[1] Kohn was born into a German-speaking Jewish family in Prague, Bohemia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Following training he was sent to the Eastern Front in the Carpathian Mountains, facing the Imperial Russian Army.
During the civil war following the Bolshevik revolution, the pro-western Czechoslovak Legions came into Central Asia and he was set free.
The couple moved to London, where Kohn worked for Zionist organizations and wrote articles for newspapers.
Kohn sought to understand the emergence of nationalism through the development of western civilization and the rise of liberalism.