The author explores what interpretations Finnish upper secondary school students make about the motives and effects of historical apologies. Three categories of interpretation are formed: apologies promote strategic interests of the state; apologies convey moral lessons; apologies are immaterial redress to the victims of transgenerational harm. The last category connects most closely with the question how to promote historical justice, and those interpretations were less easily constructed and accepted than interpretations in the other categories, suggesting they were conceived as less plausible, or less convincing. The author discusses explanations to this, and implications of the findings, asking if ethics of care, rather than ethics of justice, is a fruitful framework for dealing with painful pasts and transgenerational burdens in the history classroom.