The Law's Delay, a Reflection On the Majdanek Trials

The dead are silent. Thirty-six winters have passed. Their silence is unbroken. The dead make bad witnesses. They do not make themselves heard. They are hard of hearing. They fail to make appearances at hearings. They do not corroborate The evidence of living witnesses With fading memories, With disturbed emotions. And henchmen are let off Their hooked crosses. "All human law is imperfect," sigh they whose sins are grave, too grave to count. Time heals all but the dead are dead still. Not to be Is to be Out of court.