Abstract
September 20, 2005, marked the death of Simon Wiesenthal (b.1908). An internationally renowned Holocaust survivor, the so-called “Nazi hunter” is most famous for founding the Jewish Historical Documentation Center through the auspices of which he brought more than eleven hundred Nazi war criminals, the most famous of which was Adolph Eichmann, to trial for their actions during the Holocaust. As world leaders and Holocaust survivors gathered in Israel for Wiesenthal’s memorial service, all heralding his great achievements and regaling the numerous honors bestowed upon him during his lifetime,2 a survivor of Joseph Mengele’s notorious “twin studies” released a surprising statement. In it, Eva Mozes Kor called for an end to the sort of vengeance that was, in her view, disguised as justice in the pursuance and prosecution of war criminals, and called for victims of the Holocaust to forgive their tormentors. This was despite the fact that Wiesenthal made it clear on several occasions that he was not “motivated by a sense of revenge” but by a desire to see justice served.3 Kor was ten years old when she and her sister Miriam first came into contact
Forgiving is difficult. The very idea of it can be offensive after horrible events like the Holocaust, the genocide in Rwanda, or the genocidal violence in Tibet. Even to people outside the victim group, the idea that survivors should forgive following genocide is an affront, an anathema. It is inconceivable to them and incomprehensible how victims or anyone else would or should forgive the perpetrators…. Nonetheless, forgiving is necessary and desirable. It paves the way for reconciliation and furthers healing, thereby making a better future possible.
—Ervin Staub and Laurie Anne Pearlman1
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Ervin Staub and Laurie Anne Pearlman, “Healing, Reconciliation, and Forgiving after Genocide and Other Collective Violence,” in Forgiveness and Reconciliation: Religion, Public Policy and Conflict Transformation, ed. Raymond G. Helmick and Rodney L. Petersen (Philadelphia: Templeton Foundation Press, 2001), 207.
Wiesenthal was awarded the “Commander of the Order of Orange” in the Netherlands, the “Commendatore della República” in Italy, a gold medal for humanitarian work by the U.S. Congress, the Jerusalem Medal in Israel, and sixteen honorary doctorates. The Simon Wiesenthal Centers in Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Toronto and Jerusalem are named in his honor.
Simon Wiesenthal, quoted in Adam Bernstein, “Nazi Hunter Simon Wiesenthal Dies at 96,” Washington Post, September 20, 2005, https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/20/AR2005092000201.html (accessed September 25, 2005).
Eva Mozes Kor, “I want to tell you I forgive you for what you have done,” The Age (Melbourne), October 1, 2005, 11. Despite Kor’s suspicion, it is widely accepted that Mengele drowned in Brazil in 1979.
Simon Wiesenthal, The Sunflower: On the Possibility and Limits of Forgiveness (New York: Shocken Books, 1998).
Theodore McCarrick, foreword to William Bole, Drew Christiansen, and Robert T. Hennemeyer, Forgiveness in International Politics: An Alternative Road to Peace (Washington, DC: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2004), ix.
William Bole, Drew Christiansen, and Robert T. Hennemeyer, Forgiveness in International Politics: An Alternative Road to Peace (Washington, DC: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2004), 2.
Ibid.
Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989), 243.
Ibid., 238.
Rodney L. Petersen, “A Theology of Forgiveness: Terminology, Rhetoric, and the Dialectic of Interfaith Relationships,” in Helmick and Petersen, Forgiveness and Reconciliation, 3.
Donald Shriver, quoted in McCarrick “Foreword,” ix.
Bole, Christiansen, and Hennemeyer, Forgiveness in International Politics, 76.
Pope John Paul II, “No Peace without Justice, No Justice without Forgiveness,” 2002 World Day of Peace Message, January 1, 2002, http://www.vatican.va/(accessed July 3, 2006).
Arendt, The Human Condition, 238.
Wiesenthal, The Sunflower, 42–43.
Ibid., 54.
This is discussed in more detail later in the chapter.
M. E. McCullough, K. I. Pargament, and C. E. Thoresen, “The psychology of forgiveness,” in Forgiveness: Theory, research and practice, ed. M. E. McCullough, K. I. Pargament, and C. E. Thoresen (New York: The Guildford Press, 2000), 1–14.
