The Traveler and His Baggage
damninteresting.com
damninteresting.com
He was caught after the war and was executed (by firing squad). He apparently never ceased to believe in God, petitioned the prison chief so that they would let him say mass (they said no), and received communion every day up to the morning of his execution. But he never expressed any kind of regret for what he had done.
The novel is a first-person narrative to try to get into his head.
Petiot was a doctor who killed people instead of healing them. My character was a priest who betrayed those who trusted him -- extreme cases of cognitive dissonance.
Yet I think we all suffer from it (to a much lesser extent, hopefully). We spend an enormous amount of time and effort rationalizing our own life and character. One of the strengths of the human psyché is to create an image of the self that we can accept. It doesn't need to be very close to reality.
Maybe one needs a precise amount of rationalization, or some kind of equilibrium, to operate. Too little, you fall into depression. Too much, you're a monster.
This came from a keyword search- seems to match up. I'd be interested in reading more if OP can post that book title.
It's also fiction (not a history book). I wanted to hear him talk. He's a horrible, but I think fascinating character.
Frankly, the entire back catalog of Damn Interesting is fantastic.
I think it’s one of the best podcasts out there that only few people know about.
It’s one thing if you’re shooting bullets or launching lances or whatever at each other. There is no underhandedness. It’s plain and simple war. This is dark -even- if you give him some benefit of doubt, which I don’t, but if one did, even then, he was a very gruesome man.
I think he earned that guillotine.
The rest of it is gruesome. Innocent civilians seeking refuge and victimizing them is just repugnant.