A Spy at the Heart of the Third Reich
The Extraordinary Story of Fritz Kolbe, America's Most Important Spy in World War II
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4.1 • 13 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
The fascinating true story of a German bureaucrat who worked secretly with the Allies during World War II.
In 1943 a young official from the German foreign ministry contacted Allen Dulles, an OSS officer in Switzerland who would later head the Central Intelligence Agency. That man was Fritz Kolbe, who had decided to betray his country after years of opposing Nazism. While Dulles was skeptical, Kolbe's information was such that he eventually admitted, "No single diplomat abroad, of whatever rank, could have got his hands on so much information as did this man; he was one of my most valuable agents during World War II." Using recently declassified materials at the US National Archives and Kolbe's personal papers, Lucas Delattre has produced a "disturbing and riveting biography" that moves with the swift pace of a Le Carré thriller (Booklist).
"A richly detailed and well-crafted account of one of America's most valuable German spies." —Library Journal
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This modest but useful book is the first full-scale biography of Kolbe, one of the major Allied agents in Nazi Germany. A junior official at Hitler's Foreign Ministry, he had access to thousands of messages conveying valuable information about German weapons, tactics, plans and morale. As a diplomatic courier to the German embassy in Switzerland, he was able to travel freely, and regularly deliver his material to Allen Dulles, head of the OSS office in Switzerland. Dulles had to fight the opposition of the British to American espionage efforts and the skepticism of his own superiors, but eventually saw to it that Kolbe's material was put to use. Delattre paints a vivid portrait of Kolbe, a romantic and a stubborn fitness buff, who seems to have become an agent simply because he was a decent man confronting indecency. A longtime German correspondent for Le Monde, Delattre has supplemented his firsthand experience with extensive research and is terrific on conditions in Germany during the war. Kolbe survived the war but did not prosper in the peace, when he was regarded as a traitor in Germany.
Customer Reviews
Remarkable
Strongly recommended; a well documented history of one of the best German spy during WWII.