Some people believe that crimes committed should just be forgotten for everyone to move on with their lives since those crimes are historical events, which are meaningless to remember now. They feel that this is particularly true for the younger generation who feel detached from such occurrence. Take the younger Jewish Americans for example, who maintain a neutral stand towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However, these people are only making generalisations. Do you think victims can forget these pained incidents that easily?
Alexander Pope once said “to err is human; to forgive is divine.” Some believed that crimes committed in the past should be forgotten because criminals should be forgiven for their mistakes. However in my opinion, even though a criminal has already served his sentence, some of his victims will always remember the suffering he caused. What is done cannot be undone, it stays with them for life. This is clearly shown by the fact that many Chinese are still unable to forgive and forget the crimes the Japanese committed during World War II. The aftermath of crimes do not just impact those that were directly related, it affects everyone around them. The victims of sexual assault often suffer from psychological trauma and secondary victimisation.
It is not possible to undo the damage crimes have caused to the victims. Simply forgetting them would underestimate the severity of the criminals’ wrongdoings.
Founding President of Africa, Sam Nujoma, said history should not be forgotten, nor should people keep it to themselves but should share