 On the basis of this assumption the theory of surviving duties contributes to an understanding of the moral significance of the fact that past people were severely wronged When people were violated in their rights, and badly so, their posthumous reputation depends upon their being publicly acknowledged as victims of these wrongs, and others being identified as the wrongdoers (see also Margalit 2002: chs. 2–4). In acknowledging past individuals as victims of egregious wrongs we cannot affect their well-being. Also, such acknowledgment cannot be expressed face to face with the dead victims, but only vis-à-vis currently living people in light of the wrongs past people suffered. However, if it is true that currently living people stand under surviving duties toward past victims of historical injustice owing to the wrongs they suffered, then currently living people fulfilling the duty by publicly acknowledging the past injustices they suffered will change the relation between them and the dead victims of historical injustice. It will be true of the past victims of these injustices that they have the posthumous property that currently living people fulfilled their surviving duty toward them. To be sure, a change of the relation between an existent person and a dead person does not bring about a real change to the latter. Rather, the relational change is based upon the real change of the person who carries out the act (see Ruben 1988: 223–31).