Marianne Cohn (17 September 1922, in

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's ...

– 8 July 1944, in

Haute-Savoie Haute-Savoie (; Arpitan: ''Savouè d'Amont'' or ''Hiôta-Savouè''; en, Upper Savoy) or '; it, Alta Savoia. is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France, bordering both Switzerland and Italy. Its prefecture is Ann ...

), was a German-born

French Resistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...

fighter.

Biography

Marianne Cohn was the eldest child of a family of German intellectuals of Jewish descent, but they did not practice

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in t ...

and had little connection to the Jewish community of

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. The family left Germany, eventually settling in France where Marianne's parents were deported to the

Gurs internment camp Gurs internment camp was an internment camp and prisoner of war camp constructed in 1939 in Gurs, a site in southwestern France, not far from Pau. The camp was originally set up by the French government after the fall of Catalonia at the e ...

, as German nationals. She and her sister were taken in by the Jewish Scouts organization, with the opportunity to rediscover their Jewish identity. In 1942 Marianne began to smuggle Jewish children out of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. Threatened with deportation, she was incarcerated at

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard dialect, Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agg ...

and released three months later. It was during this initial detention in 1943, she wrote her famous poem ''"Je trahirai demain"'' (I shall betray tomorrow): After her release she resumed her underground activities, supervising children before their departure for Switzerland. Later, in January 1944, she began working with Rolande Birgy (see French Wikipedia article), shuttling two or three groups, each with up to twenty children across the southern border, passing through

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...

s and Annecy. Birgy had been teamed with Mila Racine (see French Wikipedia article) before she was arrested on 21 October 1943. Cohn was arrested on 31 May 1944 near

Annemasse Annemasse (; Arpitan: ''Anemâsse'') is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Eastern France. Even though it covers a relatively small territory (4.98 km2 or 1.92 sq mi), it is Haute-Savoie's second ...

with a group of twenty-eight children, including Renee Bornstein and incarcerated at the Hotel Pax by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

. Despite the

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. definitions of tortur ...

, she did not speak. Her resistance unit formed a plan to free her, but she refused, fearing reprisals on children. On the night of 8 July 1944 the

based in

s sent a team to Annemasse to remove six prisoners, including Cohn, and killed them in a forest near Ville-la-Grand by hitting them with clubs or rifle butts.

Commemoration

On 7 November 1945, the French military government awarded Marianne Cohn posthumously with the war cross with silver star. There is a school in Annemasse, a school in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

and a street in Ville-la-Grand bearing her name.Schilde (2007), pp. 74-75

References

Bibliography

* Magali Renaud Ktorza, Marianne Cohn au service des enfants juifs, Éditions Ampelos, Paris, 2021, . * Bruno Doucey, Si tu parles, Marianne, éd. Élytis, 2014 * Magali Ktorza, "Marianne Cohn, ''I betray tomorrow, not today'', ''Revue d'histoire de la Shoah,''No. 161, September–December 1997, pp. 96–112 * François Marcot, Robert Laffont (eds.), "Marianne Cohn", in: Dictionnaire historique de la Résistance, 2006, pp. 392–393 * Croquet, Jean-Claude (1996)
Chemins de passage: les passages clandestins entre la Haute-Savoie et la Suisse de 1940 à 1944
xposition itinérante réalisée à Gaillard en 1995 Saint-Julien-Genevois: La Salevienne. pp. 71–80

External links

* Doreen Rappaport
"Beyond Courage"
jwmag.org; accessed 5 December 2016 {{DEFAULTSORT:Cohn, Marianne 1922 births 1944 deaths French Resistance members 20th-century German Jews Female resistance members of World War II People from Mannheim Resistance members killed by Nazi Germany German torture victims People from Baden-Württemberg executed by Nazi Germany People executed by blunt trauma Jews in the French resistance German emigrants to France