Marthe Cohn did not continue with intelligence work after World War 2 [Annotator's Note: Cohn was a spy in the 151st Infantry Regiment, First French Army starting in November 1944]. She was with the military government of Lindau in Bavaria [Annotator's Note: Lindau, Bavaria, Germany] until January 1946. She left Germany and joined the medical service for Vietnam [Annotator's Note: then called French Indochina, which included present day Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia]. She had had enough of the intelligence game. At the end of the war, the Colonel who directed her was extremely nice and treated her well. Bavarians from Lindau could only travel with her authorization, which was her official work. During her unofficial work in the intelligence service for the Army, she selected people she thought could help them. The work was to travel in other sectors. Everything was in four sectors; American, English, French, and Russian. Intelligence never stops. The French police came and arrested her secretary who had been spying on her for the American Army. We all know that most of the people in embassies around the world are spies. The Colonel was replaced by an atrocious guy who gave her a lot of problems. He hated her because he did not know what she was doing. One day, a German from Bavaria came and tried to bribe her. She would not be bribed. She had the German arrested and she was told to explain why. They became insulting and nasty to her. It drove her crazy. The atmosphere was atrocious, so she decided to leave. She did not want to be a mercenary. She went back to her profession and went to Vietnam [Annotator's Note: in January 1946]. Her fiancée was born and raised in Vietnam. [Annotator's Note: Cohn keeps talking while something is going on in the background. The lights are then adjusted on her.] Her fiancée [Annotator's Note: Jacques Delauney] wanted to go back but now he was dead [Annotator's Note: he was executed with his brother at Fort Mont-Valérien, Suresnes, Paris, France on 6 October 1943], so she went alone.

Marthe Cohn arrived in Vietnam [Annotator's Note: then French Indochina which included Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia] by ship [Annotator's Note: in 1946]. She was seasick the whole time. She was on the ship for 45 days. They took troops everywhere they stopped. They arrived in Saigon [Annotator's Note: Saigon, Vietnam; now Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam]. They were there several days before being assigned. She was sent to Cambodia to a military hospital [Annotator's Note: Calmette Hospital, Phnom Penh, Cambodia]. There were only two registered nurses and two aides. They all lived together in a villa. Cohn was chief of the Cambodia troops' service. Every house in Vietnam has a huge open, covered area that the families were on night and day. They cooked for the patients who were their family. There was an eight year old in the bed with a man with syphilis. The Japanese Army [Annotator's Note: Imperial Japanese Army] was still there when she arrived. They had surrendered. Their snipers had not though and shot at them everywhere. The patients were sick, and some were wounded soldiers. They were still under the command of the First French Army. The people did not care that she was French because she took care of them. The Vietnamese hate the Cambodians and vice versa. She had a Vietnamese patient who had to be carried every morning to get his badges changed. One of the Cambodian nurses flipped him out of his stretcher. Cohn slapped the nurse and she got in big trouble. She was told not to judge their customs. There were separate sections within the hospital for the French and the Cambodians. She was not sent home. On 2 January 1947, Ho Chi Minh [Annotator's Note: Ho Chi Minh, born Nguyen Sinh Cung; Vietnamese revolutionary and politician] started the war, so Cohn was sent to Da Nang [Annotator's Note: Da Nang, Vietnam], which at that time was called Tourane [Annotator's Note: Tourane, French Indochina]. She was there for three months [Annotator's Note: until December 1948].

Marthe Cohn and her whole group went to Quang Tri [Annotator's Note: Quang Tri Province, Vietnam; then French Indochina which included Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia] in the DMZ [Annotator's Note: Demilitarized Zone] where the fighting was taking place. She was the Chief of a small hospital. They had wounded coming in constantly, both French and Vietnamese. She was there for one year. About three months in, she met an officer with a little boy from France [Annotator's Note: unable to identify him]. His mother could not take care of him. The father became very ill, and he asked her to take care of the little boy who was living with a Vietnamese woman. The father was transferred to a big city hospital with a contagious disease. He died one week later. He never signed the papers, but the Army accepted the situation. Cohn kept the child and the Army let her adopt him. The grandmother demanded the kid be returned to her. Cohn had no choice but to give him up and he went back to France. She went to see him in Brittany [Annotator's Note: Brittany, France] and the grandmother told her she had no right to be in his life. After she was married and in the United States [Annotator's Note: she moved in 1956], she got a letter from her sister who had papers from the boy who was now 18. Cohn could not get in touch with him because it had been too traumatic for her. When her book was published [Annotator's Note: "Behind Enemy Lines: The True Story of a French Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany", published in 2002], her editor did not believe the story and researched it. She found the boy in Calais [Annotator's Note: Calais, France]. He was eight years old when he saw her for the last time. He had never forgotten her. Her children have accepted him completely now.

