On forgiveness...
... not that we have to forgive, the perpetrators, the ones who closed their eyes to this monstrosity, the ones  who did not rebel, and perhaps, nor can we ever do so. But we can try to understand, and/or become resilient to the fact there is nothing much to understand to the Shoah but an intricate set of facts and circumstances, one leading to the other. A trial may be considered like an attempt at getting an understanding of these facts, but as we know, applying the law does not always translate into achieving justice.
I have often wondered in vain if answering to a god may be the only way either to achieve justice by letting justice be achieved by him, or yet, to fathom true forgiveness. In a radio show, an excerpt from an interview: a former Nazi who was trialed and jailed declared he would never ask for forgiveness for what he had done was utterly unforgivable. This comment raised an interesting point: he would have been incapable of accepting this gift of forgiveness that he did not deserve. Perhaps accepting it was his true life sentence. I am not religious, but it seems to me that the impossibility of accepting this hypothetical gift and the conjoint impossibility of not accepting it must be a definition of hell on earth, if it does not equate to justice duly rendered. 

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Vincent.

Fabienne