An Article Of Faith: Mormonism, Fascism, and the Third Reich
20 episodes
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Creator: Justin Rich
Solo Historical Serial Audio Book
Synopsis:
A Mormon bureaucrat. A Nazi regime. A choice between conscience and compliance. An Article of Faith is a serialized historical fiction audiobook about the quiet descent of religious institutions into authoritarian complicity. Set in 1938 Germany, it follows one man’s moral reckoning inside a church that chose survival over truth. For listeners who believe faith should never be a tool of fascism.
Language: English
Format: Audio Book
Continuity: Serial
Writing: Scripted
Voices: Solo
Narrator: Third Person
Genres: Historical
Soundscape: Voices only
Completion status: Finished
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Episodes:
Mon, 19 May 2025 02:53:44 GMT
In our series finale, we return to Hamburg forty years later through the eyes of David Cohen, now a 65-year-old American attorney who built a life defending the voiceless. As he walks the rebuilt streets of his childhood home, attending a Holocaust memorial dedication, the ghosts of the past emerge from behind modern facades.
When an unexpected face from the past appears at the ceremony, David confronts unresolved questions about loyalty, institutional failure, and the true meaning of faith. Through intimate conversations and haunting memories, we learn what became of the resistance network members and those whose lives intertwined with David's during those dark days. Witness how memory becomes both burden and blessing, and how true friendship leaves an indelible mark that transcends time, distance, and even the darkest chapters of human history.
Chapter 17: The Price of Light
Mon, 19 May 2025 02:48:20 GMT
In the rain-soaked darkness of Hamburg, Friedrich's resistance work reaches its most dangerous moment as he attempts to help the Cohen family escape across the border. With SS Officer Krause closing in, Friedrich faces a moment of profound decision that will test not only his courage but the very foundations of his faith and identity.
When plans unravel and pursuit becomes inevitable, Friedrich must make split-second choices that reveal the true measure of sacrifice. As dawn breaks over the city he once called home, Friedrich confronts both physical imprisonment and spiritual reckoning. What price is one willing to pay for defending what's right? In this powerful episode, we witness how moral courage stands firm even as institutional authorities falter, and how true freedom sometimes comes through letting go of everything one once held sacred.
Chapter 16: The Cost of Compassion
Mon, 19 May 2025 02:42:46 GMT
In the shadows of bureaucracy, Friedrich continues his dangerous game of deception, transforming official documents with careful strokes that could mean life or death. But when authorities begin to notice discrepancies in his work, Friedrich's precarious position at Bieber-Haus comes under threat, forcing him to make difficult choices under mounting pressure.
As Friedrich navigates the aftermath of this pivotal confrontation, a chance encounter reveals unexpected complexities in the resistance movement. In a fog-shrouded hotel room near the harbor, Friedrich must confront not just external dangers but internal judgments about what truly constitutes righteousness in a broken world. What matters more—personal perfection or practical compassion? This episode explores the blurred lines between sin and salvation, and how mercy sometimes comes from the most unexpected sources.
Mon, 19 May 2025 02:39:52 GMT
In this tense episode, Friedrich faces a dangerous confrontation that puts everything at risk. With the authorities closing in on David's location, Friedrich makes a desperate appeal for help through official Mormon Church channels through Thomas Clark. As danger mounts for everyone involved, Friedrich must confront the painful gap between institutional values and moral action.
Join us for a powerful exploration of faith tested to its breaking point, as Friedrich grapples with impossible choices in a world where both church and state are failing those who need protection. What happens when the institutions meant to provide sanctuary become complicit in suffering? This episode delves into the heart of what it truly means to live one's beliefs when facing systemic injustice, and the courage required to stand alone when abandoned by those in power.
Chapter 14: Night of Broken Glass
Sat, 17 May 2025 16:05:20 GMT
The peaceful evening at Café Mozart shatters when Friedrich, David, and Greta witness the first acts of Kristallnacht erupting through Hamburg's Jewish quarter. What they observe isn't random violence but a methodical destruction carried out by familiar faces—including members of their own Mormon congregation. When David spots smoke rising from his father's beloved bookshop, our trio plunges into the chaos despite Friedrich's warnings.
