The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness by Simon Wiesenthal

Aug 23, 2011

Aileen rated it

Shelves: poignant, provocative, philosophical

Simon Wiesenthal is in a Nazi Concentration Camp in Poland and performing physical labor at a local hospital when a nurse comes up to him and says, "Are you a Jew? Come with me." She leads him to a room, in which a catastrophically injured young man lays. The injured man asks Simon to sit and listen to his story.

The young man is a Nazi. He was raised very Catholic and hoped to become a priest before diverting from his plan and becoming a member of the Hitler Youth. He ...moreSimon Wiesenthal is in a Nazi Concentration Camp in Poland and performing physical labor at a local hospital when a nurse comes up to him and says, "Are you a Jew? Come with me." She leads him to a room, in which a catastrophically injured young man lays. The injured man asks Simon to sit and listen to his story.

The young man is a Nazi. He was raised very Catholic and hoped to become a priest before diverting from his plan and becoming a member of the Hitler Youth. He then joined the SS "as soon as he could" and became a soldier of the Third Reich. He'd been happy (I presume) with his existence until his company moved into a tiny Russian town, rounded up all the Jews left (almost entirely the old, the infirm, women, and children) and locked them into several houses along a street. His company then proceeded to set fire to the houses, throw grenades through the windows, and shoot anyone who tried to escape by throwing themselves out the window. This experience affected the young Nazi so badly that he froze during the next skirmish and was shot through the stomach and horrifically burned. The young man, Karl, now on his deathbed, wanted forgiveness from a Jew for what he had done.

Simon Wiesenthal listened to the whole story, although he tried to leave several times. He listened to the entire story, and when Karl asked for his forgiveness at the end, Simon got up and walked out. So begins the philosophical question around which this story revolves. Would you have forgiven the young Nazi? After the prose section of the novel, letters from religious leaders and other interested parties are printed and examined.

What would you do? Each letter offers a slightly different analysis, even if the writer comes to the same conclusion as others. Each one has something interesting to say about what he or she thought Simon should have done. It an insight into several of the world's major religions, and into the minds of people who have survived genocides. The likes of the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu write in to advocate their views of forgiveness, and others advocate against. The letters sometimes get redundant or overly utopian, but this book is extremely provocative.

I probably would have forgiven him, and regretted it. I was raised Catholic, and so the idea of unconditional forgiveness is ingrained into me. I think that in the situation Simon was in -- being in close-quarters with a dying man -- I would have said what I thought I should say. However, I do not believe that Karl deserved forgiveness. There were several points in the story (albeit this is written and remembered solely by Wiesenthal) where Karl's story of remorse did not add up. Primarily, he only apologized for that one horrific act. Also, he actively participated in the act. One of the letters was written by Sidney Shachnow, who is both a Holocaust survivor and a Vietnam Vet. He's seen some awful things in his life, and he pointed out that there are always soldiers who are so sickened by what they're being ordered to do that they become incapacitated by it and vomit. Even if he couldn't have saved the Jews, he could have not taken an active role in the action. Further, even while talking with Simon and begging for forgiveness, Karl never wanted Simon's name. He started to ask for it and then said, "Nevermind, you are a Jew and that's enough." There was some debate in my class about whether this negated his protestations of remorse. Some said that people raised to be racist can still say racist things while being remorseful. I disagree wholeheartedly with that.

My main issue with the story is not whether Simon should have forgiven or not, but whether Karl should have asked. While I have never been in a situation where this belief has been tested, I really believe that there should be some self-guilt that keeps you from asking for forgiveness until you've properly atoned for your wrong. Forgiveness isn't something you should ask for lightly, or demand out of a person on your deathbed. That's not fair to the other person -- who has no evidence of your sincerity or your willingness to change at that point. Who's to say if Karl wouldn't have gone right back to being a Nazi if he had been miraculously cured? One good point brought up by several writers is that he asked for a Jew for forgiveness, he didn't ask for a Nazi to convert. He could have called to his fellow Nazis in the area and explained his remorse and conviction that they were doing the wrong thing, yet he didn't.

The letter that struck me the most was written by Albert Speer, one of the architects of the Third Reich and a high-ranking Nazi. He was presented at the Nuremberg Trials and sentenced to twenty years for his activities during WWII. He's also the only one from the Nuremberg Trials to express remorse at what he'd done. He wrote that he's continued to regret his actions, but maintained that he didn't want any forgiveness because he didn't deserve it. There may be a time when Speer has atoned enough that he will ask for forgiveness, but that time is not now. I respected that attitude because there are things for which you need to forgive yourself before you ask others to forgive, and there may be things for which you can never forgive yourself.

