
The Perfect Disciple
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed

Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $19.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Simon Maeder
-
By:
-
Ken Salo
About this listen
Manipulation and cunning propaganda were Hitler’s most powerful weapons, dwarfing even the spear-headed blitzkrieg and the strategic rocket propelled V-2.
Germans worshiped the man that promised them a utopian society, lives filled with good health, education, and wealth; all this was a lie perpetrated and orchestrated to inflict self-sacrifice for a regime with the goal to dominate the world for a thousand years and to annihilate a human race. Kristel and Kommander Georg became the epitomes of the Hitler Youth program, yet they did not fall into the trap of the misleading nature of the Führer’s indoctrination.
This is a story that stretches characters beyond rebound, snapping them in half and out of existence: by intimidation, rape, torture, murder, and war.... That is almost all characters. It took a remarkable, free spirited, and independently minded grandmother, a woman of unbounding wit and sultry good looks, to teach an abandoned granddaughter how to survive in this world of horror; a job she took upon herself and one that she did extremely well, for to do so covertly required a keen mind that conversed with the most powerful men in Nazi Germany.
As Kristel’s shoulder was touched by the Führer deep within his bunker at the Reich Chancellery – she began to sweat beads of fear. She became comforted only by the sound of her grandmother’s voice, which reminded Kristel to fake her compliance in order to survive; this she does and for years after the war her haunting past memories continued to terrorize her. Her strength to endure one catastrophic event after another during the Second World War grew. Towards the end of her journey, Kristel feels an urgency to finally share her story, thinking how wrong she was to have struggled within the dimension of Nazism. She battled alone, at least so she thought.
This is a story of remarkable courage that was shown by thousands of young German mothers from a dark time in our world’s history, including mine.
©2019 Ken Salo (P)2020 Ken SaloListeners also enjoyed...
-
Dear Aunt Catherine
- By: Laurie Ann Pokin
- Narrated by: Rachel Music
- Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the mid-19th century, an impoverished orphan flees Ireland and travels alone to America in search of her only family; an estranged, rich uncle. However, when the handsome Master of her uncle's mansion takes a dark interest in the lonely orphan, she becomes trapped in a life of servitude and must again fight for her freedom. Will the orphan fulfill her dreams of a better life in a new country, or will America be worse than Ireland?
-
-
Masterful Storytelling! Outstanding Narration!
- By Shopping Sheri on 06-25-21
By: Laurie Ann Pokin
-
Draxinger
- The Draxinger Series, Book 1
- By: Noble Smith
- Narrated by: Elijah Alexander
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The charmingly eccentric Otto Draxinger appears to be your typical pipe-smoking Oxford professor, doing his best to preserve his sanity while his beloved former students are being slaughtered at the Western Front. But the American expatriate has diagnosed himself with the newly coined term “schizophrenia”. And he believes the nightmarish waking visions he’s been experiencing are caused by the psychological trauma of the catastrophe that is The Great War.
-
-
Unusual and good
- By Amy H on 01-20-23
By: Noble Smith
-
The Preternatural Chronicles: Books 0.5-3.5
- Preternatural Chronicles Boxsets, Volume 1
- By: Hunter Blain
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 39 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first three novels and the prequel novella in the Preternatural Chronicles: I'm Glad You're Dead, Dawn and Quartered, Shadow of a Doubt, and Deliverance.
-
-
ok, ummmmm
- By Anonymous User on 10-11-23
By: Hunter Blain
-
The Witch's Lens
- A Novel (The Order of the Seven Stars, Book 1)
- By: Luanne G. Smith
- Narrated by: Gail Shalan
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With her husband off fighting at World War I’s eastern front, Petra Kurková embraces her fleeting freedom, roaming the city at night with her camera. A born witch, she’s discovered that she can capture the souls of the dead on film. Her supernatural skills don’t go unnoticed by the enigmatic Josef Svoboda. He’s recruiting a team of sorcerers to infiltrate the front lines, where the bloodshed of combat has resurrected foul creatures. Petra’s unique abilities will be needed against the most dangerous enemies of all—those ever present, undead, and unseen.
