Interview of Mrs. Janet Ann Cohn

Interview Team: B.J. Chapman and Jamie Bankston

Faculty Facilitator: Mrs. Rosie McDuffie

Date of Interview: November 9, 2006

Mrs. Janet Ann Cohn was born in Selma, Alabama on September 2, 1921. At the age of two, she and her family moved to Columbus. Her mother, Ruth Gump Lilienthal and her her father, Lesley H. Lilienthal, sold ladies’fine clothing. In 1923, with the establishment of Fort Benning, it made sense to move the business to Columbus. In those days, the officers’ wives were well dressed by both custom and tradition, and formed a large market for the Kayser-Lilienthal line of clothing (the store was a fixture in Columbus until 1972). Generals’ wives like Mrs. Patton and Mrs Stillwell did there shopping there.

During her childhood, Mrs. Cohn lived at 1416 Wildwood Avenue, two blocks from Wynnton School. She attended Wynnton Grammar School, then Columbus High School. She remembers with pleasure the school librarian at the time, Mrs. Blackman, who encouraged all the students to read. Although not involved in school athletics, Mrs. Cohn did dance ballet during high school. She received “B’s” and “C’s” as a student, and recalls with a smile that she could have attended college, but got her M-R-S degree instead—marrying a young Army officer by the name of Aaron Cohn on June 19, 1941.

On December 7, 1941, they were attending a movie in downtown Columbus. Upon exiting the theater after the show, they noticed newspaper boys selling a special edition of the newspaper announcing the attack on Pearl Harbor. “We were devastated”, says Mrs. Cohn, and of course it was understood that her husband would soon be going off to war.

Everyone in the community wanted to help support the war effort. With her husband training with his unit, and now with a new baby, Mrs. Cohn’s life centered around her baby and her parents, who were wonderfully supportive. Although she fondly remembers eating occasionally at Spanos Restaurant, which specialized in “down-home” cooking, she spent much of her free time working at the USO Club, which provided meals for the soldiers, dances on the weekends, and a refuge for homesick boys who just wanted to talk to someone. Mrs. Cohn remembers knitting scarves and socks for soldiers overseas. Later. when her husband deployed, she would send him boxes of nonperishable food items through the mail on a weekly basis. Because of the long turn-around time in receiving mail, she did not find out until much later that most of the packages never made it to her husband. Many others in the community were doing similar activities. Her father sent weekly packages of cigarettes and cigars to overseas soldiers. Churches and synagogues were also active in supporting the war effort as well. The temple which Mrs. Cohn attended encouraged their members to take soldiers home on Fridays and weekends for a hot meal, and her parents regularly invited 6-8 soldiers at a time. They were grateful for the food and the attention.

Rationing was a way of life during the war. Mrs. Cohn recalls that most people accepted rationing as a necessary sacrifice and that there was little complaining. Some rationed items could be purchased on a point basis. Certain meats, such as lamb and steak, required amassing a certain amount of points or coupons for purchase. Coupons could be swapped with others in order to get the right number of the right coupons. Mrs. Cohn’s parents owned an automobile, and gasoline rationing curtailed traveling; once again, it was understood that the war effort took priority.

As more and more soldiers began to deploy overseas, the stress of having relatives, husbands, and friends in harm’s way began to mount. In addition to her husband, Mrs. Cohn’s 19 year old brother also enlisted, although he was exempt from the draft. Spurning the opportunity to become an officer, he trained as an infantryman and went overseas as one of many replacements to fill the ranks in combat units. Her father was in his store when he received a telegram that his son had been injured in combat and was being evacuated to England. Concerned but relieved, the family awaited further word. It came a week later when another telegram informed them that the son had died on the same day of his injury. Now, in addition to worrying about her husband (an officer with the 3d Cavalry in Patton’s 3d Army), she also had to comfort her parents. She drew solace from other wives who were in the same situation—they encouraged each other and tried to keep a positive attitude.

In this respect, news from the fronts was usually tardy, inaccurate, and lacking in detail. News reports on the radio were censored, as were letters arriving from soldiers overseas. People found themselves trying to second-guess the reports to figure out what was happening. The news of the Normandy invasion was an especial boost to the home morale, and it seemed like the war was nearing an end. Then other reports would come in that would dash these hopes. Nevertheless, everyone was convinced that the allies would prevail and never lost hope.

When the war ended, there was celebration in Columbus, but for those with soldiers overseas, more a feeling of great relief. Mrs. Cohn met her husband in Augusta, from which he had left her almost exactly two years earlier. He was 20 pounds lighter, and appeared gaunt and haggard. In the vanguard of the 3d Army, his unit had participated in the liberation of one of the many concentration camps in Germany. As the first American to arrive in the camp, armed and in uniform, he told her that initially the inmates mistook him for a Nazi guard and shrank away from him. He addressed them in German, and after they understood who he was, they literally kissed his hands and feet. It was an experience that he would never forget, and one that he would tell about many times through the years to different audiences when talking about the Holocaust and its impact. As of this year, the Cohns have been married for 65 years, and are still active professionally and socially in the community.