Georg Michael Cohn, the son of Alice and Fritz Cohn, was born in Breslau, Germany in 1927. The Jews of Germany were well integrated into German society and culture. They were highly assimilated and were employed in all professions. After the Nazis came to power in 1933, then enacted harsh, anti-Semitic laws.
Georg and his family moved to Naarden, the Netherlands, a town with a small Jewish community. Here they hoped to make a new life. The Jews of the Netherlands were fully accepted by their neighbors as citizens, and were well integrated into Dutch society. Georg was a 13-year-old schoolboy when the Germans occupied the Netherlands in 1940.
During the occupation, the Germans enacted harsh anti-Jewish measures. Jewish businesses and bank accounts were confiscated, and Jews were barred from most professions. Jewish children were prevented from attending public schools. When the Nazis began perpetrating acts of violence against the Jews, many Dutch people were outraged. Large strikes were organized in protest, but they were soon crushed by the Germans.
The Nazis began massive roundups of Jews in 1942, sending them to concentration camps. By the end of 1942, 38,500 Jews had been deported from the Netherlands to the death camps in Poland. Some Dutch Christians made heroic efforts to save Jews by hiding them, but most of the hidden Jews were betrayed and caught by the Nazis.
Georg and his family were arrested and deported to Theresienstadt Ghetto in Czechoslovakia. The ghetto was infested with typhus-carrying vermin. Thousands died of disease, starvation, and the brutality of the guards. Others were sent to death camps where they were murdered.
We have no information about Georg after he was deported to Theresienstadt. Of the 15,000 children sent there, only 100 survived.
Georg was one of 1.5 million Jewish children murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators during the Holocaust.
A personal history from the Archives of the SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER 1990-009 [005]
