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Press Information published by the International Auschwitz Committee

27.04.2015

Press release on Gröning trial: impossible to forgive

 
 
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The International Auschwitz Committee solidly supports the 49 joint plaintiffs in the criminal proceedings against Oskar Gröning and their initiative not to express forgiveness towards the defendant.

In Oswiecim / Auschwitz, Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee, stressed:

"Auschwitz survivors were among those who smoothed the way for Germany to return to the international community. The Auschwitz survivors have overcome their hatred. Rather than being governed by hatred, they were driven by the desire to tell young Germans their family stories, to warn them against anti-Semitism, hatred and intolerance, and they have sought and found their way to Germany over many years.

But the perpetrators of Auschwitz have maintained a stony silence. No words telling the truth, or expressing remorse and apology have ever reached the survivors.

The survivors feel unable to grant the perpetrators forgiveness in face of their decades-long obdurate silence. Nor do they know how they could ever grant forgiveness in the name of their murdered families.

The repeated public staging and celebration of Eva Kor’s forgiveness abuses the integrity of the other Auschwitz survivors. It also degrades the court procedure in Lüneburg, so long awaited by many survivors, and reduces it to a personality show and a soap opera. It would be fatal if German society were to misconstrue this entirely individual gesture as a moral discharge and a concluding declaration."

 
 
 

For further Information

Christoph Heubner

Executive Vice President
International Auschwitz Committee
Phone ++ 49 (0)30 26 39 26 81