Henry Cohen

Who was Henry Cohen?

Henry Cohen was the director of Föhrenwald, the third largest Displaced Persons camp in the American sector of post-World War II Germany in 1946. A native of New York City and a child of Jewish immigrants from the Vilna area of Lithuania, Cohen was a graduate of City College of New York. During World War II he served as an infantryman in the U.S. Army, and was 23 years old when he was appointed Director of Föhrenwald.

He later earned a master's degree in Urban Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, then served as Director of Research of the New York City Planning Department and Deputy City Administrator of New York City during the Administration of Robert F. Wagner, Jr.. Later he was First Deputy Administrator of the New York Human Resources Administration during the John Lindsay Administration.

After leaving the city government, Cohen became the Founding Dean of the Milano School for Management and Urban Policy at The New School. He died in 1999 at the age of 77, leaving his wife, daughter, son, and two grandchildren.