A final note I'll leave you with regarding this novel is that many of the genocide survivors balked at forgiving their torturers, because forgiving paves the road to forgetting. My professor posited that America is still dealing with the repercussions of the unconditional forgiveness Abraham Lincoln gave to the Confederacy. It was a century before African-Americans were given the rights the Civil War was ostensibly (I'm grossly simplifying U.S. History here.) about. It's entirely possible that this fear is true. (less)

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Aug 08, 2007

Matthew rated it

Wiesenthal's true story might just be a thought experiment for an Intro to Ethics course, were it not for his writing, which makes this book something loftier. Much less interesting are the short essays that make up the second part of the book. In these, an all-star team of moral authorities (including Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama) offer brief responses to the central dilemma of the story: To what extent are victims of atrocities required or even permitted to forgive their persecutors?
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Jan 04, 2009

Gabrielle Brewer-Wallin rated it

Recommended by Juli Ann -- I'm not sure I'll do this in a sitting; I may mete out the essays between other pieces of fiction.

Well...I'll be honest. I didn't read every essay in the back of the book. I read the ones written by people I have heard of. That was interesting. I enjoyed reading Matthew Fox & Desmond Tutu. Cynthia Ozick's was my favorite response. I think my reading of this holocaust account was made more intense by my experience at the Museum of Tolerance this ...more

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Aug 25, 2007

Mom rated it

This book gathers a diverse collection of responses to a request for forgiveness by a dying soldier for atrocities he took part in. In part, some of the responses tended to gather around perspectives that different faiths had about forgiveness, including a core question of whether some acts can even be forgiven if the person who was wronged was no longer living and could not be asked for forgiveness. The power in the book was to communicate that "forgiveness" is not something to glibly...more

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Feb 01, 2008

Katherine rated it

Here's the story: When our author, Simon Wiesenthal, was on work detail in a concentration camp, a dying SS soldier had him fetched at random, confessed hideous crimes to him, and begged for his forgiveness. Not knowing how to respond, Wiesenthal left the room. The soldier died later that night. Wiesenthal still wonders what he should have done.

The second half of the book consists of short responses from political and spiritual leaders, teachers, and philosophers, tackling the big qu...more

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Jan 24, 2008

Andrew rated it

The first half of The Sunflower details an event from Simon Wiesenthal's past. While in a concentration camp, Wiesenthal is summoned to the death bed of a Nazi soldier whose final wish is confess all he has done to a Jew and ask forgiveness. The narrative provides Wiesenthal's response as well as a human look at the death and suffering of the Holocaust. The first half of the book closes with his reflections on the central experience as well as his decision on this plea for forgiveness.
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May 06, 2008

Renee rated it

Shelves: friendrecommendation, philosophy

This book tells a story and then asks "famous" philosophical people from around the world to comment on whether the character could or should have forgiven another character. However, I didn't know who any but two of the famous people were and did not know until the end that there is a small biography of each in an index. That would have probably helped some. Even then, though, in general it felt like the comments refused to take a side and most hovered over middle ground, afraid to ma...more

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Nov 18, 2010

Mrsgaskell rated it

Shelves: 10-star, bookcrossing, nonfiction

This is probably one of the most powerfully moving and thought-provoking books I’ve ever read. The first half of the book recounts an experience of Wiesenthal’s while he was a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp. While on work detail at a hospital he was taken to the bed of a dying SS soldier who confessed his crimes against Jews and asked for Wiesenthal's forgiveness. Wiesenthal remained silent but was haunted afterwards by this experience, and visited the soldier’s mother after the war. He e...moreThis is probably one of the most powerfully moving and thought-provoking books I’ve ever read. The first half of the book recounts an experience of Wiesenthal’s while he was a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp. While on work detail at a hospital he was taken to the bed of a dying SS soldier who confessed his crimes against Jews and asked for Wiesenthal's forgiveness. Wiesenthal remained silent but was haunted afterwards by this experience, and visited the soldier’s mother after the war. He ends his account by asking what the reader would have done, and the rest of the book is a collection of responses from 53 different people including theologians, Holocaust survivors, political leaders, psychiatrists, writers, and even Albert Speer. The question is not a simple one, and it raises other questions. What does forgiveness mean? Does one have the right to forgive something that was done to another? What about collective guilt? I think Wiesenthal was an honorable man and I think his silence was understandable under the circumstances. What I particularly admire and respect was his silence about the son’s crimes when he visited the mother. Some respondents felt he should have told her what her son did. Many, probably most, of the respondents felt that one does not have the right to forgive a crime committed against another but Christopher Hollis, a British journalist and former MP saw it this way:
“But insofar as this act was not merely a personal act of one SS man against one Jewish child but an incident in a general campaign of genocide, the author was as much a victim – or likely to be soon a victim – of that campaign as was the child, and being a sufferer, had therefore the right to forgive. His forgiveness could not in the nature of things be the casual, idle word of someone who pardoned without caring the perpetrator of a distant crime to which he was really indifferent.” (less)

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Oct 24, 2010

Dawn rated it

Recommended to Dawn by: Maren Elliott

I recommended this book to my book club . It's a true story about a Jewish man who is asked by a Nazi to forgive him, and he really struggles with that (understandably). The story brings up moral issues which are not easy to answer. It's fairly short, quite interesting and a good book for discussion. I think it makes an interesting contrast to The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom. After WWII, the author spent his life helping to track down former Nazis and bring them to justice.

