Henry Cohen (civil servant)

Henry Cohen ( * 1922 in New York City, † 1999) was the American head of the camp pine forest, the second largest DP camp in the American zone of occupation after the end of World War II.

Before beginning his tenure in January 1946 Cohen had fought in the infantry of the U.S. Army in World War II and participated in the Battle of the Bulge and the capture of the Ludendorff Bridge. After the war, Cohen was transferred to the U.S. military administration in occupied postwar Germany. At the age of 23, he was entrusted with the command of the camp pine forest. He was assisted by a team of UNRRA. In his entry into service approximately 5,600 Holocaust survivors were housed in the exclusively Jewish camp.

With his commitment to the needs of displaced persons he met claims to be a widespread anti-Semitism in the ranks of the U.S. military personnel. In a speech in 1996 he told of an incident in Wolfratshausen, in which drunken U.S. soldiers, some Jewish residents attacked a civilian neighborhood. As a result, it caused a riot in the camp pine forest that without the intervention Cohen on Wolfratshausen could spill over.

After his return to the United States, Cohen worked in various functions in the administration of his hometown of New York.