Behind Enemy Lines

Marthe Cohn was born into a Jewish family 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. In November 1944, after the liberation of Paris, Marthe Cohn enlisted and became a member of the Intelligence Service of the French 1st Army, commanded by Marshal of France Jean de Lattre de Tassigny. After 14 unsuccessful attempts to cross the front in Alsace, she crossed the border into Germany near Schaffhausenin Switzerland. As a nurse fluent in German, she assumed the identity of a German nurse and reported two major pieces of information. Cohn was decorated with the Croix de Guerre in 1945 with two citations. In 1999, the French government awarded her the Médaille militaire. She was awarded the title of Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur in 2002. In 2006, she was again honored by the Government of France with the Medaille of the Reconnaissance de la Nation. In 2002, she co-authored with Wendy Holden a book about her experiences entitled, "Behind Enemy Lines: the True Story of a French Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany".