Eva Mozes Kor explains her philosophy of forgiveness

If I forgave,

and I did Mengele, Hitler;

let's say that I would have
forgiven them

in 19...50.

19...55, ten years
after liberation.

Would Mengele, Hitler, Himmler,
any of them,

know, or care?

No.

Who else would have it
really affected?

- You.

Me.

So, let's get to that idea,

to understand: Why
is the forgiveness?

And what would it have done
to me?

Could I change anything
of what happened?

The tragedy, could I change it?

Could anybody change it?

If I climbed to Mount Everest,

and screamed on the top
of my voice,

could anybody
do anything?

So, basically,

once a tragic thing happens,

or anything, good or bad,

you cannot change it.

Does any victim deserve
to live without pain

that other people, or life,
imposed on them?

Yes.

Every person should be able
to live without hurting.

I didn't deserve anything
to be treated that way.

So my question is:

If I deserve to live
without the pain,

how on earth
am I going to get there?

The only thing that I came up with,

it was accidental that I
discovered forgiveness.

That, by forgiving,
I am not forgetting,

because I keep
talking about it;

but I am no longer hurting.

I can talk about it without pain,

and, also, it makes me feel like
I have risen above the pain,

because I can discuss it,
but not be destroyed by it.

So it's a very interesting idea,

that to conquer the pain,
without really ever --

I never hurt anybody.

So, why on earth can't I do it?

My solution does not --

I don't punish anybody,

I don't send anybody to jail,

I don't kill anybody,

I don't denounce anybody.

I am just forgiving, to heal myself.

And I cannot see

how on earth that can be wrong.