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A Spy at the Heart of the Third Reich: The Extraordinary Life of Fritz Kolbe, America's Most Important Spy in World War II Audiobook
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(3.00) - 47 listener ratings
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A work of remarkable scholarship that moves with the swift pace of a John le Carre thriller, A Spy at the Heart of the Third Reich is a chilling addition to the literature of espionage. In 1943, a young official named Fritz Kolbe from the German foreign ministry arranged to meet with Allen Dulles, then an OSS officer in Switzerland and later the director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Kolbe had decided to betray his country. Over the next two years, Kolbe passed on countless valuable documents about German war efforts by tying the pages to his thigh and praying to avoid customs searches. He described the location of munitions factories and relayed diplomatic reports on Germany's intelligence operations and relations with other Axis nations like Romania and nominally neutral countries like Spain.
Viewed by many Germans as a traitor, he was erased from the history books and, after Hitler's fall, his diplomatic career came to an end. Drawing on recently declassified materials at the National Archives in Washington and Kolbe's personal archives, Lucas Delattre has written an extraordinary tale of an ordinary man who knew the most valuable service he could provide his country was to betray it.
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"A truly fascinating tale told in satisfying detail about an aspect of World War II kept classified for fifty years. "
— Thomas (5 out of 5 stars)
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“The first full-scale biography of Kolbe, one of the major Allied agents in Nazi Germany…Delattre has supplemented his firsthand experience with extensive research and is terrific on conditions in Germany during the war.”
— Publishers Weekly -
“Tales of espionage have always proven enthralling, and while there are numerous accounts of American, Soviet, and British spies during World War II, documentation of German spies is rarer…Thanks to the risks that Kolbe took, the Allies learned a great deal.”
— Library Journal
A Spy at the Heart of the Third Reich Listener Reviews
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" well... I tried to read it... I got a little bored. "
— Laura, 2/21/2013 -
" An amazing story about the difference one person can make! "
— Sydnee, 9/28/2012 -
" Unfamiliar World War II story of a minor German official who passed extensive information to the Allies. Many historians routinely dismiss such sources as marginally helpful to the war effort, hence this viewpoint is an interesting alternate view. "
— David, 12/7/2011 -
" A truly fascinating tale told in satisfying detail about an aspect of World War II kept classified for fifty years. "
— Thomas, 5/19/2010 -
" Thought this was a novel. It was not. It was like reading a history book. It is interesting how many Germans actually were against the Nazi's and worked to thwart Hitler. This was just a little TOO dry for me. "
— Nancy, 6/27/2009 -
" An amazing story about the difference one person can make! "
— Sydnee, 1/25/2008 -
" well... I tried to read it... I got a little bored. "
— Laura, 8/14/2007
About Lucas Delattre
Lucas Delattre is Head of Communication at Institut Français de la Mode, and is a graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieure. He worked as a foreign correspondent and journalist in Germany and then on the foreign desk at Le Monde in Paris. He is the author of A Spy at the Heart of the Third Reich.
About Michael Prichard
Michael Prichard is a Los Angeles-based actor who has played several thousand characters during his career, over one hundred of them in theater and film. He is primarily heard as an audiobook narrator, having recorded well over five hundred full-length books. His numerous awards and accolades include an Audie Award for Tears in the Darkness by Michael Norman and Elizabeth M. Norman and six AudioFile Earphones Awards. He was named a Top Ten Golden Voice by SmartMoney magazine. He holds an MFA in theater from the University of Southern California.