Marthe Cohn was the chief of a hospital at the DMZ [Annotator's Note: the Demilitarized Zone, Vietnam; then French Indochina which included Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia]. They worked constantly. Being in a war zone was a normal life for her. Indochina was important to her because of Jack [Annotator's Note: her former fiancée Jacques Delauney who was executed by the Nazis on 6 October 1943] and her country. Like all colonists they had done bad things, but they had done good things too. There were all military guys who worked at the hospital. She noticed they had a lot of infections [Annotator's Note: at the hospital] and found out they were not sterilizing the instruments properly. She told them if they did not like being under the supervision of a woman, then they had to go back to school and become a registered nurse. She had no more problems. She was there for about a year. The Army did not want her to stay in Quang Tri [Annotator's Note: Quang Tri Province, Vietnam] because of the child [Annotator's Note: she had taken in an orphaned French boy]. They were afraid the Viet Cong [Annotator's Note: actually, the Viet Minh which was the organization that led the struggle for Vietnamese independence from French rule] would kidnap the boy. She was sent with him to Da Lat [Annotator's Note: Da Lat, Vietnam] in the mountains. There was no war in the region. The boy left there to go home. Cohn was unhappy but continued working. When her time finished, she went home [Annotator's Note: in December 1948]. She went to see the temples in Angkor in Cambodia [Annotator's Note: Angkor Wat, Krong Siem Reap, Cambodia]. Her time in the French Army was finished. Her mother begged her not to enlist again. Vietnam is a gorgeous country, and the people are interesting and nice. She went back in 2010 with her husband for two months and traveled all over Cambodia and Vietnam. It is amazing that these people who have suffered so much for so long; first by the Chinese for centuries, then the French, and then the Americans who destroyed the country. Agent Orange [Annotator's Note: a chemical defoliant used by the United States during the Vietnam War, or Second Indochina War, 1 November 1955 to 30 April 1975] destroyed the gorgeous, huge trees. They do not resent either the French or the Americans. It is amazing. They are extremely nice people.

[Annotator's Note: The interviewer tells Marthe Cohn that she is going to switch to asking the American Spirit Award questions. The American Spirit Awards is an awards gala celebrating individuals and organizations whose work reflects the values and spirit of those who served America during the World War 2 years, awarded annually by The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana.] Marthe Cohn was born in 1920 in Metz, Lorraine, France. She was raised in Metz until 1939 in a Jewish Orthodox family that was very religious. She got the best education possible. Her parents gave her and her siblings the best they could. In 1939, the prefecture asked that the families who could afford it should leave Metz and go to a city far away from the German border. They left. Her brothers were both in the French Army. Her grandfather was a rabbi in Metz and died several months before the war. Her sisters, her, and a little German boy left for Poitiers [Annotator's Note: Poitiers, France] by train. They lived there until August 1942. They had to escape then to unoccupied France because one sister [Annotator's Note: Stephanie] was arrested [Annotator's Note: on 17 June 1942]. They were extremely naive and did not understand that women, old men, and children could be in trouble. One sister lived in Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France] during the whole occupation. She had told the police she had lost her identity card, so they gave another false one. In 1943, Cohn graduated from nursing school in Marseilles [Annotator's Note: Marseilles, France] and went to live with her sister in Paris. The other sister was deported, and they never knew what happened to her. On 6 October 1943, her fiancée [Annotator's Note: Jacques Delauney] and his brother were executed in Paris [Annotator's Note: at Fort Mont-Valérien, Suresnes, Paris, France]. In Paris, she worked for an agency. She could not work for a hospital because they would have asked too many questions. As a Jew she had no right to work. Thousands of Jews starved to death all over Europe.