Oxford English Dictionary, s. v. “forgiveness,” http://www.oed.com/.
M. E. McCullough, “Forgiveness as human strength: Theory, measurement, and links to well-being,” Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 19 (2002): 44.
Bole, Christiansen, and Hennemeyer, Forgiveness in International Politics, 41, 47.
Desmond Tutu, quoted in Jeffrie Murphy, Getting Even: Forgiveness and its Limits (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 15; Desmond Tutu, No Future Without Forgiveness (New York: Image, 1999), 272.
Arendt, The Human Condition, 240.
Ibid., 240–41.
Ibid., 237.
For example, Trudy Govier’s recent work on the subject is titled Forgiveness and Revenge, and although it is titled Forgiveness and Mercy, Jeffrie G. Murphy and Jean Hampton’s work is posed as a debate that considers the relative merits of forgiveness and revenge. Trudy Govier, Forgiveness and Revenge (London: Routledge, 2002); Jeffrie G. Murphy and Jean Hampton, eds., Forgiveness and Mercy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).
Govier, Forgiveness and Revenge, viii.
Robert C. Roberts, “Forgivingness,” American Philosophical Quarterly 32, no.4 (October 1995): 289–306.
Frank Retief, Tragedy to Triumph: A Christian Response to Trials and Suffering (Cape Town: Nelson, 1994), 154.
Solomon Schimmel, Wounds Not Healed by Time: The Power of Repentance and Forgiveness (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 32.
Petersen, “A Theology of Forgiveness,” 13.
Robert D. Enright and The Human Development Study Group, “Counseling within the Forgiveness Triad: On Forgiving, Receiving Forgiveness, and Self-Forgiveness,” Counseling and Values (January 1996): 107–26, quoted in Schimmel, Wounds Not Healed by Time, 45.
Govier, Forgiveness and Revenge, 50–51. Everett L. Worthington lists a number of other emotions alongside resentment in this context including “bitterness, hatred, hostility, residual anger, and residual fear, which together make up” what he terms “unforgiveness.” Everett L. Worthington Jr., “Unforgiveness, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation and Their Implications for Societal Interventions,” in Helmick and Petersen (eds.), Forgiveness and Reconciliation, 173.
Jean Hampton, “Forgiveness, resentment and hatred,” in Forgiveness and Mercy, Murphy and Hampton, 54–55.
Govier, Forgiveness and Revenge, 50. Emphasis mine.
Jeffrie Murphy, “Forgiveness and resentment,” in Forgiveness and Mercy, Murphy and Hampton, 15.
Bishop Butler, quoted in Paul A. Newberry, “Joseph Butler on Forgiveness: A Presupposed Theory of Emotion,” Journal of the History of Ideas 26, no.2 (2001): 233; see Joseph Butler, Fifteen Sermons Preached at the Rolls Chapel (London: n.p., 1726); the sermons are included in The Works of Bishop Butler, ed. J. H. Bernard, 2 vols. (London: n.p., 1900).
Hampton, “Forgiveness, resentment and hatred,” 154.
Newberry, “Joseph Butler on Forgiveness,” 235.
Ibid., 236.
R. S. Downie, “Forgiveness,” The Philosophical Quarterly 15, No. 59 (1965): 131.
Hampton, “Forgiveness, resentment and hatred,” 36.
Schimmel, Wounds Not Healed By Time, 43.
Govier, Forgiveness and Revenge, 46.
Ibid., 49.
Margaret Holmgren, “Forgiveness and the Intrinsic Value of Persons,” American Philosophical Quarterly 30 (1990), 342.
Ibid., 341.
Ibid., 345.
Ibid. emphasis mine.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa report (Cape Town: Juta, 1998), quoted in Govier, Forgiveness and Revenge, 72.
Tutu, No Future Without Forgiveness, 220.
Ibid.
Toni Erskine, “Assigning Responsibilities to Institutional Moral Agents: The Case of States and ‘Quasi-States,’” in Can Institutions Have Responsibilities? Collective Moral Agency and International Relations, ed. Toni Erskine (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), 20.
