A Spy at the Heart of the Third Reich

De: Lucas Delattre

Narrado por: Michael Prichard

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.

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Smoothly chronicles the impressive wartime activities, and woeful postwar treatment, of a German foreign ministry official." (Kirkus Reviews)

100% very good

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.

Interesting, most of all because it's true.

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.

Great Story

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!

Epic story

Recommended to any history particularly WWII buffs. Fascinating.
Throws a light on the internal tensions in NAZI Germany.

Amazing true spy intrigue.

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.