{"id":40949,"date":"2018-01-28T19:52:09","date_gmt":"2018-01-29T01:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=40949"},"modified":"2020-01-11T21:33:51","modified_gmt":"2020-01-12T03:33:51","slug":"french-jewish-spy-recalls-ww2-exploits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/french-jewish-spy-recalls-ww2-exploits\/","title":{"rendered":"French-Jewish Spy Recalls World War II Exploits"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By NICHOLAS HAMBURGER, <em>Special to the CCJN<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Lying face-down in a field on the Swiss-German border, Marthe Cohn was frozen with fear. As a French-Jewish spy serving in the French Army during World War II, she had already made 14 unsuccessful attempts to infiltrate enemy territory. Now, on Cohn\u2019s 15th attempt, with dusk falling and nothing obstructing her from Nazi Germany, she dreaded not only the tremendous danger of her assignment but also the consequences of aborting a mission. In the end, Cohn writes in her memoir &#8220;Behind Enemy Lines,&#8221; \u201cI only did it . . . because the fear of being called a coward was worse than the fear of dying.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_40951\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Marthe_Cohn2.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-40951\" class=\"wp-image-40951 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Marthe_Cohn2-300x237.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"237\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Marthe_Cohn2-300x237.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Marthe_Cohn2-768x606.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Marthe_Cohn2-1024x808.jpg 1024w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/237;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-40951\" class=\"wp-image-40951 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Marthe_Cohn2-300x237.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"237\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Marthe_Cohn2-300x237.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Marthe_Cohn2-768x606.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Marthe_Cohn2-1024x808.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-40951\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Marthe Cohn at the World War II Museum, next to several medals honoring her work as a spy during World War II (photo by Nicholas Hamburger)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Disguised as a German nurse desperate for news of her fianc\u00e9, supposedly a front-line Nazi soldier, Cohn gathered and relayed crucial intelligence in 1945 to the French Army regarding a planned German ambush in the Black Forest. Now 97, she has received numerous awards for her espionage, most notably France\u2019s Medaille Militaire, a medal bestowed on Winston Churchill and one of the country\u2019s highest honors, and Germany\u2019s Cross of the Order of Merit, a similarly prestigious honor.<\/p>\n<p>All of Cohn\u2019s medals were on display Thursday night in New Orleans. In anticipation of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Saturday, January 27, Cohn recounted her stint in the French intelligence service at the National World War II Museum, attracting a crowd that filled the Louisiana Memorial Pavilion. Following her chronicles of espionage, she signed copies of &#8220;Behind Enemy Lines,&#8221; which was published in 2002.<\/p>\n<p>Born in 1920 in Metz, a city in northeast France near the French-German border, Cohn grew up speaking French and German fluently. While Cohn initially intended to serve in the army as a nurse, her bilingualism proved to be more valuable. After receiving numerous rejections on account of her Jewishness, and then enduring various reprimands for her lack of involvement with the organized resistance, Cohn was granted a position as a social worker, and later as a spy, in the French Army.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_40952\" style=\"width: 225px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Marthe_Cohn.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-40952\" class=\"wp-image-40952 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Marthe_Cohn-215x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"215\" height=\"300\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Marthe_Cohn-215x300.jpg 215w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Marthe_Cohn-768x1070.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Marthe_Cohn-735x1024.jpg 735w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 215px) 100vw, 215px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 215px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 215\/300;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-40952\" class=\"wp-image-40952 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Marthe_Cohn-215x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"215\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Marthe_Cohn-215x300.jpg 215w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Marthe_Cohn-768x1070.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Marthe_Cohn-735x1024.jpg 735w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 215px) 100vw, 215px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-40952\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cohn and her husband Major Cohn (photo by Nicholas Hamburger)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>At the National World War II Museum, Cohn regaled the audience with her stories of subterfuge in the final year of the war. While walking with a cadre of German women one day, Cohn listened to a noncommissioned SS officer boast about his slaughter of Poles and Jews. When he unexpectedly fainted, Cohn tended to him on the side of the road, and, after earning his trust, coaxed information regarding the upcoming German ambush out of him. She bicycled across Germany gathering intelligence wherever she could, concealing her communication with the French Army by sending coded messages embedded in her favorite Baudelaire poems.