Original name of Herman Cohn is Hermann Cohn; he was born on
September 8 1921 in Essen Germany, and he is one of the Holocaust survived
testimony. Early memory of his childhood was the death of his mother. She died
on child of birth, and he believed she bled to dead; her doctor was out of town
at the time of birth. His Father’s mother lived in the house at that time.
His parents’ marriage was in Vienna after the war. He went
to Jewish school at first or second grade, and went to German high school. Stepmother
had a little boy and died at 5 years old, so he had a very hard childhood with
stepmother, however, he had a good relationship with his brother. He had good time
with his grandma. After Germany
occupied, his grandmother was killed in the camp. He had witness some of the
fights, and went through all the concerns; when the Nazi came to power, in
1933, the German population followed Hitler. The Jews were beaten on the
street, and the anti-Semitism was increase. At school, music teacher separated
students in class, and fail all the Jewish students. His father’s business went
down because he is a Jew and people did not want to do business with him. He
felt the harassment and there were more and more laws against the Jews; they
could not go to the swimming pool, buy grocery, or go to the park. On Hitler’s
birthday, he heard a horrify song about blood spread the Jews. One day, when he
came to work, his boss said he should not stay in the office; the German come
to arrest him. He got out and walked away. His mother called him and told him
to come home immediately; his dad disappeared.
His dad came to see if he could help his brother. When he
got there, he saw the house was on fired, so he tried to return to his car. The
place was surrounded by the SS. They saw and chased him but he got escape. When
he came back, his car was gone.
His parents tried to get
him out of the country because he was 17 years of age, and they were picking
boy at that age and they never came back. The immigration law of the USA was extremely
difficult; his family needed to wait a year before their names were called.
However, He was able to go to Holland; it was available for all children under
the age of 18. To be able to get a visa, he had to get the release paid tax,
Social Security Number, and other documents. He went to the SS office, and met
a friend in high school who was working in there. His friend asked if the Synagogue
was burn down. He said everyone knows about that, and the fired
department did not come until the Synagogue burned to the ground. After
a while, the boss wanted to meet him. He followed his friend to the second
floor; there was a man sat behind the desk. He was the head of the building.
The man said they were going to teach him how to tell the truth and lie. Men
with black boots beat him up; he thought he would never ever come out alive.
Someone came and said they could not keep him, so they gave him three minutes
to get out of the building. He left the country after one or two days. His
parents waited until they got their visas. He lived in a small furnish
apartment in Chicago. His stepmother wanted him go to college, but he wanted to
become a tailor. His brother went to high school in the USA. His mother worked
in a flower store, after a while, his dad and aunt opened their own flower
store. He has come back to Germany to kill the chairman when he was in the
army, but no one can find the man.
“There are some type of people have power over other, and
they try to keep that.”
“I have no problems with the younger Germans.”
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