Ibid., 21.
Nina H. B. Jørgensen, The Responsibility of States for International Crimes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 73.
Ibid., 75.
Erskine, “Assigning Responsibility to Institutional Moral Agents,” 22.
See also Larry May, The Morality of Groups (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1987).
Berel Lang, “Forgiveness,” American Philosophical Quarterly 31 (1994): 105–15.
Mark R. Amstutz, The Promise and Limits of Political Forgiveness (Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005).
Donald W. Shriver, An Ethic for Enemies: Forgiveness in Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 9. Anticipating the sorts of criticisms likely to be leveled at his argument, Shriver continues by asking whether whole nations can repent or forgive. Unfortunately, however, as Govier points out, he “never really answers his own questions” (p. 81) but rather recounts a number of interesting historical stories that illustrate group forgiveness without demonstrating that it is technically possible.
Ibid., 113.
Shriver, quoted in Bole, Christiansen, and Hennemeyer, Forgiveness in International Politics, 77.
Schimmel, Wounds Not Healed By Time, 8.
Erich H. Loewy, quoted in Wiesenthal The Sunflower, 205.
Schimmel, Wounds Not Healed by Time, 8.
Bole, Christiansen, and Hennemeyer, Forgiveness in International Politics, 66.
Shriver, quoted in Bole, Christiansen, and Hennemeyer, Forgiveness in International Politics, 77.
Johannes Rau, quoted in Clyde Haberman, “Putting Price on Holocaust? Not Even Close,” New York Times, August 3, 2004, http://www.genocidewatch.org/JusticePuttingPriceonHolocaust3August2004.htm (accessed July 1, 2007).
Gerhard Schroeder, quoted in “Schroeder asks for Russian Forgiveness for World War II,” People’s Online Daily, May 9, 2005, http://english.people.com.cn/200505/09/eng20050509_184140.html (accessed July 1, 2007).
Ellis Cose, Bone to Pick: Of Forgiveness, Reconciliation, Reparation and Revenge (New York: Atria Books, 2004), 17.
Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, quoted in “Germany Asks Namibians for Forgiveness,” Deutsche Welle, August 14, 2004, http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/o,1564,1298060,00.html (accessed July 1, 2007).
Hifikepunye Pohamba, quoted in “Germany Asks Namibians for Forgiveness.”
Bishop Kameeta, quoted in “Germany Asks Namibians for Forgiveness.”
Fydor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov (London: Penguin, 1958), 287.
Shriver, An Ethic for Enemies, 113.
Max Weber, “Politik als Beruf [Politics as a Vocation],” in From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, ed. H. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1958), 118.
Donald W. Shriver, “Forgiveness: A Bridge across Abysses of Revenge,” in Helmick and Petersen, 152.
Arendt, The Human Condition, 236.
Andrew Schaap, “Forgiveness, Reconciliation and Transitional Justice,” in Hannah Arendt and International Relations: Readings Across the Lines, ed. Anthony F. Lang Jr. and John Williams (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), 67.
Arendt, The Human Condition, 236.
Ibid., 236–37.
Ibid., 237.
Ibid.
Schaap, “Forgiveness, Reconciliation and Transitional Justice,” 68.
Arendt, The Human Condition, 237.
“S. Korea’s Kim offers forgiveness in Japan speech,” CNN, October 8, 1998, http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/asiapdf.9810,08/korea.japan.02 (accessed July 1, 2007).
Nir Eisikovits, “Forget forgiveness: On the benefits of sympathy for political reconciliation,” Theoria 52, no.1 (December 2004), 33.
Ibid.
Jeffrie Murphy, “Getting Even: The Role of the Victim,” in Punishment and Rehabilitation, ed. Jeffrie Murphy (Belmont: Wadsworth, 1995).
Govier, Forgiveness and Revenge, 51.
Eisikovits, “Forget forgiveness,” 34.
Schimmel, Wounds Not Healed By Time, 73.
Murphy, Getting Even, 37.
Pope John Paul II, quoted in Bole, Christiansen, and Hennemeyer, Forgiveness in International Politics, 76.
Tutu, No Future without Forgiveness, 23.
