Cioma Schönhaus

Samson " Cioma " Schönhaus ( born September 28, 1922 in Berlin) is a graphic artist who was sought during the Second World War by the Gestapo because of his Jewish origin and was able to escape including through passport forgery.

Life

His parents were Russian in 1920 came from Minsk to Berlin after his father had deserted from the Red Army. Schönhaus initially grew up in the barn area. From 1924 to 1925, the family held on near Haifa ( Palestine ), but then returned to Berlin. In 1940 he attended an arts and crafts school for a year. From 1941 on, he had to work, among other things in an armaments factory.

After the deportation of his parents in June 1942, he went into hiding in Berlin. In the illegality of the graphic Schönhaus made ​​fake passports for other underground dwelling Jews, including the historian Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich. He has worked with members of the Confessing Church together (among others Kurt Müller). For the fake passports, he was an assistant circle around the lawyer Franz Kaufmann food cards so that he could build a pseudo-legal existence. For this he used the name " Günther Rogoff ," " Peter Schönhausen " and " Peter Petrov ".

1943 succeeded Schönhaus to escape to Switzerland, where he was the theologian Karl Barth gave a scholarship. At the School of Applied Arts in Basel, he trained as a graphic designer and worked in this profession later.

Beautiful house has four sons, two of which smashing the music career. On the basis of their surnames they founded the Klezmer band " Bait Jaffe ," which means " beautiful house ".

Writings

• The passport forger. The incredible story of a young graphic artist who fought in the underground against the Nazis. Edited by Marion Neiss. Scherz Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-502-15688-3.
• The passport counterfeiters in paradise. The end of an incredible odyssey. Publisher Huber Frauenfeld 2010, ISBN 978-3-7193-1558-0.