At the end of July 1941, the Nazi war criminal Hermann Goering ordered one of the initiators of the "Final Solution", Reinhard Heydrich, to begin preparations for solving the problem of Jews in Europe.
The Germans were unable to meet the schedule that the "problem" could be solved by firing, because nevertheless, it takes quite a bit of time and quite a bit of energy to eliminate in the classic way. Thus was born the sickening idea of mass murder by gas poisoning, and the terrible end is known.
Later, when reason and humanity returned to Germany to one degree or another, its leaders expressed remorse for what they had done to us, the Jews.
Chancellor Conrad Adenauer apparently realized that words were not enough in the face of a catastrophe beyond imagination, and apologized through Ethan and named the reparations agreement.
Willy Brandt has already moved on to another phase, kneeling in front of the monument to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
While Angela Merkel tried to mold words and talk about accepting responsibility when she stood by Prime Minister Bennett at Yad Vashem.
But how can one apologize or take responsibility for a systematic and managed genocide?
God has the solutions.
Still, very recently Germany has committed an act, which is not a feeble apology for the atrocities hanging around its neck but an apparent step towards a universal responsibility, one that seeks to declare: there are criminal acts that are within the scope of being killed and irreversible.
Last week, a German court sentenced Anwar Raslan, a Syrian intelligence officer, to life in prison for his part in the crimes committed by the Assad regime in the bloody civil war.
This is the first case of a relatively senior in a regime that has been tried and found guilty of crimes against humanity.
Raslan is responsible for the deaths of 27 people and the torture of some 4,000 prisoners.
This is not about six million.
"In total" 27 persons, human beings like us, whose lives the officer decided to take.
27 He tells that one can imagine, one can count, one can grasp, and yet there is no possibility of understanding in depth the magnitude of the crimes committed and still being committed not far from us.
What was the officer convicted of?
Among other things in two cases of rape and sexual abuse and two cases of kidnapping.
Here, when listing the crimes, they suddenly seem like something that can be understood and shocked.
One might also try and apologize.
But this is exactly the problem facing Germany, in fact since the surrender in May 1945: the crimes cannot be detailed.
Their deeds are one big black spot that has no beginning, middle and end.
The more absurd it may sound, the easier it is to apologize for it.
It is easy to express grief or regret with words or kneel down a crime that is the ultimate evil that cannot be grasped - precisely because it cannot be grasped.
In the case of one murder or rape, we, the Germans and presumably the Syrians, are equally shocked.
We will all catch our heads and be asked how it is possible to harm a human being in this way, deprive him of freedom or life.
A request for forgiveness and an expression of future remorse may not be accepted by the victim, but they will have weight in court, for example.
But when it comes to millions - where do you start at all?
An apology, in any way, is a lip service to ridicule.
In this case - a mockery of the dead, the survivors of the inferno and their descendants.
Thus the foolish German attempt to take responsibility and perhaps express an apology by pointing to others as saying "we were there and regretting it, you can not make the same mistake", is an escape taking responsibility for their actions, under the pretext of taking responsibility for the actions of others, which is possible Count and count.
One can hang on to what is happening in Syria and express disgust, but no expression of disgust will divert the spotlight from the power of Germany's historic crimes.
That's not enough, Germany, not you and certainly not us.
There is not and will not be a way to atone or numb what your ancestors did.
No matter how long it has been, how many Syrian officers will be accused of crimes against humanity or what preaching of morality or impression you will make on the whole world, the guilt will continue to haunt you, and rightly so, until the end of all generations.
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Fixed!
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