Coco Schumann

Heinz Jakob "Coco" Schumann (b.Berlin, 14 May 1924) is a German jazz musician.^[1]

Schumann became passionate about Swing after having heard it during the Berlin Olympics.^[2][3] He was transported first to Theresienstadt, where he became a member of the Ghetto Swingers.^[4] Finally he and Martin Roman were transported to Auschwitz, where he came face to face with Josef Mengele. When Mengele inquired of the blue-eyed, nineteen-year-old Coco where he came from and what he did Schumann shouted "Berlin, Herr Obersturmbannfuhrer!, Plumber, Herr Obersturmbannfuhrer!".^[5][6]

Reference

1. ^ A woman at war: Marlene Dietrich remembered p 157 J. David Riva, Guy Stern - 2006 "Jazz guitarist COCO SCHUMANN was born into a mixed Christian/Jewish family in Berlin as Heinz Jacob Schumann. Even as a child he became a devotee of swing music, which was outlawed by the Nazi regime. As a "half-Jew," he survived the concentration camps, including Theresienstadt (Terezien), where he became a member of the legendary "Ghetto Swingers."
2. ^ Coco Schumann, der Ghetto-Swinger: eine Jazz legende erzählt Coco Schumann, Max Christian Graeff, Michaela Haas - 2005
3. ^ Fabrice d'. Almeida High Society in the Third Reich 2008 p212 "Coco Schumann, a young man who had become passionate about swing after having heard it during the Olympic Games, ... Heinz Schumann ('Coco' was his nickname) was born in 1924 to a bourgeois family. He was half-Jewish according to the classification of the time. His father was a war veteran. He suffered rejections but took advantage of a moment of ..."
4. ^ Jerry Silverman The undying flame: ballads and songs of the Holocaust : 110 songs 2002 p29 "Guitarist Coco Schumann, of the Theresienstadt "Ghetto Swingers," [ ! ] who survived a 1944 deportation from that camp to Auschwitz, felt that music had saved his life: He was compelled to play while other prisoners were sent to the gas chambers"
5. ^ Michael H. Kater Different drummers: jazz in the culture of Nazi Germany 1992 "Something similar happened to both Coco Schumann and Martin Roman, who escaped with their lives from Auschwitz. Schumann played for a while with various swing groups around Berlin, especially those of his old pal Zacharias, but then, ..."
6. ^ African-American jazz musicians in the diaspora Larry Ross 2003 "Later, Roman was transferred to Auschwitz along with guitarist Coco Schumann and clarinetist Bedrich Weiss. Coco Schumann came face-to-face with Dr. Joseph Mengele at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Schumann, who had blue eyes, ...

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Name	Schumann, Coco
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Date of birth	14 May 1924
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