By 1997, which is when Günter Blaurock, the German consul general in Lyon presented Mańkowska with the Order of Merit (Bundesverdienstkreuz Erster Klasse) on behalf of President Herzog, in respect of her wartime exploits, the ceremony took place in the presence of the Polish ambassador and Prince Bismarck at Mańkowska's home, the Château de Sermoise, near Nevers. (The Mańkowski's daughter married a French aristocrat in 1970.) Her story had become better known to younger generations as a result of the publication of her autobiographical work Espionne malgré moi, prefaced by Michel Poniatowski, in May 1994 (published the next year in German as Odyssee einer Agentin). The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, in a book review, described her life story as "too fantastic for a novel". The work wasn't published in her native Poland until January 2003. There is no English version.