Inside the burning bookshop, a moment of violent confrontation with a Nazi attacker changes everything, while SS Officer Erich Krause's pursuit turns their escape into a desperate race through burning streets. As they flee with David's father through a city consuming itself, they must navigate not just physical danger but the moral collapse of a society they once trusted. The night culminates in Emma Weber's hidden cellar, where family bonds long fractured by religious differences begin to heal in the face of shared survival.
Don't miss this pivotal episode that forces our characters to confront the true nature of institutional betrayal and marks their point of no return—transforming them from cautious helpers into determined resistors against a machinery of hate that has revealed itself in all its terrifying precision.
Sat, 17 May 2025 15:55:54 GMT
In this pivotal time jump to late October, "Brief Light " reveals how our unlikely heroes have transformed their quiet resistance into a well-oiled machine. Friedrich's bureaucratic skills, once used to maintain order, now disrupt the very system he serves—each falsified document becoming an act of rebellion hidden behind official stamps and signatures.
The episode showcases their growing success as families disappear not to train stations but to sanctuary across borders, with the team's operations becoming more efficient with each passing week. What began as desperate improvisation has evolved into methodical precision: Friedrich identifying those at risk, David leveraging reconnected Jewish networks, Greta concealing messages in sheet music, and Max's modified car carrying precious human cargo to freedom.
We witness the bittersweet victory of reuniting estranged siblings over coffee in a back room, a moment of connection that reminds us what they're fighting for. The celebration of the Fischer children's successful escape highlights how far they've come—from saving individual friends to orchestrating multiple rescues in mere days.
Yet beneath this newfound confidence lurks an ominous shadow. As autumn paints Hamburg's trees in gold and crimson, new processing centers rise on the horizon, threatening to end the small mercies that have allowed their work to continue. When boots on cobblestones and breaking glass interrupt their moment of peace, we're reminded that the machinery of destruction is evolving too—and time may be running out.
Don't miss this tense installment where every forged signature represents another life potentially saved, while the sound of shattering glass signals that their fragile network of hope stands on the precipice of something far more terrifying.
Sat, 17 May 2025 15:52:33 GMT
In the shadow of Hamburg's ancient streets, a desperate plan unfolds. David Cohen, once rejected by his Jewish community after his conversion to Mormonism, now stands at their doorway offering salvation.
When little Sarah Kaufmann places her treasured teddy bear in David's hands, she unknowingly entrusts him with more than just a child's toy. Theodore, as the bear is called, carries secrets that could mean life or death for an entire family.
As David and Friedrich guide the Kaufmanns toward what they hope is freedom, old wounds begin to heal in the darkness of a train compartment. But when German border guards take interest in Sarah's beloved bear, a moment of heart-stopping tension threatens to unravel everything.
With memories and precious heirlooms exchanged under cover of night, can David prove his worth to those who once mourned him as dead? And will Max's ingenious German engineering and precise planning be enough to deliver them all safely across the border?
Join us for a tense journey through Nazi Germany where faith, identity, and courage are tested against the machinery of hatred - and where the spaces between words might hold the key to survival.
Chapter 11: Harmonies of Resistance
Sat, 17 May 2025 15:48:40 GMT
In the hallowed halls of Hamburg's conservatory, Mormon vocalist Greta Hoffmann maintains a flawless facade while secretly harboring forbidden compositions in her portfolio. Beneath Wagner's bombastic notes and proper German technique lies something far more dangerous—sheet music embedded with coded resistance instructions.
Just as Friedrich's network begins to accelerate their rescue operations, disaster strikes. A surprise inspection by the Reichsmusikkammer sends the conservatory into panic, with students and faculty scrambling to prove their cultural purity. When Inspector Hoffmann unexpectedly approaches Greta's piano and begins leafing through her portfolio—fingers inching dangerously close to pages that could condemn her—everything hangs in the balance.
Will Greta's perfectly composed performance be enough to save her? Or will her music finally lead to her undoing?
