How a Jewish pilot became the “King” of Lampedusa

Most of us nowadays associate the island of Lampedusa with the major entry point for Mediterranean migrants. But not many people are aware of the Jewish connection to the island.

In June 1943, Sergeant Sydney Cohen, an RAF pilot, unwittingly  captured the island of Lampedusa, 200 km south of Sicily. He then accepted the surrender of a garrison of 4,300 Italian troops.

Cohen, who had been a tailor’s assistant in the East End of London, joined the RAF in 1941 and was sent to serve in Malta. In 1943, he went off course and had to make an emergency landing on the island. He immediately offered to surrender but to his amazement a crowd of Italians came out to meet him and his crew waving white sheets shouting “No, no we surrender!” Cohen accepted, confirmed it on a scrap of paper, and took the ”document” of surrender back to Malta.

This feat was the subject of a famous Yiddish play which became one of the most successful Yiddish productions ever and was even broadcast in an English translation by the BBC. It attracted the attention of war-time Nazi propagandist Lord Haw-Haw who threatened the theatre where the English version was being played with a visit by the Luftwaffe.

The positive propaganda value of the incident was hailed in Britain with one newspaper declaring, “Tailor’s cutter now King of Lampedusa!” Unfortunately this extraordinary story did not have a happy ending for Sydney Cohen. He died when he and his plane were lost without trace over the Channel near Dover on 26 August 1946.

Ann Englander