Aurel Kolnai, “Forgiveness,” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society (1973–74): 91–106.
Ibid., 96.
Hampton, “Forgiveness, resentment and hatred,” 42.
Schimmel, Wounds Not Healed By Time, 48.
Tutu, No Future Without Forgiveness, 219.
Peter Krapp, “Amnesty: Between an Ethics of Forgiveness and the Politics of Forgetting,” German Law Journal 6, no.1 (2005): 191.
Ibid., 192.
Stephen J. Pope, “The convergence of forgiveness and justice: lessons from El Salvador,” Theological Studies 64, no. 3 (December 2003): 824.
Ibid.
Alfredo Christiani, quoted in Pope, 815.
Ibid.
Pope, “The convergence of forgiveness and justice,” 823.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Geoffrey Robertson, Crimes Against Humanity: The Struggle for Global Justice, 3rd ed. (London: Penguin, 2006), 319.
Ibid., 302.
Ibid.
Inter-American Court of Human Rights, quoted in Paul van Zyl, “Justice Without Punishment: Guaranteeing Human Rights in Transitional Societies,” in Looking Back, Reaching Forward: Reflections on the Truth and ReconciliationCommission of South Africa, ed. Charles Villa-Vicencio and Wilhelm Verwoerd (London: Zed Books, 2000), 48.
van Zyl, “Justice Without Punishment,” 48.
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, quoted in Robertson, Crimes Against Humanity, 306.
Quoted in Robertson, Crimes Against Humanity, 306.
van Zyl, “Justice Without Punishment,” 48.
Quoted in van Zyl, 48–49.
Quoted in Robertson, Crimes Against Humanity, 307.
Robertson, Crimes Against Humanity, 327.
Ibid., 305.
Douglass W. Cassel Jr., quoted in Bole, Christiansen, and Hennemeyer, Forgiveness in International Politics, 94.
Of course, as mentioned above, relations between states do not fall under the remit of international criminal law and as such, the basis on which states may decide to forgive one another for wrongs committed is entirely different to the treatment of individuals.
van Zyl, “Justice Without Punishment,” 49.
Ibid.
Ibid., 50.
Hannah Arendt, “The Concentration Camps,” Partisan Review 15, no. 7 (1948): 751.
Tutu, No Future Without Forgiveness, 31.
Govier, Forgiveness and Revenge, 101.
Lawrence Langer, quoted in Wiesenthal, The Sunflower, 187.
Peter Haas, “Forgiveness, Reconciliation, and Jewish Memory After Auschwitz,” in After-Words: Post-Holocaust Struggles with Forgiveness, Reconciliation, Justice, ed. David Patterson and John K. Roth (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2004), 14.
A. Cohen, quoted in Richard Harries, After the Evil: Christianity and Judaism in the Shadow of the Holocaust (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 68.
Cohen and ARN XL1 in Harries, 68.
Schimmel, Wounds Not Healed By Time, 83.
Ibid., 64.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, trans. R. H. Fuller (New York: Macmillan, 1963).
Murphy, Getting Even, 35.
Joseph Telushkin, quoted in Wiesenthal, The Sunflower, 263–64.
Didier Pollefeyt, “Forgiveness after the Holocaust,” in Looking Back, Reaching Forward: Reflections on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa, ed. Charles Villa-Vicencio and Wilhelm Verwoerd (London: Zed Books, 2000), 56.
Miroslav Volf questions the viability of the “first justice, then reconciliation” approach as being “impossible to carry out,” of questionable desirability, and not always able to “create communion between victims and perpetrators.” Miroslav Volf, “Forgiveness, Reconciliation, and Justice: A Christian Contribution to a More Peaceful Social Environment” in Helmick and Petersen, Forgiveness and Reconciliation, 38, 39, 40.
Shriver quoted in Bole, Christiansen, and Hennemeyer, Forgiveness in International Politics, 99.
Volf, “Forgiveness, Reconciliation and Justice,” 45.
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© 2008 Renée Jeffery
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Jeffery, R. (2008). To Forgive the Unforgivable?. In: Jeffery, R. (eds) Confronting Evil in International Relations. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230612532_8
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