Behind Enemy Lines: The True Story of a French Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany

ISBN-13: 9780307335906 / Angielski / Miękka / 2006 / 304 str.

Marthe Cohn; Wendy Holden

Opis

Marthe Cohn was a beautiful young Jewish woman living just across the German border in France when Hitler rose to power. Her family sheltered Jews fleeing the Nazis, including Jewish children sent away by their terrified parents. But soon her homeland was also under Nazi rule. As the Nazi occupation escalated, Marthe's sister was arrested and sent to Auschwitz. The rest of her family was forced to flee to the south of France. Always a fighter, Marthe joined the French Army.
As a member of the intelligence service of the French First Army, Marthe fought valiantly to retrieve needed inside information about Nazi troop movements by slipping behind enemy lines, utilizing her perfect German accent and blond hair to pose as a young German nurse who was desperately trying to obtain word of a fictional fiance. By traveling throughout the countryside and approaching troops sympathetic to her plight, risking death every time she did so, she learned where they were going next and was able to alert Allied commanders.
When, at the age of eighty, Marthe Cohn was awarded France's highest military honor, the Medaille Militaire, not even her children knew to what extent this modest woman had faced death daily while helping defeat the Nazi empire. At its heart, this remarkable memoir is the tale of an ordinary human being who, under extraordinary circumstances, became the hero her country needed her to be.

Recenzje

This compelling memoir is a testament to how extraordinary circumstances can transform a life and how an extraordinary person reacts to difficult circumstances. What comes through is the importance of courageous individual action in the most dire situations. This is the amazing story of a woman who lived through one of the worst times in human history, losing family members to the Nazis but surviving with her spirit and integrity intact. Publishers Weekly

O autorze

Marthe Cohn lives in Palo Verdes, California. A holocaust survivior, she was awarded the title of Chevalier de l Ordre de la Légion d Honneur in 2005.

Wendy Holden has written numerous books and is a celebrated journalist. She lives in England.