5 ms·
The Traveler and His Baggage
- FredPret 5y agoI've been reading this blog since its early days. It really lives up to the URL.
- louwrentius 5y agoThis is an amazing hour long story, highly recommended. 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.
- ghaff 5y agoI know about it and agree that it's quite good. But, given the format, I generally prefer to just read in this case. I don't have nearly as much "listen-only time" as podcasts I'm interested in listening to and I prefer to mostly use it on podcasts better consumed through audio.
- travisjungroth 5y agoA warning to anyone reading this: it’s a gruesome story.
- mc32 5y agoYeah it is. If what he claimed was even partially true, that some were collaborators, but obviously it was also people hoping for escape, it’s almost excusable (I guess deGaul did). But in such cold blood. It’s still repugnant, not to mention innocent people and children. 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.
- travisjungroth 5y agoMaybe I'm misreading what you're saying, but just because he killed innocents fleeing occupied Paris and collaborators that does not at all make it "almost excusable".
- mc32 5y agoI’m saying it was wartime and the gov officially forgave people who killed collaborators and so on. So that part is almost excusable though I still think it’s just cold blooded and not excusable. The rest of it is gruesome. Innocent civilians seeking refuge and victimizing them is just repugnant.
- bambax 5y agoI just published a novel about the real story of a Catholic priest during WWII in Paris, who used to inflitrate Resistance networks, get as many names as possible, and then sell them to the Germans. 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.
- mzs 5y agoWhat is the book and priest name?
- IntrepidWorms 5y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Alesch https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Alesch This came from a keyword search- seems to match up. I'd be interested in reading more if OP can post that book title.
- bambax 5y agoNot bad! ;-)
- bambax 5y agoThe book's name is "L'archevêque de Cologne". Here's the link https://www.amazon.fr/dp/295155933X https://www.amazon.fr/dp/295155933X -- but it's in French... It's also fiction (not a history book). I wanted to hear him talk. He's a horrible, but I think fascinating character.