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Jul 21, 2010

Karima rated it

I gave this book five stars not because of literary style or readability but because of IMPACT, on a very personal level. The theme here is FORGIVENESS: it's meaning, it's affect on our lives, and its limits or limitlessness.
I did not choose this book. My 87 year old Aunt Dominica lent it to me and asked me to read it. She had recently read it and was hungry to discuss it with someone. I look forward to that exchange.
This book is divided into two parts. The first section (a mere 98 p...moreI gave this book five stars not because of literary style or readability but because of IMPACT, on a very personal level. The theme here is FORGIVENESS: it's meaning, it's affect on our lives, and its limits or limitlessness.
I did not choose this book. My 87 year old Aunt Dominica lent it to me and asked me to read it. She had recently read it and was hungry to discuss it with someone. I look forward to that exchange.
This book is divided into two parts. The first section (a mere 98 pages)is the true account of young Simon Wiesenthal as a Jewish prisoner on work detail under Hitler's rule. This is not another telling of the horrors of day-to-day existence in a concentration camp, but rather, the telling of an exchange between himself and a dying S.S. officer, who wishes to speak with "a Jew" so that he may confess his crimes against the Jewish people, and be absolved/forgiven, so that he may die in peace.
The remainder of the book is the response of fifty-three noted persons (theologians, holocaust survivors, political leaders, writers), to the author's experience. The responses were surprising to me. I thought the answer to the author's question was simple, "Should he (could he)have granted forgiveness to the S.S. man?" My initial response was, "But of course, forgive everything." And though I still feel this way, the responders brought up so many issues that I had never considered. Can forgiveness be granted by one not directly harmed by the inflicter? Must forgiveness include restitution to be complete? Are there some crimes so vast as to be unforgivable? What is our responsibility? What is our GUILT? I agree with Matthew Fox that "sins of complicity" are killing our planet. This story applies to TODAY.
I close with a story offered by one of the respondents, Christopher Hollis;
"According to an old medieval legend the Apostles assembled together in heaven to recelebrate the Last Supper. There was one place vacant, until through the door Judas came in and Christ rose and kissed him and said,"We have waited for thee."

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Mar 22, 2010

Kristin rated it

Shelves: 2010

Simon Wiesenthal may be best known for his dedication to hunting Nazi war criminals and bringing them to justice. However his book, The Sunflower, provides the world with an equally valuable service, to question oneself and our actions. The Sunflower is written in two parts. The first part tells of his encounter with a dying SS soldier while he was incarcerated in a work camp . The dying man asks for Wiesenthal's forgiveness as a representative of the Jewish community the soldier has persecu...more

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Nov 26, 2008

Beth A. rated it

Shelves: nonfiction

This book is in two parts, Wiesenthal’s story and “The Symposium.” Several “eminent persons” were invited to answer the question posed at the end of the story, “What would I have done?” The question was, should Wiesenthal have forgiven the Nazi soldier who confessed to killing a Jewish family.

The first part, the story of Weisenthal, his circumstances at the Mauthausen Concentration Camp and the Nazi soldier’s request for forgiveness, was excellent. It wasn’t too descriptive of the ho...more

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Jul 03, 2010

Natalie rated it

Simon Wiesenthal proposes the question, "What would you have done?" What would I have done? That is an impossible question to answer. I would like to say that I would have forgiven the S.S. officer, but at the same time I would like to say that I would not have forgiven him. Is it my right to forgive on the behalf of others? If so how can I if they are all dead? The novel is mind-boggling for not only me, for for most of those who respond to Simon's debacle.
Here is how I see it....more

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Sep 27, 2011

Tessa Stockton rated it

Shelves: forgiveness, nazi, war-criminal, holocaust

In the end, I couldn’t decide whether I loved or hated The Sunflower—though I found the book fascinating. Simon Wiesenthal shares a distressing account when, as a concentration camp prisoner, he’s beckoned to the side of a dying Nazi SS who, there from the deathbed, admits acts against humanity and, in his last breath, pleads with Wiesenthal for forgiveness.

Wiesenthal listens to the mortally wounded young Nazi then walks away granting nothing but silence. At the end, the survivor/aut...more

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Jan 27, 2012

Eric rated it

Recommends it for: literature students, holocaust researchers,

Recommended to Eric by: English 400- Remembering the Holocaust

Forgiveness is such a tricky thing isn't it? That is one of the baselines of this particular book. The book is written by a survivor of the Holocaust and a very peculiar incident that happens to him during his time in a concentration camp. I have to be completely honest if this wasn't for a course that I am in this semester this would have been one of the first books that I simply didn't respond to at all, but I actually have to write a response for my course. The book talks about the limits of ...more

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Nov 15, 2010

Michael Cremin rated it

While the premise may sound made up, it is not: the author of this book was a young man caught up on the wrong side of World War II, and--as a Jew living in Poland--was forced into slave labor in various concentration camps. During one stint at a hospital, a nurse called the author to the beside of a dying Nazi soldier who confessed his horrific crimes and asked for forgiveness.

