Scar, jean

Born in the family of a lawyer. At the age of 14, he moved with his family to the Belgian Congo . He owned a large plantation near Stanleyville . Held more than a thousand black workers, management and supervision apparatus. I remembered that the main alley in the estate was available only to him personally.

Twelve kilometers for me alone.
Jean Schramm ^[1]

At the same time, the orders on the Schramm plantation were distinguished by multiracial patriarchalism. The owner had a group of personally loyal people.

In 1960 , the Schramm plantation was defeated by supporters of Patrice Lumumba . Schramm went into the jungle, where he founded a self-defense detachment of white residents and fellow Congolese. Subsequently, joined the division of Michael Hoar "Commando 4". He formed a Leopard combat unit under his command (the Congolese served as ordinary soldiers, and the white planters served as officers). He soon became an independent mercenary commander.

In 1964 - 1965, Schramm fought on the side of the government of Moise Chombe against the left radical uprising "Simba" . He headed the Commando 10 division operating in the area of ​​his former plantation. He appropriated the rank of major , then lieutenant colonel . He organized a flotilla of ferries, which ensured the combat mobility of the detachment. He played an important role in the suppression of "Simba". Subsequently, he formed armed units in Portuguese Angola to help Chomba.

In July 1967, Schramm led a rebellion of mercenaries in Katanga against President Mobutu ^[2] . The rebels from among the white mercenaries and black gendarmes of Tshombe have long resisted the government of Zaire . With a detachment of 1,500 men, Shram took control of Bukavu . After several months of siege, he was forced to surrender the city and retreat to Rwanda . There, the Schramm detachment disbanded, and in 1968 he returned to his historical homeland in Belgium . The fruits of the victory over the supporters of Lumumba did not go to Moise Chombe, not to the Katangan separatists , not to the field commanders of the mercenaries ^[3] , but to the pro-Western dictator Mobut ^[4] .

In 1986, Schramm was sentenced in absentia by a Belgian court to 20 years in prison for the murder of Maurice Quintin ^[5] , another white farmer in the Congo. Schramm motivated this by the fact that Quintin was allegedly an agent for Mobutu (there is a version of economic competition between them ^[6] ). However, Scar managed to escape to Brazil . He was not extradited to Belgium, acquired a plantation in Brazil, and died there in 1988 .

The name of Jean Schramm is put on a par with such hired commanders of Tshombe as Bob Denard and Michael Hoare . The difference between Schramm was its greater rooting in Congo. Whereas for Denard and Hoar, anti-communism (especially characterizing Denard) and the fulfillment of a paid military professional mission were in the first place, then Shramm, also an anti-communist and mercenary, fought primarily for the return of lost land property.

After her loss became obviously final, he basically stopped military-political activity (whereas Hoar and especially Denard manifested themselves many more times). In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Schramm was seen among the Bolivian ultra-right ^[7] , but generally did not participate in politics.

Jean Schramm was portrayed as a character in the French television movie Mister Bob ( “Mr. Bob” on Congolese events), whose main character is Bob Denard. The role of Major Schramm is played by Aladin Reibel ^[8] .

• Bob Denard
• Michael Hoar

• Michel Honorin, La fin des mercenaires , 1972, Éditions J'ai lu L'Aventure aujourd'hui N ° A234