How can the tortured forgive?

It is very difficult to forgive someone after they put you through physical as well as emotional pain. In the Holocaust, the Nazis did horrible things to the Jewish people and they don’t deserve to be forgiven for what they’ve done. But we live in a society where forgiveness makes you the better person and in most cases, can help you move on by signifying that you are over what has been done to you. However there are some who haven’t even considered the thought of forgiving the Nazis for what they did and that’s ok because they don’t deserve it, but I think the pain of a tortured past can be numbed by accepting the people who did this to you. That makes you better than them and in your mind it means that you beat them. It means that you are a better person than they are because you didn’t commit the horrible crimes that were committed and you still had the strength to forgive.

This is a picture of one of the victims who was held prisoner by Ariel Castro for 11 years, speaking in the courtroom saying that she had forgiven him for what he did and by doing so it has made her more empowering than he ever was.