Coco Schumann

Heinz Jakob "Coco" Schumann (14 May 1924 - 28 January 2018) was a German jazz guitarist.

Schumann was born in Berlin, Germany. His father Alfred was Jewish by choice (a German Christian practicing convert to Judaism) and his mother Hedwig née Rothholz was Jewish by birth. Schumann became passionate about Swing after having heard it during the Berlin Olympics. He was transported first to Theresienstadt at the age of nineteen, where he became a member of the Ghettoswingers. 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 Obersturmbanfuhrer! Plumber, Herr Obersturmbannfuhrer!"