Can the Holocaust be forgiven?

The Holocaust cannot be forgiven because perpetrators have not faced justice for their actions

Question: Can the Holocaust be forgiven?
Position1 of 2›: The Holocaust cannot be forgiven
Argument‹2 of 4›: The Holocaust cannot be forgiven because perpetrators have not faced justice for their actions

Following the Holocaust, perpetrators involved in torturing the Jews and others fled the justice system. A Naxi that refuses to face the consequences of their actions should not be forgiven.

The argument

After the Holocaust, only a small portion of Nazis were put on trial and convicted for their crimes. The projected number of Nazis that were involved in criminal activity were upwards of 200,000, yet only 6,656 were convicted. The number of Nazis that ran away rather than facing the consequences for their crimes is appalling. By refusing to face retribution for their crimes, they are refusing to take responsibility for their corrupt actions. If they are unwilling to face responsibility for their actions, then they do not deserve to be forgiven. Therefore, those that run away from consequences do not deserve to be forgiven. A person is not deserving of forgiveness unless they are willing to face justice for their actions. They should also show remorse for their actions in order to be forgiven. A person is undeserving of another’s forgiveness if they are not willing to repent and ask for forgiveness themselves. The Nazis that escaped trials following the Holocaust are still responsible for their actions. They should not be forgiven unless they go on trial for their crimes.

Premises

[P1]After the Holocaust only a small fraction of the roughly 200,000 Nazis involved in crimes were convicted, with just 6,656 facing justice. [P2] By running away rather than facing retribution, the rest refused to take responsibility for their actions. [P3] A person is undeserving of forgiveness unless they are willing to face justice and show remorse. [C] Therefore, because the perpetrators have not faced justice for their actions, the Holocaust cannot be forgiven.

Counter-arguments

Forgiveness is about more than facing the consequences. It should be focused on healing between the perpetrator and victim. There is no way that any sort of punishment can atone for the crimes a Nazi committed. Forgiving the Nazis will give a Holocaust victim the peace of mind to heal from their trauma without holding onto the negative emotions towards the Nazis. By forgiving someone of their wrongdoings, it does not excuse the actions of the perpetrator. Therefore, whether or not a Nazi is convicted of their crimes should have no bearing on if a survivor of the Holocaust should be allowed to forgive.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The conviction figures record what the postwar prosecutions achieved. That is a fact about a legal process rather than about any individual's standing to be forgiven. [Rejecting P2] Not having been prosecuted is not the same as having evaded responsibility. Whether a person was tried turned heavily on jurisdiction, surviving evidence and political circumstance, and the premise treats the outcome of that process as a choice each person made. [Rejecting P3] Making justice a precondition of forgiveness is the point in dispute rather than a shared starting point. As the counter-argument puts it, no punishment could be commensurate with these crimes, and on that view whether a survivor may forgive is a separate question from whether a perpetrator was convicted.