Vale Simon Wiesenthal
It is my belief that denying the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators in the Second World War justice would have been tantamount to denying them a voice. It would have made them the silent ghosts of the reconstruction. Forgiveness was not an option.Some things just cannot be forgiven, the experience of South Africa and Rwanda notwithstanding (although I compare the common people of Rwanda to the common people of Germany, also culpable and also largely forgiven).
I know there are questions whether the six millionth killing really is any worse than the first, in other words, whether scale makes a thing worse in anything other than degree (although, in asking the question, those that ask it must consider the intention of the act, which was to seek to make a people not exist); whether there is not a point to say enough is enough (just as some argue that the calls for justice for the POWs held by Japan in WWII have lost their force with time); whether the Nazi-hunters have any place in a world that has learned to reconcile itself to its sins.
I do not have answers to those questions but I do have a deep admiration for the life work of Simon Wiesenthal. Quibbles about his mistakes or this case or that do not diminish the truth that he was a man of enormous stature, fearless integrity and courage that I wish I had and can only deeply respect when I see it.
I doffs me cap to him and spit in the eye of those he brought to justice and, worse, those who tried to protect them. They tried to silence a people and destroy their memory. He fought for their lost voices to be heard.
posted by Dr Zen @ 2:42 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home