The question in The Sunflower is, should Mr. Wiesenthal--who went on to become a very successful Nazi hunter...moreWhile the premise may sound made up, it is not: the author of this book was a young man caught up on the wrong side of World War II, and--as a Jew living in Poland--was forced into slave labor in various concentration camps. During one stint at a hospital, a nurse called the author to the beside of a dying Nazi soldier who confessed his horrific crimes and asked for forgiveness.

The question in The Sunflower is, should Mr. Wiesenthal--who went on to become a very successful Nazi hunter in the years after the war--have forgiven the Nazi? Most of the book is taken up by essays written by people who feel one way or another about the issue. Many of the Jews interviewed, for example, said no, you cannot forgive a man for crimes that are not committed against you, and besides, what the Nazis did was unforgivable. Conversely, many of the Christian essayists argued that if the man was truly contrite (and the author believed that he was) then Wiesenthal should have forgiven him, or at least given him some sense that his apology was understood as being heartfelt, even if the author could not, or would not, accept it.

What I found most powerful in the story was when the author managed to find the Nazi's mother after the war. She explained to him how her son had, as a teenager, gotten caught up in the Nazi madness, and how she and her husband (who was also killed in the war) had tried to raise him as a Catholic, and how they tried to stop him from entering the SS. Wiesenthal shows tremendous compassion by not telling the distraught mother about the horrific acts that her son had confessed to him on his deathbed. I thought this was a tremendous act of kindness and humanity on the part of a man whose entire extended family was killed by Germans just like the one who had begged him for forgiveness.

The Sunflower has no easy answers for questions about forgiveness and repentance. I found many (not all) of the essays thought-provoking, especially the one by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a man who helped foster healing and forgiveness in post-Apartheid South Africa with "Truth and Reconciliation" boards.

For myself, I would not have forgiven the Nazi bastard and told him to enjoy the Hell he had so richly earned. I understand that, as Christians, Jesus tells us to forgive those who hurt us, and maybe--on a personal level--that makes sense. But when millions of innocent human beings are murdered by otherwise sane, rational people like the Germans, their forgiveness is out of the hands of mere mortals like us. Perhaps God can forgive the Nazis for what they did. I, for one, cannot. Nor do I especially want to.

This was a powerful, thought-provoking book. (less)

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May 11, 2011

Lindsey Duncan rated it

Shelves: non-fiction

Deceptively simple, thought-provoking and sometimes chilling, The Sunflower is both a story and an invitation to explore what seems (on the face) a straightforward question ... but as its situational, moral and emotional layers peel away, becomes anything but. The book is comprised of two parts: first, the account of how the author, a Jewish man in a concentration camp, is called to the side of a dying Nazi soldier who begs forgiveness for his crimes; second, a collection of essays written in ...moreDeceptively simple, thought-provoking and sometimes chilling, The Sunflower is both a story and an invitation to explore what seems (on the face) a straightforward question ... but as its situational, moral and emotional layers peel away, becomes anything but. The book is comprised of two parts: first, the account of how the author, a Jewish man in a concentration camp, is called to the side of a dying Nazi soldier who begs forgiveness for his crimes; second, a collection of essays written in response.

I had read this book before, but I was surprised again how brief the encounter itself is. Using language that is straightforward but often poetic, realistic without becoming laden with melodrama, Wiesenthal builds a picture of his life and the mental state of his fellow prisoners and discusses the history of the high school in which he finds himself ... before he is called to the side of the SS man. The pages that form the purpose of this book disappear so swiftly ... and then the reader is drawn on to deal with Wiesenthal's fall-out, the conversations with fellow prisoners, and finally, a secondary confrontation years later with the SS man's mother. As a story - a novella, if you will - this account is satisfying in itself.

The essays that follow are hit and miss. Some are harsh, some merciful; some prosaic, some poetic and beautiful. Some present angles of the situation that a reader may never have considered, and you may come away richer for it. In my mind, however, there is perhaps more than a critical mass of essays here ... and some of them are incomplete, off-point - the author launching from the actual question to discuss a related topic of personal investment - or maddeningly reductionist. I can accept starting from the religious stance that is impossible to forgive someone who has not harmed you personally: I cannot accept ending with that stance without further exploration. Religion is not the only source of morality. I don't recognize a lot of the authors' names, I confess, and I wonder if some of the essays were included less because of merit or balance than because they were written by a "big name" individual.

That said, this book is definitely worth a read, worth thought ... worth attempting the exploration at its heart: what would I have done?(less)

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Oct 11, 2009

Patty rated it

Shelves: 2009, death, essays, god, holocaust, history, judaism, non-fiction, religion, spirituality, war, world-war-ii, forgiveness

Like is an odd term for this book. By giving it 4 stars on this website, I am saying that I really liked this book. I am glad I read these essays; this book was extremely thought-provoking for me and I will remember Wiesenthal's questions for a very long time. But like, I am not sure that is possible.

