In IJssalon Koco, a Jewish gang prepared attacks on NSB members and Nazis

You walk right past it, the place where IJssalon Koco used to be. At the time, Van Woustraat sold the best ice cream in the area – much to the envy of a pro-German competitor across the street. “It certainly contributed to the mood to commit violence,” says Freerk van der Meulen. His great-uncle Ernst Cahn was one of the salon’s patrons.

Koco quickly became a meeting point for many Jewish Amsterdammers. Cahn and his partner Alfred Kohn were Jews who had fled Germany. Amsterdam offered many of them a home, especially in the Rivierenbuurt and other parts of South.

February strike

During the first winter under the German occupation (1940-1941) it became increasingly restless in Amsterdam. Many men are put to work in Germany for the war industry and the harassment and persecution of the Jews is increasing.

Some Amsterdammers form gangs. An NSB member is seriously injured during fights with a Jewish gang and dies a few days later. And at IJssalon Koco it comes to a confrontation between the Grüne Polizei and a Jewish gang. In retaliation, the Germans deported more than 400 Jews to concentration camps.

The retaliation leads to great indignation among the people of Amsterdam. On February 25 and 26, thousands of workers will go on strike. The action soon spreads to other cities. It is the only mass protest against the persecution of the Jews in all of Europe. Only with brute force did the Germans manage to end the strike.

Open Jewish Houses & Houses Of Resistance

Ernst Cahn is sentenced to death after a mock trial. “He was the first Dutchman to be shot on the Waalsdorpervlakte,” says Van der Meulen. Alfred Kohn also did not survive the war: he died in 1945 in Auschwitz. Ice cream parlor Koco no longer exists. Van der Meulen: “The entire contents were given away to that NSB competitor. That was simply stolen and misused.”

For years, the relatives do not talk about the salon and the thugs, until another second cousin, Frank Blom, investigates it. Blom and Van der Meulen now share the story with new generations in the former home of Alfred Cohn, their great-uncle’s partner. Up to and including liberation day, the stories of resistance and war victims are told in various houses throughout the city. This program, Open Jewish Houses & Houses Of Resistanceis organized by the 4 & 5 May committee.

The cousins ​​see telling the story of the ice cream parlor as an assignment. “You want to say: ‘never again’. But that is only possible if you pass on the story,” says Blom. “There are children who don’t know what the Holocaust is. We can contribute to keeping this story in the picture.”