Bernhard Schlink on forgiveness and reconciliation

The following clip is a highlight. To view the full talk visit http://www.abc.net.au/tv/fora/stories/2009/08/28/2669983.htm
Do the descendents of those who commit atrocities inherit their guilt? And how important is it for subsequent generations say "sorry"? These are questions Australians have considered in relation to the Apology to the Stolen Generations, and they also resonate in other countries. Delivering the keynote address at the Melbourne Writers Festival last week, the German author of the novel "The Reader", Bernard Schlink, lectured on the role guilt plays in societies, and how contemporary Germany is still trying to come to terms with the Holocaust.

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[Cccuba]

It isn't guilt, but shame.

.

Shame is what the woman in The Reader felt.

[AntiNaziAktion]

@edwards21416 What a load of horseshit!! Shut the fuck up!!

[edwards21416]

@exeuroweenie its called white guilt Germans have been made to feel this guilt and wrongly so ,remember one thing the victor writes history .Russia made this guilt possible, communism killed far more than Hitler.Germany faces a new threat now Islam has arrived and cant stand up for itself partly because of guilt .I hope Germany can cast aside this guilt ,i think it can only happen with a new furhrer.White guilt exists all over the world and white people are a slave to it.

[exeuroweenie]

I've had German friends,great people.They've never heard the end of that stereotype and were often subjected to self righteousness.They were born well after the war.Even their parents,who had been mere toddlers by 1945,never heard the end of it.I wonder how many oresent day Americans would want to be held accountable for slavery,Vietnam or possibly the Iraq war.

[mariakai]

I LOVE YOU, BERNHARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!­!!