This is not a book that the reader enjoys. If I am honest with myself, Simon Wiesenthal makes me squirm with his story. When he encountered that Nazi SS solider, he could have been ...more

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Jan 02, 2011

Dan Smee rated it

You said Mr. Wiesenthal that the sunflowers stood straight as soldiers at attention on the graves of dead Nazis. Butterflies danced above their graves as the sunflowers soaked in the sunshine and brought light and life to the dead below. And this, you saw, you would never have. You, being a Jew, were in the eyes of the Nazi disposable garbage that one threw out on a pile when its usefulness had expired. Garbage doesn’t need a proper burial, and you would be accorded no dignity in death. So, ...moreYou said Mr. Wiesenthal that the sunflowers stood straight as soldiers at attention on the graves of dead Nazis. Butterflies danced above their graves as the sunflowers soaked in the sunshine and brought light and life to the dead below. And this, you saw, you would never have. You, being a Jew, were in the eyes of the Nazi disposable garbage that one threw out on a pile when its usefulness had expired. Garbage doesn’t need a proper burial, and you would be accorded no dignity in death. So, what should you have done when the SS soldier on his deathbed wants your forgiveness as a Jew so that he can die in peace? This man who tells you that he and his brutal brethren marched perhaps two hundred Jews, many of whom were small children, onto a truck. He saw in their eyes fear, and recalled their frantic cries when forced into a house that was to be burned down. And this Nazi watched the flames blaze like hell through the house. He tells you he saw a man, a child, a woman jump from the windows their burning bodies flying down. And, he says, he saw the child, “it” had black hair and eyes. It. And now, he bemoans his short life, tells you he was a Catholic, tells you he has a mother who loves him, and in soft tones, in a pleading voice wants your forgiveness.

What is forgiveness? Christianity teaches, in the Lord’s Prayer, “And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” (traditional Matthean version). In Luke 23:34, “And Jesus said: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Can one man forgive another for such a great sin as committed by the Nazi? Mr. Wiesenthal the position that you found yourself in is one which no man could imagine. But was forgiveness an option? Josek, your fellow prisoner and friend, tells you that he feared that you had forgiven the SS man. He said then, “You would have had no right to do this in the name of people who had not authorized you do so. What people have done to you yourself, you can, if you like, forgive and forget. That is your own affair. But it would have been a terrible sin to burden your conscience with other people’s sufferings.” Josek makes an important point. The dying SS soldier had sinned beyond the limits of human forgiveness. You were in no position to forgive him. You are not God, who is the final arbiter of judgment and redemption. And as Josek said, in the afterlife those who had died at the hands of this Nazi soldier would ask you, had you forgiven him, “Who gave you the right to forgive our murderer?”

But, you had countered Josek that the soldier seemed repentant and was in torment. Moreover, as he was dying had no time left to repent or atone for his crimes. Here, Arthur’s words are powerful. He, who also suffered and later died at the concentration camp, says to you, “A superman has asked a subhuman to do something which is superhuman. If you had forgiven him, you would never have forgiven yourself all of your life.” Consider this, this Nazi if he had not been on his deathbed would have viewed you Mr. Wiesenthal, as less than a piece of excrement. Yet, in the throes of death, he a member of the Super Race, needs you, want you, a Jew-something less than human, to forgive his transgressions. Think of his selfishness. Even in the face of death his evil is still alive. He cloaks himself in a soft and sympathetic voice, grabbing your hand, treating with you with respect. That is how evil works, like a snake charming you as if it is a harmless rabbit. This Nazi should not have been asking for forgiveness. If he in the moments before he met his Maker had a stab of conscience, he the soldier should have said, “I have been nothing but evil, and I deserve every bit of torture in Hell that I am about to receive.” That would have been repentance.

One of your contemporaries and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl’s writes in his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, that the meaning of life is found in every moment of living. Frankl states that life never ceases to have meaning even under horrific suffering. Maybe this is what you, Mr. Wiesenthal, were thinking of when you saw the dying man asking for your forgiveness. As Josek had told you “in each person’s life there are historic moments which rarely occur-and today you have experienced one such.” You were trying to make sense of, that is, form meaning from the surreal moment of being in your old high school, now a Nazi hospital, where you a Jewish prisoner are asked by a dying SS soldier to forgive him. And this is extraordinary. That you held onto your better self, that despite all the humiliation, torture, and deprivations you had suffered at the hands of the Nazis, you were still willing to contemplate forgiving this man. Your heart had the capacity to see him beyond the monster that he was. You saw his soul.
Dan Smee
Author "Totally American"

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Aug 11, 2008

Crystal rated it

Recommends it for: Everyone who wants to think about forgiveness

Recommended to Crystal by: My Holocaust Professor, Dr. Tim Crawford

Shelves: favorites

I would recommend this book to ANYONE. I feel that everyone should read it. It will certainly give you something to think about. And if you are so inclinced you should read it and not put it down - at least for the first half of the book. There is a question contained for every reader. Check it out to see how you would answer.

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Feb 01, 2008

Mary rated it

Recommended to Mary by: Lyn Minh

The holocaust is the backdrop for this memoir, but it is about transcending the tendency to judge by extremes: black and white, good and evil, left and right (etc.) the truth is much more complicated, thus we must look between the extremes to find it. Wiesenthal also illustrates the power of silence.