-
-
Strangely unsatisfying 2.5 stars
- By Heather K on 10-15-23
By: Luanne G. Smith
-
The Last Green Valley
- A Novel
- By: Mark Sullivan
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 16 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In late March 1944, as Stalin’s forces push into Ukraine, young Emil and Adeline Martel must make a terrible decision: Do they wait for the Soviet bear’s intrusion and risk being sent to Siberia? Or do they reluctantly follow the wolves - murderous Nazi officers who have pledged to protect “pure-blood” Germans? The Martels are one of many families of German heritage whose ancestors have farmed in Ukraine for more than a century.
-
-
Too Religious
- By Laurie N. on 06-02-21
By: Mark Sullivan
-
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
- A Novel
- By: Ocean Vuong
- Narrated by: Ocean Vuong
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Poet Ocean Vuong’s debut novel is a shattering portrait of a family, a first love, and the redemptive power of storytelling. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late 20s, the letter unearths a family’s history that began before he was born - a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam - and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation.
-
-
Beautifully written, but painful.
- By NB on 06-10-19
By: Ocean Vuong
-
Dear Aunt Catherine
- By: Laurie Ann Pokin
- Narrated by: Rachel Music
- Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the mid-19th century, an impoverished orphan flees Ireland and travels alone to America in search of her only family; an estranged, rich uncle. However, when the handsome Master of her uncle's mansion takes a dark interest in the lonely orphan, she becomes trapped in a life of servitude and must again fight for her freedom. Will the orphan fulfill her dreams of a better life in a new country, or will America be worse than Ireland?
-
-
Masterful Storytelling! Outstanding Narration!
- By Shopping Sheri on 06-25-21
By: Laurie Ann Pokin
-
Draxinger
- The Draxinger Series, Book 1
- By: Noble Smith
- Narrated by: Elijah Alexander
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The charmingly eccentric Otto Draxinger appears to be your typical pipe-smoking Oxford professor, doing his best to preserve his sanity while his beloved former students are being slaughtered at the Western Front. But the American expatriate has diagnosed himself with the newly coined term “schizophrenia”. And he believes the nightmarish waking visions he’s been experiencing are caused by the psychological trauma of the catastrophe that is The Great War.
-
-
Unusual and good
- By Amy H on 01-20-23
By: Noble Smith
-
The Preternatural Chronicles: Books 0.5-3.5
- Preternatural Chronicles Boxsets, Volume 1
- By: Hunter Blain
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 39 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first three novels and the prequel novella in the Preternatural Chronicles: I'm Glad You're Dead, Dawn and Quartered, Shadow of a Doubt, and Deliverance.
-
-
ok, ummmmm
- By Anonymous User on 10-11-23
By: Hunter Blain
-
The Witch's Lens
- A Novel (The Order of the Seven Stars, Book 1)
- By: Luanne G. Smith
- Narrated by: Gail Shalan
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With her husband off fighting at World War I’s eastern front, Petra Kurková embraces her fleeting freedom, roaming the city at night with her camera. A born witch, she’s discovered that she can capture the souls of the dead on film. Her supernatural skills don’t go unnoticed by the enigmatic Josef Svoboda. He’s recruiting a team of sorcerers to infiltrate the front lines, where the bloodshed of combat has resurrected foul creatures. Petra’s unique abilities will be needed against the most dangerous enemies of all—those ever present, undead, and unseen.
-
-
Strangely unsatisfying 2.5 stars
- By Heather K on 10-15-23
By: Luanne G. Smith
-
The Last Green Valley
- A Novel
- By: Mark Sullivan
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 16 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In late March 1944, as Stalin’s forces push into Ukraine, young Emil and Adeline Martel must make a terrible decision: Do they wait for the Soviet bear’s intrusion and risk being sent to Siberia? Or do they reluctantly follow the wolves - murderous Nazi officers who have pledged to protect “pure-blood” Germans? The Martels are one of many families of German heritage whose ancestors have farmed in Ukraine for more than a century.
-
-
Too Religious
- By Laurie N. on 06-02-21
By: Mark Sullivan
-
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
- A Novel
- By: Ocean Vuong
- Narrated by: Ocean Vuong
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Poet Ocean Vuong’s debut novel is a shattering portrait of a family, a first love, and the redemptive power of storytelling. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late 20s, the letter unearths a family’s history that began before he was born - a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam - and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation.
-
-
Beautifully written, but painful.
- By NB on 06-10-19
By: Ocean Vuong
-
Of Another Time and Place
- By: Brad Schaeffer
- Narrated by: Angelo Di Loreto
- Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
While on a brief leave home from the deadly skies of World War II, a decorated German flying ace must decide between conscience and country when his courageous fiancé reveals her potentially deadly secret she's been keeping right under the nose of the SS. Rachael Azerod, a New York reporter, flies to London to interview Harmon Becker, the former German WW II hero whom Hitler himself awarded the highest honors - but she has her own reasons for meeting.
