About Marthe Cohn

Marthe Cohn, one of seven children, was born into an Orthodox Jewish family on April 13, 1920. She was in her late teens when Hitler was rising in power. Living across the German border in Alsace-Lorriane, her family began taking in Jews who were fleeing the Nazis, as well as the Jewish children being sent away by terrified parents. As the Nazi occupation of France escalated, she and her family were forced to live the restricted lives of all Jews before fleeing to the south of France. Martha, well-educated and bilingual in French and German, would eventually be recruited into the intelligence service of the French 1st Army, commanded by Marshal of France, Jean de Lattre de Tassigny.
At the age of 80, Marthe Cohn was awarded France’s highest military honor, the Medaille Militaire, a relatively rare medal awarded for outstanding military service and given , in the past, to the likes of Winston Churchill. With this award came the official acknowledgement of the heroic exploits of a young Jewish woman who faced death every day running behind enemy lines.
Now 96, the much-decorated war hero will visit the Arvada Center and talk about the wartime experiences of her family who fought and survived the Nazis, and how she went from nursing student to spy.
Autographed copies of her memoir, Behind Enemy Lines: The True Story of a French Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany (with Wendy Holden) will be on sale at this event.
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