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RSS Feed Germany in Focus04. 04. 11. - 11:00
Pardon for the witches
GERMANY has issued posthumous pardons for 169 executed people - all of them witches.
The victims were boiled and burned alive, hacked to death, hanged, stabbed and beaten to death in a frenzy of religious fervour in the 17th century.
Following pressure from schoolchildren in the town of Ruethen the local justice authority in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia has issued a pardon for all victims.
Students from the Friedrich-Spee-School submitted a petition to the council asking that the 169 men, women and children executed between 1573 and 1660 be officially declared innocent.
The students, who had been studying witch trials in class, wrote in their petition that when a woman or a man was accused of being a witch or sorcerer, "had virtually no chance of surviving.
"If Ruethen would rehabilitate the victims, then they would regain their human dignity," the students argued in their petition.
Peter Weiken, mayor of Ruethen, said such a step migh help others falsely accused today.
German Herald
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wrote migh regain death studying mayor trials submitted council witches issued declared petition victims Students Weiken Ruethen children pardons falsely
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