-
-
Really enjoyed this one!
- By S. Ford on 12-26-19
By: Brad Schaeffer
-
The Girls with No Names
- By: Serena Burdick
- Narrated by: Emily Lawrence, Nancy Peterson, Amy McFadden
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Growing up in New York City in the 1910s, Luella and Effie Tildon realize that even as wealthy young women, their freedoms come with limits. But when the sisters discover a shocking secret about their father, Luella, the brazen elder sister, becomes emboldened to do as she pleases. Her rebellion comes with consequences, and one morning Luella is mysteriously gone.
-
-
Excellent
- By Karl H. on 06-17-20
By: Serena Burdick
-
Weyward
- A Novel
- By: Emilia Hart
- Narrated by: Aysha Kala, Helen Keeley, Nell Barlow
- Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Weaving together the stories of three extraordinary women across five centuries, Emilia Hart's Weyward is an enthralling novel of female resilience and the transformative power of the natural world.
-
-
Awful, Problematic Story
- By Anonymous User on 04-23-23
By: Emilia Hart
-
On Either Side Part 2: Shadows of Karl Wulf
- By: Jon Halfhide
- Narrated by: Rebecca McKernan
- Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the sequel to the war story On Either Side, and you will need to have listened to the original to understand this one. The second book is set in the early 1970s and follows the exploits of Karl Wulf's son, Carl King, and his girlfriend, Zari Wulf, once married to his father. New characters are introduced as well as some old ones. Let's go hunting Nazi war criminals!
-
-
love and war story!
- By sadab on 07-17-20
By: Jon Halfhide
-
The Invisible Woman
- By: Erika Robuck
- Narrated by: Caroline Hewitt
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
France, March 1944. Virginia Hall wasn't like the other young society women back home in Baltimore - she never wanted the debutante ball or silk gloves. Instead, she traded a safe life for adventure in Europe, and when her beloved second home is thrust into the dark days of war, she leaps in headfirst. Once she's recruited as an Allied spy, subverting the Nazis becomes her calling. But even the most cunning agent can be bested, and in wartime trusting the wrong person can prove fatal.
-
-
A book that holds one's attention.
- By Dawn T. on 06-07-21
By: Erika Robuck
-
The Girl from the Mountains
- By: Chrystyna Lucyk-Berger
- Narrated by: Alison Campbell
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1938: Magda has led a sheltered life in her small village until the day she is forced from her home by the invading Nazi army. Torn away from her family and the only place she has ever known, she is offered refuge in an alpine villa owned by brilliant Dr, Tauber and his talented, beautiful wife. But despite having friends in high places, the Jewish Taubers are living on borrowed time. When the Gestapo come to arrest them, Magda is asked to protect something more precious than the silver and jewels they leave behind. Their newborn son Samuel.
-
-
thank you
- By BarbieAlaska on 04-08-21
-
The Elephant of Belfast
- A Novel
- By: S. Kirk Walsh
- Narrated by: Charlotte McCurry
- Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Belfast, October 1940. Twenty-year-old zookeeper Hettie Quin arrives at the city docks in time to meet her new charge: an orphaned three-year-old Indian elephant named Violet. As Violet adjusts to her new solitary life in captivity and Hettie mourns the recent loss of her sister and the abandonment of her father, new storm clouds gather. A world war rages, threatening a city already reeling from escalating tensions between British Loyalists and those fighting for a free and unified Ireland.
-
-
Interesting Story, Bad Reader Ruined It
- By Diana Vargo on 05-07-21
By: S. Kirk Walsh
-
Goodbye to Budapest
- A Novel of the Hungarian Uprising
- By: Margarita Morris
- Narrated by: Samantha Desz
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Budapest, 1952. When Katalin and her father, Márton, are woken by the ringing of the doorbell in the dead of night, it can mean only one thing. The Secret Police have come to arrest him on charges of subversion. But Katalin knows her father is innocent. In a communist society where ordinary people live in fear of the dreaded Secret Police, suspicion and betrayal are rife. While Márton endures the injustice of being wrongly accused, Katalin must find out who among her friends and acquaintances she can truly trust.
