The True Story of a French Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany

The book arrived in perfect condition and I was impressed with the service from the store. Unfortunately I found the story line disappointing. At some points in the book her story contradicts itself and has grown to enormously ridiculous proportions. Having some first hand knowledge of the war theatre in which she sets herself I found many scenario questionable.

That being said, I applaud hers and everyone's efforts large or small who helped in that savage war. However, I cannot recommend this book.

Another wonderful historical book on one of the most horrible times in history. For history buffs, lovers of history, World War 2 researchers. Those who study the past, then this is a must read. I found myself totally connected to the plot, and those involved. The words become images, and the storyline flows with an ease.

The plot itself should make you seek this book out, a French-Jew who decides to become a spy during the Nazi reign. Bravery beyond words describes that. Marthe is the very essence and definition of the term brave soul, hero, one who defied Hitler and his henchmen.

Whats so great about this is, that this is a perfect spy story. Tom Clancy or Robert Ludlum could only dream of how unique this woman was. She, through her will to not sit around and allow the horrors to happen, helped so many, and gave so much information to help fight against the horrors of Nazi's.

Marthe was not without the horrors that so many Jews, and persons deemed undesirable went through. Her sister was murdered by the Nazi's, and also her finance. She expresses the sadness and the emotional reality to those deaths, but also her will to help. She spoke both French and German. Her looks helped her hide her true race. It was these realities alongside her will power to help, and not sit aside, and allow the Nazi's to destroy. She had to help, and do her part, and what she did, was an amazing reality that few have ever done.

A brilliant book of a true story that will linger with you, and remain on your mind long after reading it. A fascinating woman that deserves to be remembered, and this book deserves to be read.

Would I Return to it: I am a huge history buff and researcher of World War 2 so most assuredly I would.

Would I Recommend: Absolutely. Not only to history buffs, but to a general person who loves to read good books.

Year Published: 2008

Book Length: 312 pages

My Rating: 5 out of 5

This is the fascinating memoir of a young French-Jewish woman who survives the Holocaust because of her quick wits, her Aryan looks, and a forged identification card. After Paris is liberated (about halfway through the book), the reader discovers the reason for the book's title: Marthe -- who was raised in the Alsace Lorraine area and is fluent in both French and German -- decides to work as a spy in German-occupied territory.

She recalls so many details that this book is a stunning, albeit horrifying look at France during the war, portraying in living color the good people and the bad. Although many of her experiences -- and those of her many family members -- painfully illustrate virulent and widespread French anti-Semitism (I really expected better from the French Red Cross!), the following stunning image was an exception:

"One by one as we approached (the border between occupied and Vichy France), the men stopped smoking and the women stopped talking, and they all turned to stare back at us. There was near silence as we squeaked along with our bicycle, watching them watching us.

"An old man in a dark shirt and working trousers stood up from his rickety old wooden chair as we passed his house and stared at us intently. I returned his gaze, my hands clammy on the handelbars. Without saying a word, he suddenly dropped onto one knee and, hand on his chest, lowered his head in prayer. Next to him, his wife knelt on both knees in the dirt and made the sign of the cross. At the next house, two men fell similarly to their knees and began praying for us, their soft murmurings carried to us on the summer evening breeze.

Another passage that conversely blew my mind, witnessed by Marthe as she was posing as a German towards the end of the war, was a Wehrmacht officer regaling a busload of German women with tales of grisly murder in Russia and Poland:

"'We'd take them from their villages, men, women, and children, and march them to a nearby forest or clearing, where they had to dig their own graves," he said, his eyes quite mad. 'Then we'd line them all up and open fire. You should have seen them run as we strafed them with bullets. Like little mice!'

"His stubby fingers did little running movements and he made a squaking noise with his mouth. All the women in the bus laughed openly as the officer threw his head back and roared at the memory. I felt sick to my stomach . . . "

Guess you had to have been there to get the "joke" but this passage legitimately challenges the state of complete ignorance claimed by many post-war German civilians regarding Germany's crimes against humanity. But even if these women, like other German civilians, really didn't know exactly what had happened to the Jews, Poles, captured Soviets and Resistance workers, their ability to find humor in a scene of mass slaughter is quite telling.

Because Marthe, a remarkable young woman, was often very close to danger, both as a Jew on the run and later as a very capable French spy, and because this book is so well-written, it's a real page-turner.

As a Holocaust survivor, I have often heard the comment"you were cowards" not resisting the brutalities perpetrated by the Germans. Many Jews in Palestine, (the Yishuv in 1945-1948) were acrimonious, questioning the Holocaust survivors: "why did you let the Germans lead you like sheep to slaughter houses?" Not being a captive in a concentration camp, Marthe Cohn could join the French Resistance. Courage or cowardice depends on the surrounding circumstances. For detainees behind barbed-wire it was not possible to fight back. In one camp, my uniform did not even have pockets. We had nothing to fight with. To fight off armed men with bare hands would be suicidal. In some instances, where a slight chance to fight the Germans did exist, Jews did resist. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in the spring of 1943 is one example. Marthe Cohn is another manifestation of Jewish courage and bravery. When the war ended, Marthe was told that she would be rewarded with the Gold Star and 25,000 francs for her work for intelligence in Germany. Marthe response was: "I don't want the monetary reward. I don't want to make money out of what happened. It would be wrong to accept." What a humble and noble attitude! Eventually, in the year 2000, at the age of eighty, Marthe Cohn was awarded France's highest military honor, the Medaille Militaire for outstanding military service.

Marthe Cohn, was imbued with beauty of soul and body. She had a profound sense of justice and resentment for French anti-Semites and Nazi racists. As a little girl, she was listening to her brother's reading about the pogroms carried out by Russian Cossacks against its Jewish population. She was appalled to learn what some people could do to others, just because they were Jewish. At the age of five, several teenagers threw stones at her, shouting "Dirty Jews." She couldn't believe that Jews were being treated differently just for being Jewish. "What did it mater which faith we practiced?" Marthe once asked her father. When the German had occupied France, Marthe and her family tried to escape from their gravitational home to the unoccupied part of France. At one juncture, she asked a priest, who lived at the border area, to help her family to find a path to other side of the border. The priest said "I'll help you because it is the right thing to do. But you should know...I never trust a Jew." Because of the biblical story of Judas Iscariot's behavior, thousands of years ago, a Jew today can not be trusted? At a nursing school in France, Marthe was told "I just don't want any Jews in my school." In the French Army, a captain made a sarcastic remark about his colleague "Neu did bloody well for a Jew". (p.162). The captain said that in Marthe's presence, who had never revealed her religion to colleagues in the Army. When the war ended, Marthe searched for her sister Stephanie. Calling the Red Cross for help to locate Stephanie, Marthe was told:"We are not in the business of tracing lost Jews (p 217)."

As a young boy, growing up in Poland I was harassed by Catholic kids with epithet "Jesus Killer". I was aware of rampant anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe. Anti-Semitic incidents in Christian Western Europe come vividly to light in BEHIND ENEMY LINES. Being affected by it personally it is sometimes too much to bear. It is chaffing; stereotyping or sweeping guilt by association is illogical. Readers of this excellent book will agree that old hostilities should be reduced to rubble. We can all sing together with different voices in a very successful choir.

This story of bravery, unbelievable loss and equally unbelievable survival during a tragic time. The writer has gotten the best revenge against the perpetrators of genocide; that is of having lived a long and successful life, well lived and helping others. The writing is somewhat less than professional but the story is very compelling.

I had the privilege to hear Marthe Cohn talk this week and just finished reading her book today. I can't believe that they haven't made a movie yet about her experiences. Every page was full of danger and excitement as she continually risked her life. She's truly amazing, a little 4' 10" petit lady interrogated huge nazis and got the information she needed out of them. She definitely had great karma to escape death over and over again. I highly recommend everyone read this amazing well-written book!

A quiet heroine is Marthe Cohn, an elderly retiree living in California, author of Behind Enemy Lines: The True Story Of A French Jewish Spy In Nazi Germany. Like most memoirists, she begins with her youth in a Jewish home, growing up in France near the German border. We learn of her family relationships and the growing oppression and terror due to the onset of war and the German occupation. Blonde, blue-eyed and bilingual, she engages in her personal fight for freedom after the execution of her fiancé by working for the Free French and ultimately infiltrating into Nazi territory to report on troop movements. Her postwar experiences in the French intelligence services and as a military nurse serving in French-occupied Vietnam also make for compelling reading. Then she quietly retires, her exploits unknown even to her family, until she is recognized with the Legion of Honor award at age eighty!

This story is fascinating. The author is a phenomenal writer and even more so, a true hero. I can't count how many times I was reduced to tears at her poignant, haunting, and impeccable recollection of history. School's should highly consider adding this to their required reading lists. I can't recommend it highly enough.

If you like adventure, heartache, love affairs (not what you may think)and luck, you must read this book. This lady was in her late teens and early twenties during WW II. As her family is Jewish, they lived through all kinds of hell, however, the resourcefulness of the author along with many regular citizens of her area, this immediate family was able to live through the ordeal (excepting two people) and Ms. Cohn has written a fine book of the times and what she accomplished. What a fine human being Marthe Cohn is.

Marthe Cohn has written a gripping narrative. Just her description of the ever-tightening noose of Nazi occupation is wonderfully evocative. I highly recommend this book, the author's writing style makes for an engrossing read.

A great book about the story of a truly exceptional lady, who I have had the pleasure to meet. I bought copies for several friends and they really liked it too. Marthe is over 90 years old now, and still travels and lectures. She is still an inspiration.

Mrs. Cohn and her co-writer Wendy Holden present a very exciting and suspenseful history. They did a wonderful job describing the reactions of Mrs.Cohn's fellow French citizens (Jews and non-Jews) to the German/Vichey administration of France.

This enthralling book captivated my attention for hours on end. It gave an interesting insight, both witty and serious, into the world during Hitler. Not only did it focus on the Jews, but also on the Germans who were not Nazis. The depth of the story was incredible. I've had to reread it several times because of the effect it had on me. And my first word when I finished this book was "Wow". If I can, I'm going to encourage my city school system to add this book to the required reading for high school students.

A very moving real life story. Truly adventurous reading and extremely informing. Unlike other was stories this one more than others showed that with the right character and luck she was able to protect her family from the Germans as well as her self.

This enthralling book captivated my attention for hours on end. It gave an interesting insight, both witty and serious, into the world during Hitler. Not only did it focus on the Jews, but also on the Germans who were not Nazis. The depth of the story was incredible. I've had to reread it several times because of the effect it had on me. And my first word when I finished this book was "Wow". If I can, I'm going to encourage my city school system to add this book to the required reading for high school students.

A very moving real life story. Truly adventurous reading and extremely informing. Unlike other was stories this one more than others showed that with the right character and luck she was able to protect her family from the Germans as well as her self.

This is a fascinating account of the horrors of World War II as well as the acts of love and kindness by so many. I couldn't put the book down. Marthe Cohn is an inspiration to the world. Wendy Holden's writing makes difficult history read like a novel - a very, very good novel.

This is a wonderful story that amazes one about the bravery of individuals during WWII. Some of the story details put you in the place of the spy and give you a sense of how scared she must have been. I do a lot of WWII reading and cease to be amazed how Jews and other races were treated by the Nazi regime.