(January 26, 2023 / JNS) Esther Cohen was born in 1930 in Würzburg, Germany, as Else Karola Sichel. Her household fled earlier than the Holocaust and he or she subsequently joined the Haganah militia and later the IDF’s canine division, the Oketz Unit.
“I bear in mind the Nazi rise to energy and Hitler visiting my city,” Cohen informed JNS.
She witnessed the gradual deteriorating circumstances for Jews. She recollects an incident round Christmas time in 1934: She was out together with her grandmother and so they noticed decorations.
A girl requested, “Are you excited that Santa Claus will deliver you presents?”
A 4-year-old Cohen replied, “We don’t imagine in Santa Claus, now we have the Hanukkah man.” Her grandmother interrupted, telling the bewildered German girl: “The kid doesn’t know what she’s speaking about!”
She recollects one other incident the place she needed to see a Shirley Temple movie however Jews had been forbidden from going to the cinema after the Nuremberg Legal guidelines had been handed in 1935. Nonetheless, a sympathetic non-Jewish neighbor volunteered to take her. However she didn’t benefit from the movie for worry that somebody would work out that she was Jewish.
Her household escaped to the British Mandate of Palestine in September 1938, when she was 8 years previous.
Cohen stated that it was not straightforward adjusting to a brand new nation. They managed to get her grandparents out of Germany shortly after Kristallnacht, following a lot paperwork. Her mother and father opened a grocery retailer.
It was within the retailer that she met Austrian-born cynologist (canine scientist) Rudolphina Menzel (1891–1973).
Menzel helped to determine the canine unit for the Haganah, the forerunner of the modern-day IDF Oketz Unit. “I at all times beloved canines,” Cohen stated.
Menzel used largely Boxers that she had introduced over from Austria. The Haganah additionally relied on German-origin breeds corresponding to German Shepherds, Dobermann Pinschers and Nice Danes as a result of these had been the breeds that Jews had introduced from Europe.
Menzel was additionally concerned in reviving Canaan Canine, Israel’s nationwide canine breed. However Cohen stated that Canaans can’t be used for battle as a result of “they don’t seem to be so brave.” She describes Menzel’s work with canines as “extremely modern” and “adaptable.”
Cohen was in a scout motion as a baby and plenty of in her circle of mates ended up becoming a member of the Haganah. Her work within the canine unit started in a camp at Kfar Haim, close to Haifa. She finally turned an officer and an teacher for the unit. Cohen stated that she acquired a lot of her expertise from Menzel and from her personal sensible expertise.
Esther Cohen joined the Haganah after which the IDF. Courtesy.
Not afraid to do something
One in all her first duties was to show a bunch consisting of some Holocaust survivors about canine mating habits. “I used to be solely 19 and but right here I used to be going through individuals who had been rather more skilled in life than me, and I needed to clarify one thing tough. It was very difficult. However after that was finished, I used to be not afraid to do something.”
Cohen recollects one incident on the outbreak of the 1948-49 Struggle of Independence when she and her household took a bus to see her grandparents close to Haifa and had been compelled to show again resulting from hearth by Arab forces. She additionally witnessed a skirmish between the Haganah and the Irgun, a rival Jewish militia earlier than they ended up merging into the IDF.
Her Haganah coaching included instruction within the KAPAP system of defensive ways, hand-to-hand fight and self-defense. She additionally realized stick-fighting and jujitsu. She had a sidearm.
The Oketz Unit educated canines for quite a few duties together with guard obligation and search-and-rescue. Cohen additionally revealed that they utilized messenger canines and employed spies embedded deep throughout the Arab strains who used a whistle that had a frequency that people couldn’t hear to summon the messenger canines. These spies would ship helpful data by way of these canines again to the Israeli aspect.
“Lengthy earlier than modern-day communication, this was a secure and environment friendly strategy to ship messages that basically helped within the battle,” Cohen stated.
“Canine are pack animals and you must present them who the alpha is. However you additionally should reward them,” she stated. Cohen additionally recollects one specific canine that will faux a limp when requested to carry out tough drills, and so they due to this fact couldn’t use it. Not many canines had been killed in motion, however she witnessed seven of them succumb to rabies.
She was later stationed at Tzrifin. On one event Egyptian forces noticed a large Nice Dane within the Negev and mistakenly reported that the Israelis had been utilizing “educated tigers.”
Cohen left the IDF in 1950. The Oketz Unit she helped create was disbanded in 1954, though the navy continued to make use of canines. Oketz was revived in 1974 and the unit noticed motion in Lebanon.
Cohen finally married her childhood good friend, Alexander Cohen, and the couple moved to a farm. At present she enjoys a quiet retirement in Haifa and has two youngsters, six grandchildren, and 16 great-grandchildren.