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Jan 22, 2012

Jeanne rated it

How do we find forgiveness? "Very few of us still prayed. He who is incessantly tortured in spite of his innocence soon loses his faith..."p.80 "repentance is the most important element in seeking forgiveness..." p.83 what if we are told to forgive but the other person does not acknowledge or repent...is forgiveness for the victim or victimizer? Dare we not forgive, lest we become bitter against G-d. Anger is the opposite of forgiveness and much anger is needed in justice but who wants justice ...more

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Dec 06, 2011

Amanda rated it

Shelves: holocaust

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I read this book for my completion in 'Facing History and Ourselves.' A high school class that revelates the way history basically effects us all. It's a first encounter of the Holocaust, and I'm a die-hard to hear about this. I always hate that I am insanley interested in the Holocaust, but it's only because I will never be able to answer why it happened or how. Maybe it is possible, but I'll never know the answer.
We were assigned to write personal symposium's so I'll post mine along with...moreI read this book for my completion in 'Facing History and Ourselves.' A high school class that revelates the way history basically effects us all. It's a first encounter of the Holocaust, and I'm a die-hard to hear about this. I always hate that I am insanley interested in the Holocaust, but it's only because I will never be able to answer why it happened or how. Maybe it is possible, but I'll never know the answer.
We were assigned to write personal symposium's so I'll post mine along with this review:
I barely have encountered someone asking for my forgiveness. Someone who wants to be forgiven, knew what they were doing. But they were caught in the act, and in this case too scared to suffice their own life for others. I believe that Karl shutters the existence of a coward but he is also a human. A man who made a mistake, and who feared for his own safety. Put anyone in this situation and they will do the same. But why does he ask for forgiveness? Why does he need forgiveness? Deep down inside he knows that what he did was wrong, and he wants justification. In his position, I could not watch people die and I could not murder them either. In the concentration camp during a philosophical conversation about God, Simon’s friend Josek says:
“The angel brought back a clod of earth which was soaked in his tears, tears that he had shed on being banished from heaven. And from this clod of earth the Lord God created man." (Wiesenthal 6)
I am more of an agnostic person, who has no idea where the origination of beings came from and does not chose to know either. But I respect the men who said this very statement, because they are completely right. What they were made up of was pure, and the officers during the Holocaust were made from evil. To kill someone and feel nothing is sick, none of them deserve a forgiveness. On the other hand, Simon touches upon the difference of some soldiers in a passage of his novel. While being constructed by an officer he thinks:
“The other soldiers didn’t seem to share his views. They looked at us sympathetically and one of them shook his head doubtfully, but none dared to say a word. The soldier who had approached us uttered a few more curses....I thought to myself that this vile creature would one day have a sunflower planted on his grave to watch over him” (Wiesenthal 22).
This is the part where it is hard to figure out how many killed others because they were forced to. Or how many people did, because they wanted to. If I was in Simon Wiesenthal’s position, I would be tied between forgiving Karl and the idea of letting him suffer. I have such a heavy conscience that if I chose either, I could not bear the thoughts. And this is where Simon makes the realization:
“All my instincts were against continuing to listen to this deathbed disavowal. I wanted to get away. The dying man must have felt this, for he dropped the letter and groped from my arm. The movement was so pathetically helpless that all of a sudden I felt sorry for him. I would stay, although I wanted to go (Wiesenthal 35).
I would leave him a question instead. ‘Could you forgive yourself?’ Do not ask to be forgiven, if you do not think you deserve it. You ask, because you feel the deliverance will be positive. There is another literary author and Holocaust survivor named Elie Wiesel who has written novels about his experience. In an interview when he is questioned about forgiveness he says:
“For years I was often asked, can I forgive the Holocaust? I said, "Forgive whom? Can I forgive the Germans? I don’t believe in collective guilt. Who am I to forgive? Everybody?" If you could make the six million people talk, maybe they would say, "Come on, let’s turn the page." But they can’t talk. They’ve been made mute, rendered mute by the killer.”
When he says this, I realize that forgiveness is one of the many hardest decisions we will make in our lives, and the outcome of that decision will forever make our future. If we forgive someone who has decimated an entire race, we are letting them know its okay. We are letting them, think they can kill others once again. But on the other hand, we are forgiving them because it is the kindness inside of us. I can surround the idea of forgiving Karl the SS officer all day, but when it comes down to it, I can truthfully say I never would have done what he did. Karl, you were one of the Germans, you were the superior race and you did not die at the hands of another man. If you were Simon, and if your parents were killed or what if you had children and they were killed? How can you find it in yourself to forgive a killer? In the deepest depths of my heart and of myself, I would forgive you. Not because of who you are, but because of who I am. And beyond what you know, a little part of me will never forgive you. I’m a half and half person, I will never have an equal emotion.
From the vast amounts of symposium’s written in response to The Sunflower , I would chose only a select few to express my decision. From Rodger Kamenetz, he writes: “You were not addressed as a person. You were addressed, from his perspective, as Jew. Not as a Jew, Jewish person, as an individual, with a life, a history, a heartbreak of your own, but merely as Jew....That did not give you proper respect...Yes, he saw the suffering he had inflicted, and he felt the guilt....He could not see you as a person because he could only see you as Jew"(Kamenetz 181).
Kamenetz makes a valid point in saying that Karl never addressed Simon as an individual. If he felt any remorse or care, he would of personally told him how he felt. Instead he creates a picture of who he watched die and how he felt pity for himself. He did not want to die with a heavy conscience, so he put the weight on someone else, someone who did not need to answer his question. I believe that apart of forgiveness can be taken in direct recomposition, but to do what Karl did feels horrible. Another from the responses to Simon’s story, I find Cynthia Ozick’s to be of utter brilliance. She takes what the reader is feeling and twists it into different opinions. But it is back and forth, she will not give a simple answer. She does gives the example:
“Only if there is a next time. ‘I forgive you,’ we say to the child who has muddied the carpet, “but next time don’t do it again.” Next time she will leave the muddy boots outside the door; forgiveness, with its enlarging capacities.....But murder is irrevocable Murder is irreversible. With murder there is no ‘next time.’ Even if forgiveness restrains one from perpetrating a new batch of corpses, will the last batch come alive again?’ (Ozick 215)
So here she first sets people up with the belittled version of forgiveness, the mistake of a child. These point of views are far from each other, but they are similar in value. Forgiveness gives us second chances and different tries. When someone murders another, they cannot bring them back, they can never bring them back. Here is where the mentality of a child is no longer in view point, a straight and forward murderer knows what they have done. Jean Améry writes a response to Simon telling him that he may have given signs of forgiveness but he also gives signs of not forgiving Karl. But at the end of his section he writes an intense argument. He says, “He [Karl] and his death don’t matter, just as the response of inmate Wiesenthal doesn’t matter’(Améry 109). When all of these points connect, the idea comes together that Simon was never targeted for a personal purpose. He was targeted to let a man wash away his sins. To Karl, Simon had no name; to Karl he was another bar code, and to Karl, he was his priest. He could listen to Karl and he could say the words he wanted to hear because Simon was afraid of him. He was afraid because Karl was once in power and he could easily still be, even on his death bed. The deep roots of forgiveness lie in those who want to grant it. Karl shows signs of remorse but his decision can never change. ‘Murder is irrevocable’ and it is ingrained because people never come back from the dead. The only true way Karl was forgiven was after his own death, when he is gone and he cannot watch others kill anymore. Because if he stayed alive, he would still be watching others die. People cannot always find ways to change, but I believe there is some hope for Karl, that Simon could have forgiven him. But the rest of the world, and all of the people who died in the Holocaust never had the chance to talk to him, and never had the chance to live. That is the difference between Karl and those six million people, he was not afraid in his last hours of his life. He did not need forgiveness to pass on, he had it in his mind all along.

