To forgive and forget?

The reign of totalitarianism has ended for many years now, but through critiquing the flaws and the terror totalitarianism has come into mind, the question to ponder with totalitarianism as being a part of history is on whether we should forgive and forget the existence of totalitarianism or not. Such an act seems to be very plausible in modern society, of which President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is the best example for such an act as she granted executive pardon to the ousted president Joseph Ejercito Estrada for his case involving plunder and corruption, among a long list of crimes committed by the ousted president. It may seem to be the ideal act, given in the context of the Christian Roman catholic Church, where we are taught to forgive our enemies for any wrong acts they have committed on us.
And yet this act is heavily debated when it comes to the case of the totalitarian government. Some people refuse to forgive and forget it, while others would prefer to simply forgive it and forget all about it. When asked about my opinion regarding the said debate, I would go for the former. But why be unforgivable to a type of government that has not even existed during the time I was born? Why be mad still at Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin, and Lenin, even if they are dead already? Why should I support Arendt’s view of totalitarianism as an evil government, even if the real intention of totalitarianism was not meant to be as evil as how Arendt has pictured it?
First of all, we should put in consideration the very fact that the human being is by itself an historical being, meaning that by being historical, we all progress ourselves throughout the course of time, by learning the successes, failures, mistakes, and good decisions of the past. Having said that, I beg to disagree in forgetting the evil Totalitarianism has brought us in the books, the documentaries, and the testimonies of people who were a part of such reign of terror. Forgetting totalitarianism is tad amount to saying that totalitarianism was nothing, and that totalitarianism is something of insignificance to the human race. It is obviously not like you can make up for the millions of deaths it has occurred. I mean, even if Adolf Hitler’s descendants pay the Jews even a trillion dollars just to make the Jews forget the brutality of Hitler’s reign and in his effort in exterminating the Jews, the past is past; you can never pay up for the death of a human person
Second, we should not forgive totalitarianism because of the inhumanity it has caused to people, especially to the Jews. By the mere fact that totalitarianism is incomparable to any other form of government system that has ever existed and by the fact that totalitarianism has degraded the state of humanity is a clear, pinpoint indication that it should never be forgiven or forgotten as being part of history. Hitler may be dead, but that does not mean that we forgive him for his brutal acts. The same applies to the likes of Joseph Stalin and Pol Pot. These leaders, no matter what, have become perfect representations of abusive power and reigns of terror, that our descendants should hand down to their children and beyond. This era of terror should serve as a reminder of the flaws that man has made in an attempt to stabilize society.
Hence, although there have been recent criticisms on Hannah Arendt that she made the idea of totalitarianism purely evil in her own perspective, I guess she had every humanly possible right to do so, even if it may be right or wrong. First of all, she is a Jew, and seeing Germans brutally killing her race by itself can be very traumatic to a typical Jew like Arendt. If I were a Jew (realistically I am a Roman Catholic), I would do the same thing that Arendt has presented totalitarianism to my fellow Filipinos as well. How would you feel if a certain leader attempts to exterminate your race for no particular reason but just because of black propaganda? I myself would be perpetually infuriated by such an act. If it was possible, I would plan a counter-attack against the race of Hitler, doing the same brutal acts to his fellow people. But that is on the ideal perspective.
In the more realistic perspective, the rationale on why Hannah Arendt had to describe totalitarianism that is because she wanted the world, her audience, to see how injustice, racial discrimination, and dehumanization was done to a particular group of people, in her case, the Jewish people. By describing the horrors of totalitarianism, Arendt depicts to the audience that although the era of brutal killings and excessive racial discrimination has ended already, Arendt wants to serve this as a reminder of the mistakes committed in the past and through this she hopes that these mistakes should not happen again.
Hence, my rationale why I refuse to forgive and forget totalitarianism for what it has done and for what it has contributed in history is that what totalitarianism has caused should mark as a reminder that we should be careful with what we want in the progression of both history and humanity; going beyond human means could possibly destroy this important progression if we just forget about totalitarianism.