Honoring Veterans: Army Veteran Frank Cohn

Franz “Frank” Cohn was born in August 1925 in Breslau, Germany. His family fled to the United States just before the Nazi Kristallnacht.

Cohn was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1943. During his basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia, he was sworn in as a U.S. citizen. Soon after, he was assigned to the 87th Infantry Division and sent to Europe. Cohn’s fluency in German led to his reassignment to a military intelligence unit, where he interrogated German prisoners of war during the Battle of the Bulge and other key campaigns.

After World War II, Cohn continued his military career, retiring as a colonel in 1978 after 35 years of service. His distinguished career included work as a military police officer and Chief of Staff of the Military District of Washington. Cohn’s contributions were recognized with numerous awards, including a French Legion of Honor, the German Grand Service Cross and the top military police medal, the Order of the Marechaussee.

Beyond his military achievements, Cohn dedicated his time to educating others about the Holocaust and his experiences. He shared his story of survival and service as a volunteer at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

We honor his service.

A portion of this story was generated by AI. None of the data we reported included personal or sensitive information, and it was fact-checked and edited by a human copy editor prior to publishing.

Nominate a Veteran for Honoring Veterans

Do you want to light up the face of a special Veteran? Have you been wondering how to tell your Veteran they are special to you? VA’s Honoring Veterans social media feature is an opportunity to highlight your Veteran and his/her service.

It’s easy to nominate a Veteran. All it takes is an email to newmedia@va.gov with as much information as you can put together, along with some good photos. Visit our blog post about nominating to learn how to create the best submission.

Veterans History Project

This Honoring Veterans profile was created with interviews submitted to the Veterans History Project. The project collects, preserves, and makes accessible the personal accounts of American war Veterans so that future generations may hear directly from Veterans and better understand the realities of war. Find out more at http://www.loc.gov/vets/.

Prompt Engineer: Dallas Godina

Editor: Tayler Rairigh

Researchers: Angela Holtby, Paola Negron

Graphic Designer: William Vega