(No one will obviously read all this..Just posting for personal reference) (less)

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Sep 07, 2010

Ashley rated it

Shelves: non-fiction

This book had me wanting to write my own essay through the whole symposium. I never thought I would end up having such a vivid opinion on the subject, but after reading 53 responses I really felt strongly about my own personal view.

I felt the memoir at the beginning was not nearly as powerful as other Holocaust memoirs that I have experienced previously. I think Simon told it well but didn't reall drag me into it as much as other have. Additionally, I felt that many of the essays ...moreThis book had me wanting to write my own essay through the whole symposium. I never thought I would end up having such a vivid opinion on the subject, but after reading 53 responses I really felt strongly about my own personal view.

I felt the memoir at the beginning was not nearly as powerful as other Holocaust memoirs that I have experienced previously. I think Simon told it well but didn't reall drag me into it as much as other have. Additionally, I felt that many of the essays in the symposium were redundant - understandable, but hard to get through by the end. My final qualm with the book was that really only people of religion were asked to respond to this memoir. I would have liked some more varied opinions. For example - yes, I have grown up in a Christian society, but other than that I have no connection whatsoever with religion (the only religious service I have EVER attended was a Jewish one last year for a class assignment.) And yet I lean toward the idea of forgiveness - which the book claims most Christians believe in. I would like to see what other non-relgion influenced people thought about the situation.

Ultimately, for me, I think it's so much easier to be harsh, to be unable to forgive. I beliee it is in our nature as humans to hold grudges - which is why I think so many people said they could not forgive, that Simon had no right to forgive, that there is that limit on forgiveness. I'm not so sure. I think that, no, Simon could not have forgiven Karl for what he did to those people, never, ever. But I think he could forgive him for himself - meaning that Simon could have, if he had wanted to, said something to the extent of, "For my own, I forgive you. I understand you pain and will not hold it against you. But I cannot and will not speak for anyone other than myself." - And what would that have done? Maybe it would have released some bitterness. Maybe, if we humans are ever able to truly rise to that compassion, maybe we can stop a lot of terrible things from happening in the world. After all - what drives all wars? Resentment? Revenge? Misunderstandings? If we all had the ability to forgive, maybe the world would be a better place. That being said, I know that I am in no position to understand and pass judgement. Do I think the Jewish people should forget? Absolutely not. Do I think the Holocaust should be forgiven? Also, probably not. If I were in Simon's should I probably would have done the same thing he did. I think forgiveness is an individual basis and that only individuals have the ability to say, one-on-one what that means. (less)

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Sep 13, 2011

Pooker rated it

Recommended to Pooker by: Received via BookCrossing

Shelves: non-fiction

I read this book slowly over the last month, attempting to formulate my own answer to the question, "What would [I] do?". Of all the views expressed in the book, and while mine changed a bit from time to time, I am left with a similar opinion as to what the right answer ought to be as that expressed by Andre Stein. Go read it; he expresses it far more eloquently than I ever could.

