David Cohen (military)

David Cohen (December 11, 1917 – April 10, 2020) was a soldier in the United States Army and a schoolteacher. In World War II, Cohen was a liberator of the Ohrdruf concentration camp in Nazi Germany as a member of the 4th Armored Division as a radio operator.

David Cohen
BornDecember 11, 1917[1]
Brooklyn, New York, US
DiedApril 10, 2020(2020-04-10) (aged 102)
Longmeadow, Massachusetts, US
Occupation(s)Soldier and schoolteacher
Known fora liberator of the Ohrdruf concentration camp in Nazi Germany in World War II
Children2 daughters

Early life

Cohen was born in Brooklyn, New York, and was Jewish.[2][3][4] His parents Samuel Cohen and Eva (Blackman) Cohen were Jewish immigrants from Latvia.[1][3]

World War II
Ohrdruf concentration camp; bodies of prisoners lie stacked in a shed in the camp.

Cohen fought in World War II in France, Belgium, and Nazi Germany as a soldier of the 4th Armored Division, for whom he was a radio operator.[5][6] He then entered the Ohrdruf concentration camp outside Gotha, Germany, in April 1945, as one of its liberators.[7][4] At Ohrdruf concentration camp, he said: "We walked into a shed and the bodies were piled up like wood. There are no words to describe it."[2] He said the smell was overpowering and unforgettable.[2] He then helped liberate Buchenwald concentration camp, where the Nazi concentration camp commandant's wife painted on a 'canvas' made of human skin.[2]

His photography during the liberation and an oral history interview[8] with him are displayed in the permanent collection[9] at the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, and serve as a permanent documentation of the atrocities of the Holocaust.[10][11] He spoke about his experiences during the war many times in classrooms as a speaker and educator.[12][13]

Post-war life

After his service in World War II, Cohen returned to the United States, moved to Queens, New York, and taught history in junior high school in South Jamaica, Queens, for many years.[1][3][14] He married his wife, Muriel (née Brown), in the summer of 1942 and raised two daughters, and they had six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.[15][7] The later moved to Longmeadow, Massachusetts.[16]

On April 10, 2020, Cohen (102 years old) and his wife (97 years old), who had met in 1942 in Brooklyn, died on the same day after 78 years of marriage at the Longmeadow Jewish Nursing Home in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, from COVID-19.[7][6][17][18]

References
  1. "COHEN – Massachusetts Jewish Ledger".
  2. "Concentration camp liberator David Cohen speaks to teachers". masslive. November 20, 2013.
  3. American Veterans on War: Personal Stories from WW II to Afghanistan. Interlink. August 2, 2012. ISBN 9781623710002.
  4. GIs Remember: Liberating the Concentration Camps. National Museum of American Jewish Military History. 1994.
  5. "GIs Remember - David Cohen". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
  6. "Jewish liberator of Nazi camp, wife of 78 years die hours apart". Times of Israel. April 16, 2020. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
  7. Republican, Anne-Gerard Flynn | Special to The (April 14, 2020). "Concentration camp liberator and wife die within hours of each other". masslive.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. "Oral history interview with David Cohen - Collections Search". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
  9. "Close-up portrait of four survivors of the Buchenwald concentration camp. - Collections Search". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
  10. "Search Results". www.ushmm.org. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
  11. "First Person Oral Histories - David Cohen". www.americancenturies.mass.edu. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
  12. Flynn, Anne-Gerard (April 14, 2020). "Concentration camp liberator and wife die within hours of each other". masslive. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
  13. "Concentration camp liberator David Cohen speaks to teachers". masslive. November 20, 2013. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
  14. "David and Muriel Cohen died the same day Mass. nursing home | Boston.com". www.boston.com.
  15. "World War II veteran and his wife die on the same day, together - The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com.
  16. "Jewish liberator of Nazi camp, wife of 78 years die hours apart". www.timesofisrael.com.
  17. "WWII veteran, wife of 78 years die together from COVID-19 on the same day". WRGB. April 15, 2020. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
  18. "War veteran, 102, and wife of 78 years killed by coronavirus just hours apart". April 15, 2020.
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