Levie Cohen was one of the twelve children of the butcher and livestock trader Izaak Cohen and Elizabeth van Lier. He was born in Rotterdam on 9 November 1877 and he was a commercial traveller by trade. He lived at home with his parents, till he married the 24-year old Saartje Pels in Rotterdam on 24 September 1902, a daughter of Jacob Nathans Pels-van der Kamp and Rachel Hart, who was born on 25 …