity, not to mention World War II. It illustrates the power of people’s stories and the vital role they play in our understanding of history and world events. Individuals hearing other’s stories can reframe and enhance our understanding of a time as complex as leading up to, afterwards, and including World War II. Lionel Romney was a strong, brave, and tenacious man. Mary inherited those qualities and as an author she used those qualities combined with curiosity and the ability to ask questions and listen to give us the gift of her father’s incredible story and the incredible journey she took to tell it.
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October 21, 2025I loved Mary Romney’s book about her father Lionel Romney who survived Mauthausen concentration camp. She not only tells about her father’s background from Sint Maartens but also about his varied life of work and acquisition of languages. She explains how he accidentally ended up in the Nazi camp and was there until liberation. His linguistic talent may have saved him from a worse fate because he acted as a translator there.
We also learn some history of the Nazi camps and how people were mistreated. Finally we are treated with Lionel’s own words, an oral history transcription by his daughter interspersed with history and the intense feelings of Mary Romney as she goes to visit Mauthausen and other sites associated with her father.
I am so touched that Mary Romney-Schaab has given us these firsthand (her father’s) and secondhand (her) reports. Very artfully done, she also includes photos and an ample bibliography.
As Mary puts it—the Mauthausen camp was not per se a death camp but it became one—out of about 200,000 prisoners there nearly half died or were killed mainly because of the heavy quarry work they did on so little nourishment but also because they were killed by Nazi guards on the infamous Stairway of Death.
Mary tells the story of her father, a non-Aryan who was not Jewish but black—Afro Caribbean. It was an ethnic cleansing that was vicious. It targeted not only the Jews but Slavs, Roma people, people of color and people with disabilities and queer people. She notes that Black people were not specifically targeted for extermination, maybe because of their small numbers in Germany.
“The total number of non-combatants exterminated by the Nazis was approximately 11 million.” 6 million were Jewish. “The other 5 million included those who were perceived to be racially inferior… as well as Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, Communists, criminals, the physically and mentally handicapped; plus resistance fighters and partisans…”
I had the honor of speaking to Mary about her book project years ago after working together as English language teachers. My father who was captured in then Yugoslavia was in Nazi camps for three years. He, like Mary’s father, also said very little about his experiences. People were so traumatized they couldn’t speak about the horrors of this genocide. It was left to our generation to tell these stories and to keep the history alive.
We also learn some history of the Nazi camps and how people were mistreated. Finally we are treated with Lionel’s own words, an oral history transcription by his daughter interspersed with history and the intense feelings of Mary Romney as she goes to visit Mauthausen and other sites associated with her father.
I am so touched that Mary Romney-Schaab has given us these firsthand (her father’s) and secondhand (her) reports. Very artfully done, she also includes photos and an ample bibliography.
As Mary puts it—the Mauthausen camp was not per se a death camp but it became one—out of about 200,000 prisoners there nearly half died or were killed mainly because of the heavy quarry work they did on so little nourishment but also because they were killed by Nazi guards on the infamous Stairway of Death.
Mary tells the story of her father, a non-Aryan who was not Jewish but black—Afro Caribbean. It was an ethnic cleansing that was vicious. It targeted not only the Jews but Slavs, Roma people, people of color and people with disabilities and queer people. She notes that Black people were not specifically targeted for extermination, maybe because of their small numbers in Germany.
“The total number of non-combatants exterminated by the Nazis was approximately 11 million.” 6 million were Jewish. “The other 5 million included those who were perceived to be racially inferior… as well as Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, Communists, criminals, the physically and mentally handicapped; plus resistance fighters and partisans…”
I had the honor of speaking to Mary about her book project years ago after working together as English language teachers. My father who was captured in then Yugoslavia was in Nazi camps for three years. He, like Mary’s father, also said very little about his experiences. People were so traumatized they couldn’t speak about the horrors of this genocide. It was left to our generation to tell these stories and to keep the history alive.
February 21, 2021
Mary Romney's book is a well-written, engaging narrative of a little known topic: Black prisoners in Nazi prison camps. It took years for Romney to draw out the poignant, terrifying story of her father's imprisonment in a Nazi concentration camp in Austria. The story begins with her father's youth in the Dominican Republic and the Dutch Caribbean island of St. Maarten, to his capture and imprisonment first in Italian camps and then finally in the Nazi Austrian camp at Mauthausen. Romney builds suspense as she only reveals details of her father's life as she learns them. The result is an inspiring tale of survival through Lionel Romney's mental strength and the utilization of his multilingual skills.
The book also shows Mary's own journey in reckoning with her father's past, culminating in her emotional trip to Mauthausen after her father's death. Recommended.
The book also shows Mary's own journey in reckoning with her father's past, culminating in her emotional trip to Mauthausen after her father's death. Recommended.
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June 17, 2020 Most readers have probably never heard of a black man who was interred in a German concentration camp, and who also survived. The uniqueness of Mary Romney Schaab's subject matter also makes her book worth reading. Lionel Romney's words, dictated to his daughter Mary, keep our attention. Added to a gripping story are attractive photographs, maps and illustrations, plus the background history, historical notes and further reading list.
Once the reader begins reading this true tale of a merchant seaman's ship sunk by a mine near Gibraltar, the tension builds. After four years of laboring in Italian camps, Lionel never imagined that he would end up in Mauthausen, an Austrian concentration camp known for its quarry stairway. The German SS, masters of intimidation, were active in supervising the camps, including Mauthausen.
I strongly recommend Mary Romney Schaab's new book. It is suitable for college and graduate students, advanced high school students, history lovers, and anyone who wishes to learn how Lionel Romney landed in a concentration camp, how he survived, and the pain he suffered from being unable to tell anyone about his experiences for more than thirty years.
Review by Cecile A. Hastie
Librarian
Elmhurst Library
Once the reader begins reading this true tale of a merchant seaman's ship sunk by a mine near Gibraltar, the tension builds. After four years of laboring in Italian camps, Lionel never imagined that he would end up in Mauthausen, an Austrian concentration camp known for its quarry stairway. The German SS, masters of intimidation, were active in supervising the camps, including Mauthausen.
I strongly recommend Mary Romney Schaab's new book. It is suitable for college and graduate students, advanced high school students, history lovers, and anyone who wishes to learn how Lionel Romney landed in a concentration camp, how he survived, and the pain he suffered from being unable to tell anyone about his experiences for more than thirty years.
Review by Cecile A. Hastie
Librarian
Elmhurst Library
June 26, 2020
This fascinating story is full of surprises. It's a historical non-fictional account that reads like an adventure. The author combined objective research and documentation of facts with the extraordinary responsibility to tell her father's untold story, as she processed the magnitude of his loss. Beautiful narration highlights the amazing resilience, resourcefulness and hope that was central to the character's survival. Highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews