98-year-old woman recounts career as a spy behind enemy lines in Germany

Marthe Cohn was a tiny, blond, blue-eyed, 24-year-old from Metzwho had joinedthe French armyjust three weeks earlier, in 1944, to work as a social worker and nurse.

Her sister had been sent to Auschwitz. The rest of her family had fled to the south of France. Cohnwanted to fight back against the Germans any way she could.

That was the plan, anyway, until Cohnmet the regiment's colonel, who asked her to work for him ashis office assistant.

"He asked me to answer his phone," she said.

Once he'd given Cohna tour of the office, he had to leave and apologized for leaving her with nothing to do because, he explained, his office contained only German books.

"And I answered, I read Germanfluently," Cohn said, in an interview with CBC's Terri Trembath.

The information piqued the colonel's curiosity. Did she also speak German?

"I told him yesas well as [I spoke] French," she said.

That's when the colonelexplained how in Germanyall males over the age of 12 wore military dress, so that any man dressed in civilian clothes would immediately be detained and arrested.

As a result, the Allies were desperately seeking women to drop behind enemy linesin order to blend in with the populationand provide intelligence for the war effort.

"He asked me if I would accept being transferred to the intelligence service and I accepted.That's how I became a spy," Cohn said.

Relaying information

Cohnwas in town to speak about her wartime spy experiences on behalf of Chabad Lubavitchof Alberta on Tuesday night at the Jack Singer Concert Hall as well as to be white-hatted by Mayor Naheed Nenshi.

Adopting the identityof a German nurse searching for her lost soldier husband, Cohn travelled throughout Germany, speaking to both German soldiers and civilians.

"My mission was a dual mission. I got military information but also information [about]how German civilians were reacting to war and behaving, becausethat was very important for Allied armies who were going to occupy Germany," she said.

It was a harrowing existence, where her life was on the line pretty much every day but Cohnmanaged to talk her way out of trouble every time it found her.

That included a German womanwho asked her if she was a spy. Cohn got out of it by making a joke out of the question, and the woman became her friend.

"We became great friends. She saved my life," Cohn said.

In 2002, Cohn published a memoir,Behind Enemy Lines: The True Story of a French Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany.

Shereceived theCroix de Guerre and Mdaille Militaire, and,at age 80, was awarded France's highest military honor, the Chevalier de la Lgion d'honneur (Legion of Honour).

'Exactly like in the '30s'

Now, on the cusp of turning 99, Cohn, who lives in California,looks around and sees disturbing similarities to the way language was manipulated in the 1930s.

"It's a very dangerous time right now. It's exactly like in the '30s. Becauseour president and I don't mind saying that follows exactly what [Nazi propaganda chief Joseph]Goebbels did for propaganda.

"Do you know [the idea of] fake news came from Goebbels?" she said. "[President Donald Trump]didn't invent it.

"Constant lies [get] repeated, because if you repeat them often enough, people will believe them."

She continues to do public appearances internationally, even as she closes in on the centurymark, to share a message the world needs to hear, she said.

"I have done it all these years so that people remember," she said.

"Not just for the Jews I mean for all kinds of people."

Rabbi MenachemMatusof, executive director ofChabadLubavtich ofAlberta, said Cohn's message is proof that one person can make a big difference.

"To have a lady who was in her 20s and sacrificed her life to be a spy in Nazi Germany in World War II, to stand up for the rights of freedom andher own people and a better world, is a tremendous, positive message," he said.