Lionel Romney: Black Seaman’s Survival of Mauthausen in WWII

Lionel Romney, a Caribbean-born merchant seaman, found himself in a harrowing struggle for survival during World War II. His daughter, Mary, spent years uncovering his story, which began with his early life in St. Martin and led to his imprisonment in Nazi concentration camps.

Early Life and the Call of the Sea

Lionel Romney was born in 1912 in Santo Domingo to Afro-Caribbean parents. His family soon moved to the Dutch part of St. Martin, where he grew up multilingual and enjoyed a seemingly idyllic childhood. St. Martin, in that era, was an unspoiled paradise, and Romney developed a deep fascination with the ocean, observing ships and dreaming of the world beyond his island home.

At 22, seeking to earn a living and explore the world, Romney became a sailor in 1934. He spent several years at sea, traveling trade routes between the Caribbean, North America, and South America.

The Unspoken Chapter: World War II

Mary Romney-Perry, Lionel's daughter, noticed a significant gap in her father's life story. While he spoke freely about his childhood and his time in New York in the late 1940s, he remained silent about the period of World War II. Her mother eventually revealed that Lionel had been in a concentration camp, a revelation that initially shocked Mary, as she believed black people were not held in such camps. This silence, common among trauma survivors, was also fueled by Lionel's fear of not being believed.

The erasure of black people's experiences during this period is a significant historical oversight. The prevailing narrative often overlooks the presence and suffering of black individuals in Germany and across Europe during the Nazi era.

Caught in the War's Embrace

In 1940, as the war began to escalate in Europe, Lionel Romney was working as a merchant seaman on a ship bound for Nova Scotia, Canada. Like many, he initially underestimated the scale and speed of Hitler's aggression.

While en route, he received news of the bombing of Rotterdam. Within weeks, Germany had occupied the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, and invaded France. The Treaty of Versailles, which had humiliated Germany after World War I, had placed the western bank of the Rhine River under international control, where black soldiers in the French army played a crucial role. This led to a propaganda campaign against these black soldiers, fueling deep-seated German racism and culminating in the concept of "the black horror," which later provided fertile ground for Nazi ideology.

Romney's ship was part of a convoy crossing the Atlantic to supply Great Britain. After a severe storm, his ship became separated from the convoy and eventually made it to London. There, he boarded another ship, believing it was bound for Argentina, but it was secretly diverted to Greece.

Italian Captivity and the Rise of Nazism

On June 10, 1940, Italy declared war on France and Great Britain, transforming the Mediterranean into a war zone. Romney's ship, the SS Machis, was attacked by the Italian Navy, capsizing after being hit by a naval mine and a torpedo. He was rescued by the Italians but immediately became a political prisoner due to his Dutch citizenship.

Romney was held in Italian captivity from 1940 to 1944, first on the penal colony island of Pantelleria, then in camps in Bi, Parma, and Teramo, where he performed forced agricultural labor. In 1943, he was transferred to a transit camp in Fossoli, near Carpi in northern Italy, a site from which prisoners were deported to German concentration camps.

When Mussolini was overthrown in 1943, the Nazis took control of northern Italy and its prisoner-of-war camps. Lionel Romney recounted how his fellow prisoners warned him, "Now we have a problem," upon seeing the SS men. He witnessed the brutal execution of prisoners who attempted to escape.

The Horrors of Mauthausen

In 1944, Lionel Romney, along with approximately 5,000 other prisoners (including 3,000 Jewish prisoners), was at the Fossoli camp. On June 21, 1944, he was deported by train to Mauthausen, a notorious concentration camp in Austria. The three-day journey was filled with dread, as Italian prisoners cried out, "We're lost! We're lost!" upon hearing their destination.

Mauthausen had a reputation for extreme brutality. Approximately 190,000 people were imprisoned there between 1938 and 1945. Prisoners were forced to march from the train station to the camp, guarded by heavily armed SS troops and dogs, with anyone slowing down or attempting to escape being shot.

Upon arrival at Mauthausen on June 24, 1944, Romney was assigned prisoner number 76548. He was listed as a Dutch citizen and a "protective custody prisoner," a term often used for political prisoners. His records uniquely noted his skin color, a rare designation as the SS typically did not record such details, focusing instead on political opposition and forced labor.

Despite the SS's official stance, Romney experienced firsthand the racial prejudice within the camp. He was singled out for abuse, called a "black dog" by an SS man who kicked him with heavy boots. He was also subjected to racist taunts from a block leader named Hans, who called him "Jumbo" and expressed surprise that a black man could speak German.

Romney was assigned to the lumber cutting crew and lived in barracks number nine. The daily life in the camp was marked by grueling physical labor, starvation, disease, and constant fear. Arbitrary executions by SS men, particularly at night, instilled terror among the prisoners.

Liberation and Lasting Impact

As the Soviet Red Army advanced, the Nazis began evacuating camps in the east, leading to overcrowding and chaos at Mauthausen. In the final months of the war, thousands of prisoners were transferred to Mauthausen, many unregistered.

Romney recalled the SS men knowing they were surrounded, with some fleeing and others, "fanatics," remaining. He continued to work in the "Hodzfella," cutting trees, while the SS desperately tried to burn the increasing number of corpses.

Before the American liberation, the Swiss Red Cross arrived at Mauthausen, searching for Allied prisoners. Romney, who was out in the woods, missed their convoy. However, the Americans liberated the camp on May 5, 1945. They mistook Romney for an American soldier due to his skin color, allowing him to leave the camp alive.

After his liberation, Romney traveled through Holland, Belgium, and France before arriving in New York City. He soon married, and Mary was born.

The Legacy of Silence and the Importance of Remembrance

Lionel Romney's survival of four years of captivity, including the horrors of Mauthausen, left an indelible mark. Even after liberation, his life was affected by exclusion and prejudice due to his skin color.

Mary Romney-Perry emphasizes the importance of learning from history to combat anti-democratic forces, fascism, and far-right tendencies. She highlights the historical oversight of black people's experiences during this period and the ongoing impact of colonial legacies and racist attitudes in Western societies.

The story of Majub bin Adam Muhammad (Bayume Muhammad Hussein), a black man from German East Africa who fought for the German Empire in World War I, illustrates the complex history of black people in Germany. He later became an interpreter and actor in propaganda films, but with the rise of the Nazis, he was targeted, arrested for violating racial laws, and ultimately died in a concentration camp. A "Stolperstein" (stumbling block memorial) was laid in Berlin in his honor.

Mary Romney-Perry advocates for a memorial site for black victims of racism and Nazism, stressing that understanding individual fates, both black and white, is crucial for comprehending history. The Mauthausen concentration camp claimed at least 90,000 lives. Remembering these victims, she believes, is a commitment to preventing such atrocities from happening again.

Mary found healing by confronting her father's trauma, visiting Mauthausen, listening to oral histories, and learning about the Nazi era. She believes that understanding one's history is essential for knowing where one came from and where one is going, making history a vital contributor to both the present and the future.