Facing a tragic past

This morning CBC interviewed a story of 40 years, at a time when many German villages were attacked by the Russians and occupied by quite a while. The Russian soldiers raped the girls and the women. Some soldiers took alcohol to make them brave for the act, to ease their conscience. There were over 200,000 rapes and around 1/10 of the women got pregnant. In the darkness of these events and incidents, stories and pain were covered up and never spoken. The agony, the shame and the evil was not just hidden and buried in their hearts, but nailed to their soul.

Two women came up to the microphones to share their stories. They were mother and daughter, so happened to hear the news of such tragic when they were driving. But the daughter never knew her own father because she was the rapist's offspring. They both wept but they were brave to speak their stories, which were never told to each other, not to say to the public.

Then the story slowly unfold in the air...with tears and details, of dark evil, heavy emotions and relief of disclosure.

In the time flow of history, human beings sinned and acted evils, the innocent suffered the wickedness and foolishness of the sinners and the powerful. And sin gets embedded in their lives, seems forever until there is time for disclosure when light has its way to penetrate into darkness. It is social injustice as well as personal and naked individualized. The pain is both.

The daughter is 40+ and her father is a commander, a strong and fat guy, according to memory and he was the second man who raped the mother. What kind of a seal can hold something rotten for that many years? But joy of laughter and relieve accompanied and embraced the daughter and mother. There were outburst of regret and acceptance.

What is forgiveness?
How do we separate the sin of others from self judgment and self blame?
How do we face others' sin on us?
What is the meaning of a dark history in our lives?