A Human Being Died that Night: Forgiving Apartheid's Chief Killer

When Eugene de Kock, commanding officer of the apartheid death squads, was sentenced to 212 years for crimes against humanity, the black South Africans outside Pretoria's Supreme Court cheered and danced: the killer who had been nicknamed 'Prime Evil' by his own men would stay behind bars until the day he died.

But one woman, plagued by awkward questions about the nature of vengeance and forgiveness, decided to look into the monster's heart and found a man worthy of a pardon and freedom. During many hours of conversation, de Kock and Gobodo-Madikezela, a clinical psychologist from the townships, take a remarkable shared journey into what it means to be human.