The Perfect Disciple

By: Ken Salo

Narrated by: Simon Maeder

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 Salo

A Powerful and Moving Story of Survival and Fear

This is the story of a young woman who met and fell in love with her soul mate the same day they were singled out to be the face of Hitler’s Youth program. Her hardships, her beliefs, her actions were all under scrutiny during this horrendous time where rape, murder, and death were everyday occurrences and that happened without a second thought. Kristel gives birth to a baby boy while fighting in a battle against the invading Russian army. Fortunately for Kristel, her grandmother taught her to survive during this time of horror, devastation and death. Her grandmother was smart, worldly and amazingly independent for her time and location. She taught Kristel a very valuable lesson which enabled her to survive – fake what you need to do in order to survive including supporting the beliefs and practices of the evil Führer.

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.