The committee that maintains Austria’s former Mauthausen concentration camp said it was prepared to forgive the youths behind a neo-Nazi style shooting attack there earlier this month.
One of the youths had apologized in writing, said committee head Willi Mernyi who said he was ready to give the attackers another chance if their contrition was genuine.
“What they did must not be trivialized. But we want to give them a chance. If they sincerely regret their action, we’ll offer them our hand,” Mernyi said in a statement.
The committee said it had received a letter of apology from one of the two detained youngsters. The letter was published by the 16-year-old’s lawyer, Kurt Waldhoer.
“We did not want to hurt or threaten anybody … It was just supposed to be a youthful prank,” the letter stated.
“I can understand that you would be outraged, when I realize that you have been personally touched by the events at Ebensee, or even that you lost a father or grandfather,” he added.
Source:
http://www.ejpress.org/