Sat, 17 May 2025 15:44:42 GMT
As evening shadows creep through Bieber-Haus, Friedrich meticulously forges the Kaufmann family's passport renewals—three generations captured in black and white photographs that must now be given a chance at escape. What begins as careful document alteration turns into a heart-pounding game of deception when Heinrich Schmidt's precise footsteps echo down the marble corridor, forcing Friedrich to hide evidence of his rebellion beneath legitimate paperwork. With every stamp and signature, the stakes climb higher. When Schmidt finally leaves, Friedrich makes a fateful decision to complete all forgeries at once, knowing a single mistake could unravel everything. But it's what he discovers afterward—a mysterious folder marked simply "Umzug" on Schmidt's desk—that transforms his understanding of the danger they all face, setting the stage for a desperate race against a machinery of extinction already in motion.
Fri, 16 May 2025 21:30:27 GMT
In this emotionally charged episode, we explore the complex reunion between David Cohen and his sister Rachel after three years of painful separation. Following David's conversion to Mormonism—which led his Jewish family to hold a shiva and declare him dead—we witness the siblings navigate the raw terrain of familial bonds tested by religious choices.
Against the backdrop of increasing Nazi persecution in 1938 Hamburg, David approaches Rachel outside their old synagogue with an urgent request: help convince Jewish families to escape Germany while there's still time. Their conversation reveals the devastating realities facing their community as Friedrich's underground network works to forge documents and create escape routes for targeted families.
This episode powerfully examines how personal faith intersects with moral duty during crisis, as David explains to Rachel that while he found truth in a new religion, his ethical compass remains unchanged. Through their cautious reconciliation, we see how shared values of preserving human life can bridge seemingly insurmountable divides, culminating in Rachel's agreement to help the vulnerable Kaufmann family.
"Bridges" offers a poignant meditation on the nature of identity, exploring how we can remain connected to our roots even as we evolve beyond them—symbolized by David's continued wearing of his father's watch despite his family's rejection. In times of moral crisis, the episode suggests, what ultimately matters is not which prayers we speak, but whether we answer humanity's call when it matters most.
Tue, 22 Apr 2025 05:17:26 GMT
In Nazi Germany, a young Mormon bureaucrat named Friedrich discovers that his comfortable role in the system makes him complicit in genocide. When his best friend David, a Jewish convert to Mormonism, faces persecution after defending his father during Kristallnacht, Friedrich must choose between religious obedience and moral courage. Using his position in the Reich's bureaucracy, Friedrich forges documents to help Jewish families escape while Mormon Church leaders turn their backs. 'An Article of Faith' examines the dangerous intersection of religious authority and fascism, revealing how institutions claiming moral authority can become instruments of oppression when preservation outweighs principle. Based on the documented collaboration between the Mormon Church and Nazi Germany, this powerful historical drama asks: When does bending to preserve your institution become breaking your covenant with God?
Chapter 8: No Escape from Sacred Ground
Sun, 20 Apr 2025 05:21:52 GMT
A sign on the chapel door reads "NO JEWS ALLOWED". Inside, a sacrament meeting becomes a state-sanctioned spectacle, and the gospel is drowned out by the voice of Hitler. In this chapter, Friedrich, David, and Greta confront the full collapse of their spiritual home as sacred space is transformed into an arm of fascist control. Locked inside the church while Hitler’s speech plays from the pulpit, they face not just silence from their leaders—but celebration. What happens when the institution you trusted not only fails you, but becomes the very thing you hoped it would protect you from? No Escape from Sacred Ground is a devastating reckoning with faith, complicity, and the aching question: who will be left to stand when the last sanctuary falls?
Sun, 20 Apr 2025 05:12:27 GMT
A train to Hanover. A song in Latin. A name whispered in code. In this chapter, Friedrich’s quiet resistance finds its next chapter—networked. Greta introduces him to Max Reschke, a former banker turned underground organizer whose home is both safehouse and staging ground for escape. Through coded music, forged papers, and invisible ink, a mosaic of defiance begins to take shape. But trust comes at a price. As Friedrich steps deeper into the world of active resistance, he must decide: how much of himself is he willing to risk for strangers who may never know his name? Meeting Max is a chapter about connections—old, broken, and born anew—and the dangerous hope of building something that lasts in a world set on erasing it.
