David Cohen

David Cohen (December 11, 1917 – April 10, 2020) was a soldier in the United States Army and a schoolteacher. In World War II, Cohen was a radio operator in the 4th Armored Division, and present at its liberation of the Ohrdruf concentration camp in Nazi Germany.

Early life Cohen was born in Brooklyn, New York, and was Jewish. His parents Samuel Cohen and Eva (Blackman) Cohen were Jewish immigrants from Latvia. He then entered the Ohrdruf concentration camp outside Gotha, Germany, in April 1945, as one of its liberators.

His photography during the liberation and an oral history interview with him are displayed in the permanent collection at the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, and serve as a permanent documentation of the atrocities of the Holocaust. He spoke about his experiences during the war many times in classrooms as a speaker and educator. He married his wife, Muriel (née Brown), in the summer of 1942 and raised two daughters, and they had six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.