The Faithful Executioner

Meet Frantz Schmidt - citizen of Nuremberg, executioner of 394 unfortunates, and torturer, flogger and disfigurer of many hundreds more. Frantz's other distinction was to be a diarist. Drawing on this exceptional and overlooked record that he kept for over 45 years, 'The Faithful Executioner' takes us deep into his world and his thinking. But the picture that emerges is not of a monster. Could a man who routinely practised such cruelty also be insightful, compassionate - even progressive?