Behind Enemy Lines
The True Story of a Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany
A historic evening with Marthe Cohn
94-year-old Holocaust survivor Marthe Cohn, was born in Metz, France in 1920. She was a beautiful, young, Jewish woman living just across the German border in France when Hitler rose to power. As the Nazi occupation escalated, Marthe's sister was sent to Auschwitz while her family fled to the South of France.
Always a fighter, Marthe joined the intelligence service of the First French Army and fought valiantly to retrieve information. Utilizing her perfect German accent and blond hair, Marthe posed as a German nurse desperately trying to obtain word of a fictional fiance. She traveled the countryside and approached troops sympathetic to her 'plight' thereby obtaining vital information for the Allied commanders.
When, at age 80, Cohn was awarded France's highest military honor, the Medaille Militaire, not even her children knew to what extent this modest woman faced death daily to defeat the Nazi Empire. At its heart this remarkable story is the tale of an ordinary human being who, under extraordinary circumstances, became the hero her country needed her to be.
In 2002 Marthe penned her memoir "Behind Enemy Lines: The True Story of a French Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany". She lives together with her husband in Palos Verdes, CA and travels internationally sharing her remarkable story.--