Izaak and Bertie Cohen Papers

Collection

Identifier: MSS 0679

Scope and Content

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The collection documents the lives of Izaak (“Ike”) Cohen and Bertha (“Bertie”) Blauw Cohen before, during, and after the Second World War. Materials date primarily from the 1930s through the 1990s and include personal documents, correspondence, identification papers, photographs, printed items, and ephemera.

Records relating to the German occupation of the Netherlands and the Cohens’ period in hiding (1942–1945) constitute a substantial portion of the collection. These materials comprise identification cards, ration cards, underground printed newspapers, handwritten notes, and related documentation. Also included are handwritten journals tracking military developments on the European front and receipts documenting items confiscated by Nazi authorities and collaborators.

In addition to these papers, the collection contains the puppet theater created by the Cohens while in hiding. This includes thirteen hand-carved wooden puppets, two puppet heads, drawings, notes, and puppet theater scripts and plans.

Additional materials document the Cohens’ lives in Rotterdam following liberation, their migration to Jacksonville, Florida, in the 1950s, and Izaak Cohen’s later work in Aruba as a hotelier and business leader. Correspondence and photographs from the 1990s document family efforts to obtain formal recognition for Nicolaas (“Nico”) Dane and Jaighien (“Gien”) Dane-Verkouter for their heroic actions during the war.

Together, these records provide evidence of pre-war Jewish life in the Netherlands, resilience and survival during the Holocaust, mid-twentieth-century migration, and post-war Jewish life in Europe, America and the Caribbean.

Dates

Creation: 1911 - 1995

Creator

Cohen, Bertha (Bertie), 1910-1971. (Person)
Cohen, Izaak (Ike), 1911-2007. (Person)

Language of Materials

Includes materials written in Dutch and English.

Access

The collection is open for research.

Biographical/Historical Note

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Izaak (“Ike”) Cohen (1911–2007) and Bertha (“Bertie”) Blauw Cohen (1910–1971) were Jewish residents of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Ike Cohen was born in Rotterdam to Charles Cohen and Elisabeth Stad and worked in the wholesale meat trade. Bertha Blauw was born in Rotterdam to David Blauw and Alice van Dantzig. The couple married in Rotterdam and had two children: a son David Charles (“Tommy”) and a daughter Yvonne.

During the German occupation of the Netherlands (1940–1945), the Cohen family was subject to anti-Jewish persecution. In late 1942, the Cohens arranged for their son, Tommy, to live with a cousin in Leiden. The cousin was half Jewish, and his wife was not Jewish, circumstances that increased the child’s chances of survival.

In November 1942, Ike and Bertha Cohen went into hiding. They remained concealed for two and a half years and fourteen days in the upstairs apartment of Nicolaas Dane and Jaighien (“Gien”) Dane-Verkouter. Nicolaas Dane had been deported earlier in the war for forced labor in a German munitions factory and was absent during this period. Gien sheltered the Cohens alone, despite the grave risk to herself and her two young children. During searches by Nazi officials or Dutch collaborators, the Cohens concealed themselves in a hidden closet behind a staircase.

While in hiding, Ike and Bertie created a puppet theater. Ike carved wooden hand puppets, and Bertie sewed their costumes and painted the figures. The Cohens wrote scripts inspired by fairy tales and Punch and Judy, and they staged clandestine performances for local children in the apartment, with a trusted friend, a police inspector, acting as master of ceremonies.

Ike and Bertie survived the war, as did their son Tommy. Ike parents, his sister, and his brother-in-law were deported and murdered in Nazi concentration camps.

After the liberation of the Netherlands in 1945, the Cohens returned to Rotterdam, where their daughter, Yvonne, was born in 1946. In 1951, the family emigrated to Aruba, and in 1954 relocated to Jacksonville, Florida. Ike and Bertha divorced in 1962. Bertie returned to the Netherlands in 1964.

Ike later resettled in Aruba and established successful hotel and tourism enterprises, becoming a prominent figure in the island’s hospitality industry. He served as the first president of the Caribbean Hotel Association and was knighted by Queen Juliana of the Netherlands for his contributions to tourism.

Extent

5.23 Linear Feet (8 Boxes, 2 Oversize Folders)

Additional Description

Abstract

Correspondence, photographs, puppets, and ephemera documenting the lives of Dutch Holocaust survivors Izaak and Bertie Cohen before, during, and after World War II.