A Spy at the Heart of the Third Reich Audiobook By Lucas Delattre cover art

A Spy at the Heart of the Third Reich

 Preview
Get this deal Try for $0.00
Offer ends January 21, 2026 11:59pm PT
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just $0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible Premium Plus.
1 audiobook per month of your choice from our unparalleled catalog.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

A Spy at the Heart of the Third Reich

By: Lucas Delattre
Narrated by: Michael Prichard
Get this deal Try for $0.00

$14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime. Offer ends January 21, 2026 11:59pm PT.

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $20.56

Buy for $20.56

LIMITED TIME OFFER | Get 3 months for $0.99 a month

$14.95/mo thereafter-terms apply.
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.

©2003 Editions Denoel (P)2005 Tantor Media, Inc. Military Wars & Conflicts World World War II War Imperialism

Critic reviews

"Smoothly chronicles the impressive wartime activities, and woeful postwar treatment, of a German foreign ministry official." (Kirkus Reviews)
All stars
Most relevant
I liked everything about this book: The topic, the prose, the reader. One more instance of a hero coming from the least expected place, and how unfairly things can turn out for those who don't deserve it.

100% very good

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is not really a novel, but rather a true story told in a documentary, third person form. Some may think it's a bit dry, and the narrartor tells the story kinda like a documentary voice over. Still, if you can visualize the scenes and the characters, it is quite engaging. While you'll want to pay attention - to fight the tendency to doze off due to the monotonous narration - you can't help but come away with a sharper insight as to the horror of the Third Reich, the terror the German people endured from the bombing and their own leadership, and the unfair way in which life can turn. Also, Fritz is not an especially likeable fellow as told here. If you enjoy WW II stories, you'll probably like this.

Interesting, most of all because it's true.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great story of real conviction for doing the right thing no matter the circumstances. The nightmare of that Germany and the results of that hate should have caused thousands of other Germans to do the same thing. Mr. Wood did a great thing!

Great Story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Recommended to any history particularly WWII buffs. Fascinating.
Throws a light on the internal tensions in NAZI Germany.

Epic story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This amazing true wartime spy story not only rivets you to the next piece of information. It also wraps up in the end how long after the war it is taking Germany to come to terms, in a healthy way, with it's NAZI past.

Amazing true spy intrigue.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews