The Breman to host presentation detailing unlikely Holocaust connection in Atlanta

The Breman Museum in Midtown announced that it will open its 2026 “Bearing Witness” series on Jan 25 with a program centered on a Holocaust-era connection that was discovered in Atlanta.

Titled “Corresponding Angles,” the program features speakers Gail Cohn and Atlanta orthopedic surgeon Dr. Reuben Sloan, whose fathers’ lives unexpectedly intersected during World War II.

Cohn is the daughter of the late Aaron Cohn, a juvenile court judge and U.S. Army officer from Columbus, GA, who helped liberate prisoners from Ebensee, a subcamp of the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria; while Sloan is the son of Itzik Slodowski, a Polish Jew who survived more than a year of forced labor at Ebensee before being freed by General George S. Patton’s troops in 1945.

The connection came to light in 2012 during a medical appointment, when Sloan learned from Cohn (who was Sloan’s patient) that her father had served in Patton’s 3rd Armored Division. Cohn explained that Aaron had been part of the 3rd Cavalry Regiment and was among the soldiers who liberated thousands of prisoners at Ebensee — including Sloan’s dad, as it turned out.

“My jaw dropped,” said Sloan in a 2023 interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We just figured out that her father liberated my father and got him out of that hell he was living. 

“We hugged each other, and tears were shed after we realized our newly discovered connection,” Sloan continued, “and, more importantly, our fathers’ corresponding angles.”

Though there is no definitive proof the two men met at the camp, Sloan believes they did, citing a family account in which his father recalled admiring a Yiddish-speaking cavalry major under Patton, a description that matches Aaron Cohn.

Over a decade after discovering their shared history, Cohn and Sloan began speaking publicly about their families’ connection. They first presented at The Breman back in 2023 and will return this month with an updated presentation.

Each year, the Midtown museum’s Bearing Witness series features Holocaust survivors or their descendants, who tell their stories of perseverance during that period in time.

Along with Cohn and Sloan, the Breman Museum will feature additional presentations on Feb. 22 and March 29, with speakers to be announced in the future.

Admission to the upcoming Bearing Witness presentation and The Breman (including all museum exhibitions) are free of charge that day, although registration is required.

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