Born in 1882 as the first child in the family in the provincial town of Deventer, near the border with Germany, he studied classical languages in Leipzig, Göttingen and Leiden to become a teacher and a professor in 1924 at Leiden university and later in Amsterdam. He had functions in several Jewish organisations among them the Dutch Zionist Federation and the Commision for special Jewish Interests. He was in charge of the department of this Commission that was taking care of Jewish refugees from Russia, Poland and later on Germany, that were fleeing from persecution in order to get to England or the United States. He organised raising funds for financing the food, clothing and housing for refugees. Heard their stories and therefore must have known, especially after the Kristallnacht in 1938, of all the crimes that were committed upon the Jewish population of Germany by the Nazi's. As a professor, a member of the Dutch intellectuals I suppose he did, he must have read newspapers. And all mayor Dutch newspapers had correspondents in Germany. Every Dutchman could have known, could have been informed, about what was going on in Germany from 1933 onwards (Nanda van der Zee; Om erger te voorkomen).
The general feeling, not only among Jews, was; that will not happen to us. We're Dutch, we're safe. They left us in peace in WWI, they'll leave us in peace now. But after the 10th of May 1940 that feeling changed. A lot of Jewish people tried to commit suicide in the days after. Some tried to escape to England, most of them stayed at home, waiting for things to come.
It is estimated that in total about 38.000 refugees came to the Netherlands mainly from Germany, but also from Russia, Poland, Austria and other countries. Some of them managed to get decent housing, like the Frank family, but a lot of them had to stay in refugee-camps. In 1939 the Dutch government dicided to concentrate all refugees in a camp in the north-east of the Netherlands, in a desolate place called Westerbork. Dutch military police served as gardes there. Until 1942, when it was taken into the hands of the German SS.
In February 1941 the German leaders in the Netherlands ordered Abraham Asscher and David Cohen to become the chairmen of the Jewish Council for Amsterdam. Soon after they had there own newspaper, Het Joodsche Weekblad, as a means of communication with the Dutch Jewish Community without bothering the rest of the Dutch society with all the regulations that were forced upon the Jewish community. They were only published in their own newspaper! Soon after, in september 1941, separate Jewish Councils were installed in some mayor Jewish Communities outside Amsterdam. Among them Rotterdam, Den Haag and Deventer. But the Amsterdam office was in charge of all other JC's in the Netherlands and the only man, in fact, in charge here was David Cohen.
His main objective was; through cooperation with the nazi's try to slow down everything, the whole process of deportation of the Jewish Community, for the war will end soon. After all, we're Dutch Jews and therefore will not end up like the German Jews. They, the Nazi's, don't dare to do that. One of the tools for delaying the process was the 'Sperre'; the devide-and-conquer of WWII. A person with a 'Sperre' was barred from deportation because he/she was indispensible for the community or economy. Connected to these 'Sperre' s were lists of people who were therefore barred for deportation. There was the Calmeyer-list, the Puttkammer-list, the Weinreb-list, the Barneveld-list, but the most important of them all was the Joodsche Raad-list. Everybody that worked for the Joodsche Raad, and his/her family got a 'Sperre' . At it's hight these were about 17.500 people. So it was of vital interest to get a job at the Joodsche Raad. If you worked at the Joodsche Raad you were sure you were going to survive, "Biss auf weiteres!", until ... someone dicided otherwise. And that someone was always a nazi, a SS-officer.
David Cohen didn't want to hear about hiding. He considered it something very dangerous. It could harm the relationship with the Germans. It could trigger reprisals against other Jews.
Both his daughters acted otherwise. They worked at the Kindergarten opposite the Hollandsche Schouwburg in Amsterdam and helped hundreds of children to escape from nazi persecution under the leadership of Walter Suskind. They never talked about it with their father.
Under the leadership of David Cohen and Abraham Asscher about 75% (101.000 individuals; men, women and children) of the Jewish Community died in the camps, mainly in Auschwitz and Sobibor. On the hands of the SS-officers, policemen of the SiPo and SD, Dutch police and guards like Demjanjuk. The highest percentage in western Europe! For Amsterdam the percentage is even higher. Was David's policy of cooperation followed through all over the Netherlands. No, one small village tried it the other way. They actively advised people to go into hiding after a razzia when a few hundred young Jews were arrested. It was the Jewish Council in Deventer, the home-town of David, that advised it's people to go into hiding and also actively organised it with the help of fellow-Dutchmen. About 50% of all Deventer Jews survived the war under the leadership of Sig Menko and a Dutch reformed vicar called Leendert Overduin.
On the 5th of May 1943 the deportation of Jews from the Netherlands to the east entered it's last stage. On that day it was ordered by SS-officer Dr. Harster (SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Polizei) that "as much Jews as humanly possible, have to be transported to the east". For the month of May 8.000 were needed, for the next month 15.000. This meant for Amsterdam the deportation of all Jews still living there in 2 stages. Also all people working for the Jewish Council were to be deported to Vught or Westerbork.
The order came from SS-officer Rauter who was the boss of Harster and he got his orders directly from the RSHA in Berlin, the main office from where all deportations were coordinated. The RSHA was installed by Heinrich Himmler in december 1939. The order was send to the Zentralstelle für Judische Auswanderung in Amsterdam (headed by SS-officers Willy Lages and Aus der Fünten), to camp Westerbork (SS-officer Gemmeker), camp Vught (SS-officer Grünewald) and all offices of the Sipo und SD.
At the beginning of the second half of May Aus der Fünten ordered David Cohen to get 7.500 Jews ready for transport in the evening of the 25th of May. He asked the members of the Jewish Council to deliver him a list of names of all the people that could be missed. David Cohen accepted this and in the coming days the JC drew up a list with 7.500 names. This was the only time the JC drew up a list themselves. In the night of the 25th to the 26th of May the first of the last 3 big razzia's started and that night and the coming day all 7.500 were arrested and directly send to Westerbork. The 2nd razzia was on the 20th of June (5.550 people), the last one on the 29th of September. During the last razzia also the chairmen Asscher and Cohen and their families were arrested. After that the Netherlands were declared "Judenrein".
Sources;
Voorzitter van de Joodsche Raad; De herinneringen van David Cohen (1941-1943). Memories of David Cohen. 2010 by Erik Somers.
Het Fatale dilemma; De Joodsche Raad voor Amsterdam 1941-1943; The fatal dilemma. 1995 by Willy Lindwer.
Om erger te voorkomen; To prevent the worst. 1997 by Nanda van der Zee.
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