Mirjam Cohen

Mirjam Cohen was born 23 May 1923 in Berlin, only daughter of Rabbi Benjamin and Bertha Cohen, née Malina. Until 1937 Mirjam lived with her parents in Friedrichstadt (Flensburg), Westermarkstr. 24,* next to the synagogue where her father held the rabbinical position of 'Landesrabbiner' for Schleswig-Holstein. Mirjam then followed her parents first to Hamburg that year before the family immigrated to the Netherlands on 5 December 1938; her father was able to secure a position at the Portuguese Jewish community in Amsterdam as Klausrabbiner of the Ets Chajim Yeshiva. The family's last known address in Amsterdam was Plantage Parklaan 7, II. During a raid on 26 May 1943 the family was arrested, deported to Westerbork and held prisoners until 16 November 1943, when they were deported together with nine-hundred and ninety-five men, women and children to Auschwitz. Mirjam and her mother were sent to the gas chambers on arrival. Rabbi Benjamin Cohen barely stayed alive for the following four months; his reported date of death is 31 March 1944.

*In memory of Mirjam Cohen, on 2 September 2003 a Stolperstein was laid in front of this house, - funds for which were collected by 'Gesellschaft Friedrichstädter Stadtgeschichte.