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Stories of #Copts around the world never ceases to amaze me. This thread is about Latif Makram, a #Coptic man survived #Nazi concentration camp #Buchenwald https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/buchenwald
Latif Tewfik Makram was born on August 22, 1891 in #Alexandria, #Egypt . Makram worked as an engineer. He was widowed with two children. According to notes about him made after the war, Makram was an interpreter for the British Army’s 14th Division, Mesopotamia during WWI.
He also had a number of patented inventions, including one for a type of brick, used general construction and in furnaces. He applied for a US patent in 1936. It was approved in 1940.
Makram was arrested by the #Gestapo in #Paris on May 1, 1941, on grounds of “espionage.” At that time, he was living at Rue Sufrin 55, apparently with a woman named Denise Mery who was also arrested.
For more than two years following his arrest he was held in French prisons: Sante, Frenes and Romainville. He was deported to Buchenwald January 24, 1944, in an Aktion Meerschaum transport.
Makram survived and was liberated at Buchenwald. He was officially released on May 12, 1945. He gave as a reference Ambassador Fakri Pacha in Paris. In a post-war document, Makram asserted that he was persecuted by the Nazis because they considered him #Jewish.
I wonder if @GermanEmbCairo can help us find more info about him.
