An Afro-Caribbean in the Nazi Era: From Papiamentu to German

How did a Black civilian become a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp? What did he witness? How did he survive? These, and many more questions, are answered in this work of non-fiction entitled An Afro-Caribbean in the Nazi Era: From Papiamentu to German. The Black civilian was Lionel Romney, an Afro-Caribbean (West Indian) merchant sailor who, by chance, was trapped in the politics, chaos, and deadly violence of World War II. Romney spent the four years from 1940 to 1944 in the Italian internment camp system 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 more than 20 years of trying, his daughter, the author, 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. 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.