Chapter 6: Strudel and Secrets
Sun, 20 Apr 2025 05:07:18 GMT
In the warm glow of Café Mozart, beneath the clink of cutlery and the scent of Apfelstrudel, something subversive begins to take root. As Greta and Friedrich trade barbed jokes and bitter truths, the veneer of civility cracks—and what lies beneath is a shared hunger for resistance. Church members invoke the Führer from the pulpit, neighbors vanish from records, and every prayer seems to end with a salute. But across a table strewn with pastry crumbs and dangerous ideas, a quiet alliance is forged. This chapter is about the turning point before the turning point—when defiance begins not with revolution, but with a whispered proposition and the choice to show up.
Sun, 20 Apr 2025 05:01:56 GMT
Back at his desk, surrounded by forms and silence, Friedrich faces the file he’s been dreading. The stamps are waiting. The manual offers no room for doubt. But after what he’s seen—the tightening grip of the Reich, the erasure of his friend—routine no longer feels righteous. Can Friedrich defy the banality of evil with a single stroke of his pen? This chapter explores the quiet tension between duty and conscience, and the cost of even the smallest act of resistance.
Sun, 20 Apr 2025 04:56:10 GMT
Friedrich and David take the long way home—but not by choice. Their path winds through shuttered Jewish shops, silent watchmen, and the uneasy hush of a city learning to look away. As they pass blue-papered windows and empty doorways once full of life, every step is a reminder: danger doesn’t always shout—it watches, waits, and takes notes. In this chapter, fear hangs in the air like smoke, and friendship becomes a quiet act of defiance. To walk together is to risk being seen—but to walk apart would be its own kind of surrender.
Sun, 20 Apr 2025 04:52:03 GMT
As a swastika appears beside the pulpit, Friedrich Weber confronts the quiet surrender of his church to fascist symbolism. In a chapel now shadowed by the Reich, he must reckon with obedience disguised as faith—and the cost of silence. When sacred rites are served by boys in brown shirts and the sacrament becomes a test of social loyalty, who truly stands for Christ? This chapter explores the unsettling overlap of spiritual ritual and state control, where conformity is framed as righteousness, and resistance begins with the smallest act of remembering who we are.
Chapter 2: Dancing In The Dark
Sun, 20 Apr 2025 04:04:59 GMT
As the regional Mormon youth dance unfolds in a grand Hamburg hall, music, memory, and quiet defiance collide. Friedrich Weber watches his world shift—first through a forbidden jazz song, then through the woman who dares to sing it. Amid chandeliers and shadowed glances, a single performance becomes an act of rebellion, and friendships are tested by the creeping weight of complicity. When silence is safety and rhythm is resistance, can one dance rewrite what the Reich demands we forget?
Chapter 1: The Weight Of Paper
Sun, 20 Apr 2025 04:03:31 GMT
In the heart of pre-war Hamburg, young Mormon bureaucrat Friedrich Weber seeks comfort in order, rules, and quiet routines. But as Nazi ideology seeps into every layer of German society—including his church—Friedrich finds himself caught between conscience and compliance. Assigned to the racial classification office, his civil service dream curdles into a moral nightmare. When his mentor’s name appears in the files, the system he once trusted forces a reckoning. This chapter sets the stage for An Article of Faith, where faith, friendship, and fascism collide—and every stamp has a soul.
Before the Story: Faith, Fascism, and the Fight for Conscience
Sun, 20 Apr 2025 03:57:03 GMT
Before the story begins, this special episode offers a critical exploration of the real history behind An Article of Faith. Author Justin Rich examines how religious obedience, institutional self-preservation, and authoritarian ideology intersect—drawing parallels between the Mormon Church’s compromises in Nazi Germany and modern-day political movements. Inspired by David Conley Nelson’s Moroni and the Swastika, this episode explains why the historical themes in the novel matter today—and why understanding them is essential before entering the world of the story.