11/12/2022 0 Comments Behind enemy lines marthe cohn“When, at the age of eighty, Cohn was awarded France’s highest military honor, the Médaille Militaire, not even her children knew to what extent this modest woman had faced death daily while helping defeat the Nazi empire. She and most of her immediate family were able to survive the German occupation of France, which is incredible. She defied all the odds, and she succeeded on several levels, impressing everyone around her. Her memoir reads like an intriguing novel, yet is is a factual life accounting, and I read it straight through.Ĭohn was not tall, she was tiny and under five feet, yet her perseverance and persistence are the traits that helped her to try to make a change during the time of Nazi occupation in France. Determined to get her family out of harms way was at the forefront of her mind, and every waking moment was spent working towards that endeavor.įrom documents forged by a sympathetic Frenchman, to a farmer in the countryside who helped her family to cross the border (and her family in turn helped others to cross), to the fact she had blonde hair and could pass as Aryan, Cohn took advantage of every opportunity given to her in order to save her family. We feel all of her emotions: the fear, the heartbreak, the devastation of loss, the heart-wrenching familial deportations. Cohn’s book is not only intense, but is illuminating and inspiring, as we watch her grow to adulthood.įrom Cohn’s childhood experiences fleeing and moving from one place to another in order to avoid the Nazis, to her getting a nursing degree and eventually to joining the French Army and becoming a spy, her life is a testament to her willpower, and also to her inner and physical strength. I was on the edge of my seat, reading her book. Behind Enemy Lines: The True Story of a French Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany, by Marthe Cohn is a compelling memoir.
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