-
-
Interesting concept, quite unsophisticated writing
- By Close Listener on 03-28-21
By: Margarita Morris
-
Behold the Void
- By: Philip Fracassi
- Narrated by: David Stifel
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Behold the Void includes nine stories of terror that huddle in the dark space between cosmic horror and the modern weird, between old-school hard-edged horror of the 1980s and the stylistic prose of today's literary giants.
-
-
Philip Fracassi is not to be slept on...
- By writing.reader on 11-27-17
By: Philip Fracassi
-
The Long Flight Home
- By: Alan Hlad
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is September 1940 - a year into the war - and as German bombs fall on Britain, fears grow of an impending invasion. Enemy fighter planes blacken the sky around the Epping Forest home of Susan Shepherd and her grandfather, Bertie. After losing her parents to influenza as a child, Susan found comfort in raising homing pigeons with Bertie. All her birds are extraordinary to Susan - loyal, intelligent, beautiful - but none more so than Duchess, who shares a special bond with Susan and an unusual curiosity about the human world.
-
-
A Very pleasant surprise!
- By Norman Johnson on 07-06-19
By: Alan Hlad
-
The Girls in the Attic
- By: Marius Gabriel
- Narrated by: Mary Jane Wells
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Max Wolff is a committed soldier of the Reich. So when he is sent home wounded, only to discover that his mother is sheltering two young Jewish women in their home, he is outraged. His mother’s act of mercy is a gross betrayal of everything Max stands for. He has dedicated his life to Nazism, fighting to atone for the shame of his anti-Hitler father’s imprisonment. It’s his duty to turn the sisters over to the Gestapo. But he hesitates, and the longer Max fails to do his duty, the harder it becomes.
-
-
impact of The War in Germany on Germans
- By Florida girl on 11-02-21
By: Marius Gabriel
-
The Italian Girl's Secret
- By: Natalie Meg Evans
- Narrated by: Amalia Vitale
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Italy, 1943. For Carmela del Bosco, a farm girl in a remote Italian village, sheltering an English spy is the most dangerous thing she could do. If she’s caught by the fascists, it would be the end, especially for her beloved grandmother sleeping soundly upstairs. But taking in the pleading brown eyes of the man calling himself Sebastiano slumped at her door, and his terrible injuries inflicted by the Nazi occupiers, Carmela remembers how Nonna always taught her right from wrong. Risking everything, she hides him in a ruined tower on the edge of the farm.
-
-
Exciting and Lovely!
- By Cyn ND on 02-12-25
Listener received this title free
On her death bed, Kristel struggles to tell her life history to her son which is a telling story of strength, passion, and perseverance. During Hitler’s reign and immediately after, she struggled through unspeakable fears and incidents that would have crippled most mentally, emotionally and physically. All those years, she believed she was alone. She was never alone but like her, there were many who suffered in silent fear, pretending, protecting and surviving no matter what happened.
This was a difficult story to hear and one I imagine was just as difficult to write. The horrors that happened in this story are realistic and detailed. The emotions are raw, filled with experiences that are ghastly and haunting. It is amazingly well written, vivid and lays bare emotions that many choose to hide or ignore but not true for Ken Salo, the author of this book. He lays bare the authentic and honest emotions during this abhorrent time in which reprehensible characters (Hitler, Himmler, Goebbel, power hungry German and Russian soldiers, etc.), take center stage forcing all people to participate in one form or another. Written as a personal narrative, this story will not become a distant memory, rather it is one that will stay with you for days and perhaps weeks.
Why listen to this story? Simple. This is a story of survival and one that shows there are different sides to everything. What we may have believed and was taught was passion and support for Hitler, for many may very well have been fear and survival mode. This book gives another side to a horrible and heinous time that is all too authentic and honest.
This is a well written and powerful book that not only explains and displays wide ranging emotions but encourages the listener to experience it as well. I look forward to hearing more books written by Ken Salo.
The narrator, Simon Maeder performed the book excellently. He was succinct and handled the voices well. He allowed just enough tension and fear in his voice to make it captivating. His voice was pleasant to hear. For a book that was only 6 hours long, you hear a lifetime of pain, love, and fear performed by Maeder’s rich voice.
There were no issues with the production or quality of this audiobook, it was very well done.
Disclaimer: This Audiobook was provided free of charge by the author, narrator, and/or publisher in exchange for a non-bias, honest review.
A Powerful and Moving Story of Survival and Fear
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.