I agree with his sentiment that, "Simon's silence had to be a choiceless choice; it should...moreI read this book slowly over the last month, attempting to formulate my own answer to the question, "What would [I] do?". Of all the views expressed in the book, and while mine changed a bit from time to time, I am left with a similar opinion as to what the right answer ought to be as that expressed by Andre Stein. Go read it; he expresses it far more eloquently than I ever could.

I agree with his sentiment that, "Simon's silence had to be a choiceless choice; it should not be argued in the lap of ordinary daily reality and with the distance of half a century."

Personally, I am of the view that Karl's request was purely a selfish act. I don't believe it mattered to him one way or the other whether a Jew (pick a Jew any Jew) forgave him or not. How could it? What meaning could be taken from the forgiveness or non-forgiveness of someone suffering from the effects of, as Weinsenthal stated, "mental paralysis".

In all honesty, being a people-pleasing person in the first place, and in those unimaginable circumstances, I would probably have said, "Sure pal, I forgive you. Now where can I pick up my reward?" That reward being personal freedom, the freedom of some other sufferer, or a crust of bread, or one more breath.

It was interesting to note, as one respondent did, that the Jewish respondents were not prepared to forgive and the respondents who were not Jewish were more inclined to.

I also noticed that the voice of most of the respondents, Jewish or not, seemed, with a few exceptions, to be very similar. I actually wondered at times whether these were the actual responses of the various people or whether their responses had been rephrased by the author. That couldn't be. Perhaps it's just due to the tendency of academics to "speak" the same tedious language.

Also in a cynical moment, I wondered about Weisenthal's motive in publishing this book, really not once but twice. Did he really want people to think about the question or did he just want to make a buck?

Regardless of his motives, the book did make me think and that in and of itself made the book worthwhile to me. As might be expected, I drew parallels to the Canadian residential schools history. Ultimately, although not an answer to the question asked, I agree with Justice Murray Sinclair who, speaking at a recent Truth and Reconciliation event said, "Forgiveness is not a prerequisite to reconciliation. Forgiveness is not always possible." (less)

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Jun 23, 2009

Kathleen Dixon rated it

Shelves: history, religion-and-spirituality

This is an extraordinary book. Simon Wiesenthal is the “Nazi hunter” who spent his life since the war (WWII) identifying Nazi war criminals in order for them to be brought to trial. For this work he has been honoured by the governments of Italy, the Netherlands, Israel, and the United States. He was born in 1908 in Buczaz, a city in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and he studied in Prague and Lvov. He had just begun work in an architectural office in Lvov (Poland) when the Germans invaded. Fro...more

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Jan 19, 2011

Marie rated it

Shelves: adult-books-fiction

My son had to read this in 2009 at the beginning of 8th grade- I read it and was astounded- a brief story about a Jewish man in a concentration camp, who is astoundingly asked to visit a dying SS soldier-in the hospital the man is assigned to do a work detail in. Te soldier wants to the prisoner to hear his story and then forgive him on behalf of all his 'people.' This is such a powerfully written and thoughtful story. At the end there is a special section, where literary, scientific, political,...more

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Jul 25, 2010

Kathy Maggiacomo rated it

Shelves: survival, ww2, our-book-group-books

Not a summer read. Too deep but I think it's an important book to read. It's scary to think how a government can have corupt people rise to power, Hitler, and worse is to think how people don't stop it from happening. How could anyone convince "good boys" who were raised with religious beliefs and morals to murder innocent Jews or any group for that matter on such a scale. It shocks me to believe people are capable of shooting down woman, children and unarmed civilians with the belief ...more

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Sep 11, 2010

Maria Hooley rated it

This book is an amazing study in how people view forgiveness. Could a single Jew forgive a dying Nazi for his crimes against humanity? Would a Jew even be able to offer that considering all the atrocities he has suffered? Does he have that right because he is not the only one who suffered?

What I think is most powerful about this book is that it forces readers not only to think about forgiveness on a broad scale but also on a personal one. How do you deal with those who have wronged...more

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Aug 21, 2011

Denise rated it

This quick but profound read should be required reading for every young person based on the moral question it poses. Simon Wiesenthal (aka "The Nazi Hunter"), a Jewish concentration camp prisoner, recounts in a short story the time he was asked by a dying German soldier to forgive him for a particularly horrifying atrocity he and his group had committed. Simon's stunned and stony silence during the confession went on to haunt him and decades later he asked a number of scholars what the...more

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