Soldiers of The Great War: Jewish Military Service in WW I, as Reported in The Jewish Chronicle – “Story of an escape”, September 25, 1914 (Private Victor Cohen)

Here is another article about a “Private Cohen” of the Royal Army Medical Corps that also appeared in the 25 September 1914 issue of the Chronicle.  This time, however, said Private Cohen has a first name:  Victor.

It would seem likely that “this” Private Cohen is the very same soldier referred to in the prior article, given that the individual in this account is also reported to have escaped from German captivity.  More than a mere coincidence in reporting, I would suggest.

A review of records in the database of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission fortunately yields no entries for this man, so presumably, he survived the war.

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STORY OF AN ESCAPE

The Jewish Chronicle

September 25, 1914

Private Victor Cohen, of the R.A.M.C., who had been taken prisoner by the Germans and escaped, has written to his parents an account of his experiences.  It was during the retreat from a small village named Augre that Private Cohen was captured.  “I must say,” writes Private Cohen, who is now at Aldershot, “the Germans did not ill-treat us, but gave us food and wine for our wounded.”  He goes on to say, however, that, “they took everything of any value from the villages and that wounded brought in from a house three miles away were found to be without clothes.  They said the Germans had taken all their clothes away and left them out on the field.”  “Six of us,” Private Cohen continues, “meant to escape, and we made up our mind to go separately.  I had made all my plans, but they fell through when I found that the only bridge left up, and which I had to cross, was guarded by Germans.  I then made up my mind to hide in a wood till the Germans retreated, but by the greatest of luck I heard of a Belgian soldier who had escaped from Maubeuge, and was trying to get to Ghent.  When he heard of me, he at once got me a civilian suit, etc., and the two of us started from Douai at night.  We walked from eight o’clock on Monday night till eight the next morning, and passed through the Herman patrols without anybody seeing us.  We arrived in Ghent on Tuesday night, and the English Consul gave me a passport.  …  I interviewed the Consul at Ostend and arrived in England on Wednesday.”  The writer adds that he hopes to leave again shortly.