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Marthe Cohn was born in Metz, France in 1920. She was a devoutly religious 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.
Martha, though, chose to fight back and joined the intelligence service of the First French Army. Utilizing her perfect German accent and Aryan appearance, Marthe posed as a German nurse desperately trying to obtain word of a fictional fiancé. She traveled the countryside and approached troops sympathetic to her ‘plight’ thereby obtaining critical information for the Allied commanders.
When at age 80 Cohn was awarded France’s highest military honor, the Medaille Miliataire, 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 woman who, under extraordinary circumstances, became the hero her country needed her to be.
In 2002, Marthe penned her memoir “Behind Enemy Line: The True Story of a French Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany”. She lives together with her husband in Palos Verdes, Californina and travels internationally sharing her remarkable story.
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