Analysis Of The Sunflower By Simon Wiesenthal

When it comes to the topic of Simon Wiesenthal not forgiving a dying SS soldier for his crimes, most of us will readily agree that it’s a debatable topic. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of if Wiesenthal should have forgiven the soldier. Whereas some are convinced that he made the right choice in not forgiving the soldier, others maintain that he should have let the soldier die peacefully, guilt free, and forgiven. I agree with Wiesenthal’s decision to not forgive the dying SS soldier because he cannot speak for all the other Jews who have been killed by this man. In Simon Wiesenthal’s book, The Sunflower, he asks the reader what they would have done in his position with the SS soldier. If I was Wiesenthal, I wouldn’t have forgiven the man as I cannot make decisions for others and because the soldier was not sincere in his apology for the crimes he was involved in.

Simon was an architect and many other things before he entered the ghetto. In the ghetto, he was simply just a Jew. Like so many other humans during world war two and the holocaust, Simon was reduced to one word, Jew. Simon paints a scary sadly realistic portrayal of the ghettos from a prisoner perspective with his words. Out of the many moving quotes Simon gives us throughout the sunflower, this one stuck with me the most, he writes “ I once read somewhere that it is impossible to break a man’s firm belief . If I ever thought that true, life in a concentration camp taught me differently. It is impossible to believe anything in a world that has ceased to regard man as man...So one begins to doubt, one begins to cease to believe in a world order in which God has a definite place. One really begins to think that God is on leave” (Wiesenthal, 9). In my opinion, this must have been how most prisoners felt while enslaved in concentration camps. This also makes it difficult to understand why Wiesenthal did not just flat out say he does not forgive the soldier. When you go as far to believe God is not present in your life how does one not be resentful toward forgiveness of a nazi soldier?

“I cannot recognize the verdict of guilty. . . . It was my misfortune to become entangled in these atrocities. But these misdeeds did not happen according to my wishes. It was not my wish to slay people. . . . Once again I would stress that I am guilty of having been obedient, having subordinated myself to my official duties and the obligations of war service and my oath of allegiance and my oath of office, and in addition, once the war started, there was also martial law. . . . I did not persecute Jews with avidity and passion. That is what

To sum things up in the Sunflower Karl wanted to forgive Simon and all the Jews but he didn’t respond to him. If I were Simon I would forgive Karl just to make him feel a little better before death... Then I again changed my opinion, to stage where I thought I would forgive him, but only by words, not actually in my mind. I changed my first opinion because of Josek, in the story he said one can forgive someone else only when the person did wrong to him, not to the

This is a matter of philosophical interpersonal forgiveness. Karl does not ask for God’s forgiveness, he simply asks for Simon’s. He is asking for there to be forgiveness granted between two people. What Simon feels is out of Karl’s control, but he can try his best to have Simon feel sorry for him. Despite who Karl is Simon does subconsciously feel some pity for the man as he waves off an irritating beetle and stays to hear the whole story. He also is able to imagine Karl as more of a real person after visiting Karl’s mother, seeing his photograph, and hearing what she thought of her son. His heart softens for Karl’s mother as he decides to not shatter her illusion of her angelic son, but he still fails to produce an answer for himself after leaving her.

Fist of all what is forgiveness? Many of the contributors to Wiesenthal “The Sunflower” give their own definition, but most agree it is the act of relieving someone of their crimes against

Alan L. Berger, a Professor of the Holocaust and Religion, expresses in The Sunflower that Simon even though being an imprisoned jew could not take the apology on the behalf others. He refers to Judaism that there are two types of sins; one against god and one against another human. Berger states about forgiveness that ‘I may forgive one who has sinned against me. I may

In The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal, a wounded soldier asks Simon for forgiveness for a terrible crime he committed during the Holocaust. He is on his deathbed, and asks a nurse to bring a Jewish person to him. The nurse brings Simon and Simon doesn’t forgive him, instead walking out without saying anything. After reading The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal along with multiple essays responding to it, I believe Simon should have forgiven the man because he was manipulated into thinking what he was doing was right.

His argument was that if this was true and Karl was not held responsible because he wanted forgiveness. Berger put shame on the Church, murderers and those who ask for forgiveness who could not forgive themselves. I agree with Berger because even though you are sorry and are guilty of do horrible crimes you must still pay for your sins. Also, even though Karl was a dying man and wanted forgiveness as a dying wish, you should not give him what he wants when it involves other groups of people.