Marthe Cohn was able to make a living until she joined the Army [Annotator's Note: First French Army in November 1944]. When Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France] was liberated, she joined. She had forged paperwork. The whole family did and that is how they survived the whole war. When she presented her identity to join the Army, the woman said it was forged and asked for her birth certificate. Paris had been liberated in August 1944, but Metz [Annotator's Note: Metz, Lorraine, France], her hometown, was not liberated until November 1944. She had to prove that she had not collaborated with the German Army. She was accepted after Poitiers [Annotator's Note: Poitiers, France] was liberated and she went to see the mother of her fiancée [Annotator's Note: Jacques Delauney, who was executed with his brother at Fort Mont-Valérien, Suresnes, Paris, France on 6 October 1943]. Cohn took the mother to live with her sister in Paris. She met the Army who asked her what they could do to help her. She asked them to help her join the Army. In a few days, she was in the 151 Regiment [Annotator's Note: 151st Infantry Regiment] of the First French Army. She met the Army in Alsace [Annotator's Note: Alsace, France]. The captain of intelligence debriefed her and asked her what she had done in the resistance. She told him about the people she helped. She was four eleven and very thin. They did not accept her and told her she was not fit to be in the Army. She said she was going to stay. She said she was a nurse, but he said he did not need nurses and she was going to be a social worker. She had no training but had no choice. She decided to visit the troops at the front. She entered the foxholes, and they were surprised. They asked her to bring underwear, hats, socks, scarves, and more. The villagers were very generous. [Annotator's Note: Cohn asks the interviewer if she wants her to tell the whole story.]

[Annotator's Note: The interviewer says she wants to ask Marthe Cohn some specific questions about the American Spirit Awards. The American Spirit Awards is an awards gala celebrating individuals and organizations whose work reflects the values and spirit of those who served America during the World War 2 years, awarded annually by The National WWII Museum, New Orleans, Louisiana. She starts with asking what the phrase "American spirit" means to Cohn.] It is very mixed. She had extremely good experiences in the beginning. When she arrived in the United States [Annotator's Note: in 1956], she stayed with friends in New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] far from the center. She had to go to the American Red Cross [Annotator's Note: the Red Cross is an international aid organization] which required taking the subway from Queens [Annotator's Note: Queens is one of the five boroughs in New York, New York] to Manhattan [Annotator's Note: Manhattan is one of the five boroughs in New York, New York]. She needed to work for six months before she could go to school. She did not understand English. She got a job in Newark, New Jersey in a hospital before school. She arrived in June 1956 and worked until December [Annotator's Note: December 1956]. She worked in the hospital without speaking English. She took a bus in Manhattan to visit a cousin. She did not know how to count American money. The driver got mad at her. [Annotator's Note: Cohn is confused and thinking she is being asked to describe her American experiences.] A woman came forward and helped her. She was very surprised by the way the women dressed. No woman in France would dress that way. They were dancing in swimsuits at the beach, both men and women. She was very surprised. [Annotator's Note: Someone off camera adjusts her clothing and then they try to explain what they mean by spirit.] This dancing is the attitude of Americans that are much freer. Cohn is extremely honored to get the American Spirit Award, but she cannot accept it. She has to go to the graduation for her grandchild. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer explains that these questions are for the next year and asks what it will mean to her then.] Cohn is very honored. She never expected an American institution would recognize her. She also finds it very funny too. It is amazing. She reads an enormous amount and perfectly understands the importance of the museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana] and its role in preserving the World War 2 story. If you do not know your past, you will not be able to prepare for the future. The lesson [Annotator's Note: of the war] that we should be using today is to defend the right cause. We are not defending the right causes today. [Annotator's Note: The interviewers discuss questions to ask among themselves.] The Allies of the Americans were mostly the British because the other countries were occupied by the Germans and could not do much. Without the Americans, they would never have survived. The Russians also helped with that survival, but it was mostly the Americans who saved them. [Annotator's Note: An interviewer asks again for her to define the spirit of America.] They were ready to fight for other people and that is amazing. They [Annotator's Note: the French people] visit their graves in France. She was at a talk in Metz's [Annotator's Note: Metz, France] City Hall when the mayor went to a big window and pointed out, telling the whole assembly to never forget the Americans lying there who died to save them. She is very honored to receive the award and is touched to be honored by an Army she did not belong to.