Former spy for Allied forces speaks at La Salle

By Elizabeth Adler
Collegian Staff
October 3, 2007

It’s easy to miss Marthe Cohn. At no more than five feet tall, the 82-year-old French ex-patriot is a slight, unassuming woman, topped with a poof of white hair. In short, she looks like any grandmother you’ve ever seen.

However, as a packed house in the Dunleavy room learned, writing her off as such would be a dangerously foolish miscalculation. Just ask the Nazis.

A former spy for the Allies in Nazi Germany, Cohn spoke at the free period last Thursday as part of the Diplomat-in-Residence Program, mentioning her efforts in the resistance, and then later in the army. Promoting her book, Behind Enemy Lines: The True Story of a French Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany, she talked about her long-time reticence to open up about her role in the French army, as well as the importance of eventually coming forward.

“It was not modesty,” she said. “I thought no one would believe me. I was a very unlikely spy.”

Although this is true, Cohn says she was taken for a spy twice during her tenure in the army. However, it wasn’t the Germans who caught her. She successfully deceived Nazi forces, imitating them proficiently during her time undercover. It was actually the Moroccans, who, according to Cohn, arrested her on two occasions because they suspected her of being a German spy.

Elaborating on why she took so long to come forward, Cohn mentioned that she had been trained to keep everything secret, to never disclose information. And for a large portion of her life, she followed those instructions. Keeping her military experience all to herself, Cohn mentioned that not even her husband knew the exact details of her work with the resistance.

She added that she had been busy with her job and family, and that she simply never had time to come forward with her story until the late 1990s. She is now glad that people know of her work, because she believes it is important to educate society about what happened during World War II.

The fifth of seven children, Cohn grew up in Alsace-Lorraine, France, right along the French-German border. Due to this upbringing, she was raised to speak both languages, which proved to be helpful when she served as a spy later on.

“When I started speaking, I spoke both [French and German] at the same time,” Cohn said. “That explains why I could do work at enemy lines.”

During World War II, Cohn and her siblings helped their fellow Jews escape to unoccupied France. Despite their heroic status, Cohn’s family was not immune from harm. Her sister was arrested, sent to prison and disappeared after being sent to Auschwitz, Germany.

Cohn and her family were eventually forced into hiding. By using false papers that concealed their Jewish identity, they lived in the mountains outside Paris. During this time, Cohn finished nursing school and moved to Paris.

Following the liberation of Paris, Cohn decided to join the army as a nurse. Upon discovering nurses were no longer needed, she became a social worker. However, as soon as it was discovered that she was fluent in French and German, Cohn was transferred to French intelligence.

During training, which comprised of learning to recognize the different German uniforms, weapons training and learning codes, Cohn stated she often “wondered what predicament I had put myself into.”

Despite her resitance, Cohn’s missions behind enemy lines eventually proved successful, even though it took 13 attempts for her to cross over into Germany.

Cohn has been awarded several medals for her undercover work. During her lecture particular attention was drawn to the Medaille Militaire, France’s highest military honor, which she received for discovering where the Germans were waiting to ambush Allied forces.

She also received the Cross of War, which comes with 24,000 francs; however, Cohn refused to take the money, and still refuses any money she is offered when she speaks at events such as this one.

The program itself commenced with a short video about Cohn’s life and intelligence work during World War II and followed with the lecture/discussion about her journey from personal resistance work to formal intelligence work for the French army.

Dr. Cornelia Tsakiridou, director of the Diplomat-in-Residence Program and a professor of philosophy at La Salle said college students should hear Cohn’s story because she lived through unconceivable circumstances for young people in America today.

adlere1@lasalle.edu