Marthe Cohn

{{Infobox person

| image = Marthe Cohn 2025.png

| caption = Cohn in April 2025

| birth_name = Marthe Hoffnung

| birth_date = {{birth date|1920|4|13|df=y}}

| birth_place = Metz, France

| death_date = {{death date and age|2025|5|21|1920|4|13|df=y}}

| death_place = Rancho Palos Verdes, California, U.S.

| occupation = {{hlist|Nurse|author}}

| spouse = {{marriage|Major L. Cohn|1958}}

| children = 2

| awards = Legion of Honour

}}

Marthe Hoffnung Cohn (13 April 1920 – 21 May 2025) was a French nurse, spy, Holocaust survivor and author. She wrote about her experiences as a spy at the end of World War II in the book Behind Enemy Lines (2002).

Life

Marthe Hoffnung was born in Metz on 13 April 1920,{{cite news |url=https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn504867 |title=Oral history interview with Marthe Hoffnung Cohn |work=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum | date=29 July 1996 | access-date=27 May 2025 }} into an Orthodox Jewish family, the fifth of eight children of Fischel Hoffnung and his wife Regine. Metz had been a German possession from 1871 to 1918, acquired as part of Alsace-Lorraine in the Franco-Prussian War and relinquished after World War I.{{cite book |last=Berrar |first=Jean-Claude |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/315137537 |title=Metz, retour à la France |date=2009 |publisher=Serpenoise |isbn=978-2-87692-784-1 |location=Woippy |oclc=315137537}} Her grandfather was a rabbi who instilled the love of books, and her father ran a small photo-finishing shop. Her parents spoke only German. She witnessed antisemitism near home with the defacement of the Synagogue of Metz.{{cite book |last=Accart |first=Jean-Philippe |chapter=1. La démarche projet en vue de la création d'un service de questions-réponses en ligne |chapter-url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4000/books.pressesenssib.168 |title=Mettre en œuvre un service de questions-réponses en ligne |date=2010 |pages=16–33 |publisher=Presses de l’enssib |doi=10.4000/books.pressesenssib.168 |isbn=978-2-910227-82-1 |url=http://books.openedition.org/pressesenssib/168 |access-date=16 November 2020}}

= World War II =

After the start of World War II in September 1939, Marthe's family moved from the border with Germany to Poitiers, where they stayed after the 1940 German invasion of France. Initially French Jews in the area faced relatively few restrictions after annexation of the Moselle by the Nazis in July 1940, but the situation gradually deteriorated. Cohn began to study at a nursing school in Poitiers.{{cite news |title=Sie war 24, Jüdin und spionierte die Wehrmacht aus|url=https://www.welt.de/kultur/history/article106587104/Sie-war-24-Juedin-und-spionierte-die-Wehrmacht-aus.html|trans-title=She was 24, Jewish, and spied on the Wehrmacht|first=Heike |last=Vowinkel |work=Die Welt|language=de | date=16 July 2012 | access-date=27 May 2025 }}

In the summer of 1942, using false' papers, Marthe organized her family's escape from Poitiers to the free zone; at the time, her sister Stéphanie, a student of medicine, had been arrested by the Gestapo because she had helped a student to escape. Marthe's fiancé, Jacques Delaunay, a student she had met at Poitiers, was imprisoned by the Nazis in October 1943 as an activist in the French Resistance. In November 1943, she finished her studies at the nursing school of the French Red Cross in Marseille. She then lived in Paris with a sister.

In November 1944, after the liberation of Paris and after learning that her fiancé had been executed, she enlisted and became a member of the Intelligence Service of the French Army. After 14 unsuccessful attempts to cross the front in Alsace, she crossed the border into Germany near Schaffhausen in Switzerland. As a nurse fluent in German, she assumed the identity of a German nurse and claimed she was searching for her missing fiancé. She would then crawl back across the Swiss border to relay the information back to the French intelligence. She was able to report two major pieces of information: that northwest of Freiburg, the Siegfried Line had been evacuated and where the remnant of the Wehrmacht lay in ambush in the Black Forest.{{cite news |url=http://www.jewishledger.com/2015/06/conversation-with-marthe-cohn/ |title=Conversation with Marthe Cohn |last=Mindell |first=Cindy |date=24 June 2015 |work=Connecticut Jewish Ledger |archive-date=20 October 2019 |access-date=29 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191020143403/http://www.jewishledger.com/2015/06/conversation-with-marthe-cohn/ |url-status=live }}

= After the War =

After the war Marthe returned to France to pursue a career as a nurse. She studied further in Geneva, where she met an American medical student in 1956, Major L. Cohn, who was the roommate of a friend. Within three years, they were married and lived in the United States from 1956. They worked together for years, he as an anesthesiologist and she as a nurse anesthetist. They had two sons.

