The German legal system insists it is the last opportunity to react to the hell
of Auschwitz with the rule of the law, a last chance to see some degree of
justice and accountability for those most affected. Kor considered it
necessary for personal healing, but also that keeping the man out of jail as
far more effective in countering Nazi extremism than watching an old man
serve out his days behind bars.
The topic of forgiveness was also considered some times ago by Giles
Fraser in the same newspaper.
10 April 2014) He gave thoughts to the reconciliation process in Rwanda. He
said that ‘forgiveness is not something that you feel, but what you do’. He
warned of sentimentalising it, that person A should feel kindly towards person
B when B has done them enormous harm. He says that the Bible does not
say how Jesus felt, but what he did, so forgiveness was an act, the refusal to
respond in kind, to answer violence with violence, a refusal of revenge .It
seems that forgiveness is fundamentally unjust, that it represents unpunished
crime. The problem with justice is that it is sometimes too closely aligned with
revenge. Tragically, the victims can easily become the next set of victimisers.
Forgiveness, as in refusal of reciprocity does not make us feel good inside,
we can still be bitter and angry, but it may be the burden we have to bear.
Forgiveness breaks the cycle of revenge and makes possible a future not
trapped in hatred of the past.
Sanctuary in our times
Sanctuary was for centuries a sacred institution. Those seeking refuge in a
holy space were removed from the grip of their persecutors, seeking the right
to claim a stay of justice, persecution and mistaken punishment of an
innocent person. It is surprising that this kind of concept still exists, although
not in the legal systems of modern states. The number of refugees seeking
sanctuary in German churches has risen dramatically in recent times. It
started about 4 years ago with 70 people, meanwhile the number of those
seeking sanctuary amounts to more than 500. Most of them are failed asylum
seekers .For instance African refugees have been living in the Frankfurt
church Gutleutkirche since the summer of 2014 in makeshift partitioned
quarters, the idea being that when a person seeks refuge in a sacred place,
he or she will be looked at differently from outside. Inside he is seen as a
human being in need of protection, a person anxious about his uncertain
future. The modern sanctuary brings to mind, that there are two different kind
of truth in this world which are in competition. Even if those failed asylum
seekers are not persecuted opponents of foreign regimes, even if they came
for economic reasons and not for humanitarian ones, even if they cost a lot of
money (also for the churches who house and feed them for 6 months) who
can deny the churches the moral right to give them shelter. The churches tell
those outside, that this society which prides itself of its respect for human
rights must not send back these people into hopeless situations.
StOM Page 13