David Cohen (historian)

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David Cohen (1923)

David Cohen (born December 31, 1882 in Deventer , † September 3, 1967 in Amsterdam ) was a Dutch Zionist , ancient historian and papyrologist and chaired the Jewish Council of the Netherlands at the time of National Socialism .

Live and act

Cohen attended grammar school in his hometown and, after passing high school, studied classical literature in Leiden , Leipzig and Göttingen . From 1910 he was a teacher and later rector at the Nederlandsch Lyceum in The Hague . He received his doctorate in the meantime in 1912. As a private teacher, Cohen taught the history of Hellenism from 1922 and gave a lecture in Groningen in 1923 on " Greek papyrology - importance for improving the exchange of knowledge in ancient history ". From 1924 to 1926 the ancient historian was professor in Leiden, then, with an interruption due to the war, until his retirement in 1953, full professor of ancient history at the University of Amsterdam . He was considered a specialist in papyrology. Cohen, caught in the tradition of classicism , devoted himself more to teaching than research. Cohen was married and had two daughters and a son.

From 1904 Cohen became involved in the Zionist movement and was a sponsor of the Jewish Youth Association and Zionist Student Association. During the First World War he supported Jewish emigrants from the German Reich and was secretary of the refugee committee. Cohen became a member of the Jewish Council in The Hague and Amsterdam. From 1933 he was chairman of the refugee subcommittee of the committee he initiated for special Jewish affairs, and from 1934 he was a member of the standing committee of the Ashkenazi communities. After the occupation of the Netherlands by the German Reich , he was one of the founders of a Jewish coordination committee. Cohen was particularly dedicated to these humanitarian issues, including on an international level.

From February 12, 1941, Cohen and Abraham Asscher led the forced union Joodse Raad imposed by the German occupiers, first for Amsterdam and later for the whole of the Netherlands. After the Jewish population was gradually excluded from public life, the Judenrat was also occupied with educational, welfare and elementary issues such as the procurement of clothing and food.

The Dutch Jewish Council tried to keep as many Jewish compatriots as possible from being deported by exempting them , but this did not succeed. On June 26, 1942, the head of the Central Office for Jewish Emigration in Amsterdam demanded support for a “work assignment in Germany”; the Judenrat should provide transport papers and declarations of assets for those affected. The two chairmen agreed only hesitantly and with serious reservations, as they were promised an age limit of up to 40 years, families would not be torn apart, mail traffic was permitted and certain professional groups and employees of the Jewish council were excluded. These promises were not kept.

Cohen, like other members of the Joodse Raads, was deported to the Theresienstadt Ghetto on September 23, 1943 as one of the last Jews remaining in the Netherlands via the Westerbork transit camp . There he was a member of the council of elders from September 1944 and survived in Theresienstadt until the liberation in May 1945.

Because of his collaboration with the German occupiers, he was arrested after his return to the Netherlands and an investigation was initiated against him. After these proceedings were discontinued, a trial before a Jewish community court followed in 1947, which found him guilty of collaboration. Cohen, who justified his actions during the occupation in the trial, was banned from exercising any functions in Jewish offices. After this judgment was canceled in 1950, he resumed his professorship in Amsterdam. Cohen, who withdrew from Jewish community life, published his memoirs in 1955 , entitled "Refugee and Vagabond".

literature

  • Hans G. Adler : Theresienstadt. The face of a coercive community 1941–1945. Afterword Jeremy Adler. Wallstein, Göttingen 2005 ISBN 3-89244-694-6 (reprint of the 2nd verb. Edition Mohr-Siebeck, Tübingen 1960. 1st edition ibid. 1955)
  • Israel Gutman (ed.): Encyclopedia of the Holocaust - The persecution and murder of European Jews. Piper Verlag, Munich / Zurich 1998, 3 volumes, ISBN 3-492-22700-7
  • Anna Hájková: The Jews from the Netherlands in Theresienstadt. In: Theresienstädter Studies and Documents 2002, pp. 135–201.
  • Pieter Herman Schrijvers : Rome, Athene, Jeruzalem. Leven in work of prof. dr. David Cohen. Historical uitgeverij, Groningen 2000. - Review by: JCH Blom, in: BMGN - Low Countries Historical Review 116, 2001, afl. 2, pp. 198-203, (online) (PDF).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis: David Cohen 1882-1967 (in Dutch)
  2. ↑ a b c Israel Gutman (ed.): Encyclopedia of the Holocaust - The persecution and murder of European Jews , Munich / Zurich 1998, 1st volume, p. 288f.
  3. ^ Friso Wielenga : The Netherlands. Politics and Political Culture in the 20th Century. Waxmann, Münster 2008, ISBN 978-3-8309-1844-8 , p. 213
  4. ↑ Katja Happe u. a. (Ed.): The persecution and murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933–1945. Volume 12: Western and Northern Europe, June 1942–1945. Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-486-71843-0 , p. 31.
  5. ↑ Cohen, Dr. David The Theresienstadt Lexicon
personal data
SURNAME Cohen, David
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch ancient historian and Zionist
DATE OF BIRTH December 31, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH Deventer
DATE OF DEATH 3rd September 1967
Place of death Amsterdam