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This paper, which was a result of the author's personal and clinical experiences, explores the concept of forgiveness within the Kleinian positions of paranoid schizoid functioning and depressive position thinking. The author begins her discussion by considering if the suicide of Primo Levi (1919-1987), who had suffered from a lifelong depressive illness, was in part a consequence of his avowal never to forgive the Nazis for their atrocities. She attempts to link this with the work undertaken by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in South Africa and the difficulty of incorporating third position thinking within the roles ascribed to victim and perpetrator. Finally, the author uses a clinical example of a ‘perpetrator’ of a serious accident who felt (unconsciously) persecuted by the offer of forgiveness from one of the victims. The author suggests that forgiveness can exist within a paranoid schizoid position - keeping victim and persecutor separate but capable of acknowledging a wrongdoing or crime against humanity. This acknowledgement, she proposes allows for reconciliation between the pair, but may not necessarily lead to healing or further growth as the couple can remain ‘split’. This effort at forgiveness she establishes as a form of ‘hope’ - which she states maintains split position thinking. She compares reconciliation with an experience of forgiveness that can be located within the reparative depressive position thinking, exemplified by the statement; ‘There, but for the grace of God, go I’. The author states that this kind of reparative forgiveness within organizations, groups and/or the individual can only occur in moments of ‘faith’1 - which she links to Levi's autobiographical accounts of his experience of a shared humanity, in his book Moments of Reprieve (2001).