Cohn was decorated with the Croix de Guerre in 1945 with two citations (Decisions Number 134 signed by Le Lieutenant-Colonel Bouvet on 9 August 1945 & Number 1322 signed by Marechal Juin on 10 November 1945). In 1999, the French government awarded her the Médaille militaire, Decree Number 3465 MR 1999.{{cite web |url=http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000000806403 |title=Décret du 4 août 2004 portant promotion et nomination |access-date=30 June 2015 |archive-date=7 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307221111/https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000000806403 |url-status=live }} She was awarded the title of Knight of the Legion of Honour (Decree Number 2702, MR 2004) by André Bord, the national veterans minister 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 and was published by Harmony Books.{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2025/05/22/marthe-hoffnung-cohn-dead/ |title=Marthe Cohn, a Jewish spy in Nazi Germany, dies at 105 |last=Smith |first=Harrison |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=22 May 2025 |access-date=26 May 2025}}Cohn, Marthe & Holden, Wendy [https://www.amazon.com/Behind-Enemy-Lines-French-Germany/dp/0609610546#reader_0609610546 Behind Enemy Lines - The True Story of a French Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany]. Harmony Books, Retrieved 26 May 2025

Cohn's last residence was in Palos Verdes, California.{{cite web | title=Jewish History Month: Marthe Cohn, Holocaust survivor who kept spy identity secret for years, reflects on Russian invasion | website=ABC7 Los Angeles | date=27 May 2022 | url=https://abc7.com/102-year-old-marthe-cohn-world-war-ii-spy-jewish-history-month/11891056/ | access-date=8 February 2023}} She died there on 21 May 2025, at the age of 105.[https://www.republicain-lorrain.fr/faits-divers-justice/2025/05/21/native-de-metz-la-resistante-marthe-hoffnug-cohn-est-decedee-a-l-age-de-105-ans Native de Metz, la résistante Marthe Cohn est décédée à l’âge de 105 ans] {{in lang|fr}}

Awards and honours

Croix de Guerre, 1945{{cite news |url=https://jewishjournal.com/culture/185770/ |work=Jewish Journal |title=Marthe Cohn: A Jewish spy infiltrates Nazi Germany |last=Ulman |first=Jane |date=16 May 2016 |access-date=26 May 2025}}
Médaille militaire, 1999{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-jul-14-me-52943-story.html |title=Past Catches Up to Palos Verdes Woman—Carrying a Medal |last=Garrison |first=Jessica |date=14 July 2000 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |page=1 |access-date=6 September 2021 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210906041450/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-jul-14-me-52943-story.html |archive-date=6 September 2021}}
Legion of Honour, Knight 2002 {{cite news|url=https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/one-person-can-make-a-difference-french-jewish-wwii-spy-to-share-story-in-calgary|work=Calgary Herald|title='One person can make a difference': French-Jewish WWII spy to share story in Calgary|author=Sammy Hudes|date=24 March 2019|accessdate=26 May 2025}}
Woman of Valor, Simon Wiesenthal Center{{cite web|url=https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/she-helped-take-down-hitler-spy-100-years-old-she-tells-her-story-149426|work=The National Interest|title=She Helped Take Down Hitler as a Spy. At 100 Years Old She Tells Her Story|author=Peter Suciu|date=30 April 2020|accessdate=26 May 2025}}
Medal of the Nation's Gratitude, France, 2006{{cite web |url=https://france3-regions.franceinfo.fr/grand-est/moselle/metz/mort-a-l-age-de-105-ans-de-la-resistante-marthe-cohn-native-de-metz-3157890.html |work=France Info |title=Mort à l'âge de 105 ans de la résistante Marthe Cohn, native de Metz |last=Panek |first=Jean-Christophe |date=21 May 2025 |access-date=26 May 2025}}
Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany{{cite web |last=Tugend |first=Tom |title=Marthe Hoffnung Cohn Receives Germany's Highest Honor |url=http://www.ajclosangeles.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=mlI0IfN1JyE&b=8581799&ct=14154593¬oc=1 |website=AJC Global Jewish Advocacy |access-date=18 September 2016 |archive-date=19 September 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160919072402/http://www.ajclosangeles.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=mlI0IfN1JyE&b=8581799&ct=14154593¬oc=1 |url-status=live }}

Film

A 2019 film was produced as a documentary of Cohn's life by writer-director Nicola Alice Hens and producer Amos Geva, entitled Chichinette: The Accidental Spy.{{cite news |last=Goldstein |first=Gary |title=Review: 'Chichinette' reveals the World War II spy exploits of a Palos Verdes centenarian |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2020-04-14/chichinette-accidental-spy-review-documentary-world-war-ii |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=14 April 2020 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210906043043/https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2020-04-14/chichinette-accidental-spy-review-documentary-world-war-ii |archive-date=6 September 2021}}{{cite news |last1=Brown |first1=Hannah |title=Haifa hosts the Jewish nurse who spied on the Nazis |url=https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Culture/Haifa-hosts-the-Jewish-nurse-who-spied-on-the-Nazis-604948 |work=The Jerusalem Post |date=17 October 2019 |archive-date=27 April 2020 |access-date=3 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200427062620/https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/culture/haifa-hosts-the-jewish-nurse-who-spied-on-the-nazis-604948 |url-status=live }} In the film, asked for a message to viewers, she said: "Be engaged. And don’t accept any order that your conscience could not approve."

Books

{{cite book|title=Behind Enemy Lines: The True Story of a French Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany |publisher= Harmony Books |date=2002 |isbn= 978-0-609-61054-1 }}
{{cite book|title= Derrière les lignes ennemies : Une espionne juive dans l'Allemagne nazie |publisher= Editions Tallandier |date=2009 |isbn= 978-2-84734-614-5 }}