Norman Cohn

Norman Rufus Colin Cohn FBA (12 January 1915 – 31 July 2007) was a British academic, historian and writer who spent 14 years as a professorial fellow and as Astor-Wolfson Professor at the University of Sussex.

Life

Cohn was born in London, to a Jewish father and a Catholic mother. He was educated at Gresham's School and Christ Church, Oxford. He was a scholar and research student at Christ Church between 1933 and 1939, taking a first-class degree in Modern Languages in 1936. He served for six years in the British Army, being commissioned into the Queen's Royal Regiment in 1939 and transferring to the Intelligence Corps in 1944, where his knowledge of modern languages found employment. In 1941 he married Vera Broido, with whom he had a son, the writer Nik Cohn. In the immediate post-war period, he was stationed in Vienna, ostensibly to interrogate Nazis, but he also encountered many refugees from Stalinism, and the similarities in persecutorial obsessions evinced both by Nazism and Stalinism fueled his interest in the historical background for these ideologically opposed, yet functionally similar movements. After his discharge, he taught successively in universities in Scotland, Ireland, England, the United States and Canada.

Norman Armitage

Norman Armitage (January 1, 1907, as Norman Cohn, in Albany, New York – March 14, 1972; Columbia University 1930), was an American saber fencer.

Early life

Armitage, who was Jewish, was born in Albany, New York.

Fencing career

College

Armitage began fencing when he was a student at Columbia University. He won the 1928 Intercollegiate Fencing Association sabre championship.

National sabre championships

In won 10 times in 25 appearances at the national championships: in 1930, from 1934 to 1936, from 1939 to 1943, and in 1945. He holds 17 national championship titles, more than any other US sabre fencer.

Olympics

Armitage competed in six Olympics, 1928–36 and 1948–56, only taking a break for World War II. He competed in the Olympics over a 28-year span. He carried the U.S. flag in the Olympic opening ceremony in 1948, 1952, and 1956.

At the 1928 Summer Olympics, he competed (as Norman Cohn) in the individual and team events. The American team was eliminated in the first round, and Armitage reached the semifinals in individual sabre. At the 1932 Summer Olympics, he reached the finals in the team event and finished fourth. In individual sabre, he placed ninth.

Norman Cohn (film producer)

Norman Cohn (born October 6, 1946) is an American born Canadian film director and producer best known for his work on films Atanarjuat and The Journals of Knud Rasmussen.

Along with director Zacharias Kunuk, he co-founded the first Inuit owned (75%) production company, Isuma and is the secretary-treasurer.

Born in New York, Cohn has lived most of his life in Igloolik, Nunavut and Montreal.

References

External links