The moral issues of the movie question the concepts of what we believe in to be right and wrong, sin and benevolence. In Karl's position did he even know what was right and what was wrong?

He says, “ It is also a question of how much, how quickly, how easily can any individual forgive a mass murderer”(Sven 102). This quote emphasis that it is not that much easy to forgive someone. By forgiving them, they bring down the values of the crimes that were committed. If they bring down the value of the crimes, it would mean it was okay to kill a person’s family or friends. This would result in more crimes, murdering people's family and friends. This was another reason why Simon wouldn't forgive Karl because he didn’t want to make it seem like it was okay to be a part of mass genocide. Moshe Bejski discussed in his essay why people shouldn't be forgiven of their crimes. Forgiving someone is very hard even when regret is involved, “No matter what, regret never pardons crimes…” (Moshe 117). As he says, even after committing the crimes and thereafter regretting it, it’s not okay to forgive someone. Forgiveness is hard because it would betray the memory of millions of innocent victims who were murdered, and it would question the validity of what happen. Forgiving someone who committed the crimes would be a crime

The Holocaust was a genocide that occurred from 1933-1945, and one of its survivors was Simon Wiesenthal. After he was set free from the concentration camp, he dedicated his life to finding Nazi war criminals and persecuting them in court. Later on in his life, he wrote a memoir, The Sunflower. It was about one of his many experiences at the Lemberg concentration camp where he got roped into listening to a dying SS soldier, Karl. Right before Wiesenthal left Karl’s room, Karl asked Wiesenthal, on behalf of all the Jews he persecuted, for forgiveness. Wiesenthal left Karl’s room without forgiving him, and then asked his readers, “What would I have done?” At the end of The Sunflower, people who Wiesenthal picked to respond to his question, had their answers published. The most interesting response was Jose Hobday’s. Hobday believed that Wiesenthal should have forgiven to Karl because it would have given Karl a sense of peace, making it easier for him to pass on. Hobday had the correct answer to Wiesenthal’s question because even though all of the Jews that Karl persecuted are dead and will not be able to forgive him in person, Karl just wanted someone to know that he was sorry for his actions.

The conversation between Wiesenthal and Bolek is another example of forgiveness is necessary. When Wiesenthal tells Bolek of what he experienced in the dying SS man’s room, Bolek says he describes it as a man who showed signs of “repentance, genuine, sincere repentance” (Wiesenthal 82). He means that Wiesenthal believes the dying SS man’s apology was sincere. He believes that Wiesenthal seen his apology as genuine and that he deserved the “mercy of forgiveness” (Wiesenthal 82). Wiesenthal spots a sunflower behind a bush, he takes it as the sunflower has come to “remind [him]” (Wiesenthal 84) of what he describes as a “feeling of duty” (Wiesenthal 84). Wiesenthal “duty” (Wiesenthal 85) and his planning on visiting the mother of the deceased SS man show that he is beginning to realize that he needs to come to terms with his experienced at the hospital in Lemberg. He visits her for closure and ultimately to decide within himself if he should finally forgive the man responsible for the murder of hundreds of innocent Jewish people.

Franz Stangl was commander of the Sobibor and Treblinka extermination camps during the Holocaust. This meant that Franz was in charge of killing masses of jews at the time. Stangl was first very emotional with the seen of all the dead bodies laying around, but later Franz slowly took pride of his work of killing jews. He thought of the jews just as “cargo”. Franz also thought as the jews as “victims that needed to be despatched.” Franz states “it was always a huge mass… they were naked, packed together, running, being driven with whips.” Franz Stangl should be responsible for killing the Jews and should be punished.

After his silence Weisenthal has guilt dreams and forgiveness can help bring the closure he needs. After seeing Karl’s mom, Weisenthal writes a book just because he feels as if he had made cruel decision at the time. Karl states, “but her son had not lied to me; his home was just as he had described it”(94). This demonstrates Karl’s true honesty when he confessed. Which means that everything he said and felt at the time of the confession was genuine and this later haunts Weisenthal because he wished he had something that contradicted it. Weisenthal states, “but was I not secretly hoping that I might hear something that contradicted it? It would certainly make things easier for me”(87). Make things easier for him, for him to believe that his