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to Cohn\u2019s successful breach of Nazi Germany\u2019s border, she survived several precarious incidents. In an attempt to infiltrate the enemy, a French officer confused Cohn\u2019s intended path with a frozen canal. In the middle of winter, Cohn recalled, she fell through the ice and only barely managed to climb out. A short time later, German artillery bombarded a file of tanks in which Cohn was traveling. Every Frenchman in the tank directly in front of her died. Cohn escaped unharmed.<\/p>\n<p>But though Cohn survived the war, thirty members of her immediate family did not. Her fianc\u00e9, Jacques, was an active member of the French Resistance, and his involvement in the murder of a collaborationist French doctor, as well as his sabotage of an enemy supply train, precipitated his arrest and execution. Cohn\u2019s younger sister, St\u00e9phanie, perished in Auschwitz following her deportation on the day of Yom Kippur.<\/p>\n<p>As a Holocaust survivor, Cohn said that her Jewishness underlies much of her personal story. \u201cI\u2019m not very observant, but that doesn\u2019t matter,\u201d she explained in an interview with the CCJN. \u201cI never lost my Jewish identity.\u201d Cohn\u2019s grandfather was an Orthodox rabbi, and she described her mother\u2019s religiousness as a devout and \u201cauthentic faith.\u201d To this day, Cohn honors her sister on Yom Kippur, as well as before every event she participates in while touring her memoir across the United States and Europe.<\/p>\n<p>Given the losses she has suffered, Cohn suggested she places a particular importance on remembrance. \u201cFor me, remembrance is every day. It\u2019s not just one day a year,\u201d she stressed. \u201cI am constantly dreaming. I always daydreamed as a child, too. My husband asks me very often \u2018Where are you now?\u2019 I always think about my past &#8211; always.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_40953\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Marthe_Cohn3.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-40953\" class=\"wp-image-40953 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Marthe_Cohn3-300x229.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"229\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Marthe_Cohn3-300x229.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Marthe_Cohn3-768x585.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Marthe_Cohn3-1024x781.jpg 1024w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/229;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-40953\" class=\"wp-image-40953 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Marthe_Cohn3-300x229.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"229\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Marthe_Cohn3-300x229.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Marthe_Cohn3-768x585.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Marthe_Cohn3-1024x781.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-40953\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cohn signs copies of her book at the National World War II Museum (photo by Nicholas Hamburger)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>International Holocaust Remembrance Day, of course, is a day of collective remembrance. Created by the European Union in 1950 to mark the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau on January 27, 1945, the memorial day has been officially honored by the United Nations since 2005. This year\u2019s commemoration of the date, however, has been marked by unrest.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, <em>JTA<\/em>, the nation&#8217;s oldest Jewish\u00a0news agency,<i>\u00a0<\/i>reported that a senior Hungarian lawmaker planned to participate in a ceremony honoring Miklos Horthy, a Nazi collaborator and the regent of Hungary until 1944, on the same day as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In June, Hungarian Jews protested Horthy\u2019s upcoming ceremony. On Thursday, the event was canceled amid strong backlash.<\/p>\n<p>Controversy surrounding the memorial day has also embroiled Austria, Hungary\u2019s western neighbor. Austrian Jews planned to refrain from participating in any official events on Saturday as long as far-right Freedom Party (FP\u00d6) law-makers were in attendance, the <i>Algemeiner Journal <\/i>reported last week. The FP\u00d6 was founded in 1956 by a former SS officer, and, after Austria\u2019s elections last October, now holds over a quarter of the country\u2019s parliamentary seats.<\/p>\n<p>Cohn, however, was quick to point out that far-right nationalism has surfaced beyond Europe, too. \u201cWhat\u2019s happening here with Trump is very close to what happened in the \u201830s in Germany,\u201d Cohn said, referring to the rapid rises of President Donald Trump in 2016 and Hitler\u2019s National Socialist German Workers\u2019 Party in the early 1930s. \u201cYou cannot accept it. You have to fight it from the first day. If you don\u2019t, you will lose the fight.\u201d<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"French-Jewish%20Spy%20Recalls%20World%20War%20II%20Exploits\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":40951,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1850,8790,8795,9171,8788],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40949"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40949"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50690,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40949\/revisions\/50690"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}