Simon, The Sunflower: On The Possibilities And Limits Of Forgiven

835 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Forgiveness and its effects

Wiesenthal, Simon, the Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness
Synopsis and book setting
The story is a about a dying SS officer who asks for a Jew in his last moments so he can seek redemption. Simon Wiesenthal was called and he decided to become silent when the apology was delivered to him as the representative of his people. Some comment on the perpetuation of the crime through the ambiguous apology of the SS man. The reason why Simon did not comment was partly because of the offense that was caused considering the officer meant there was no individuality for the Jew and therefore any Jew would have sufficed for the entire apology.
Simon was taken from Lemberg concentration camp. He was asked to attend the bedside of a dying Nazi in 1943 (Wiesenthal, 1998). The officer after confessing to a horrific crime against the Jews seeks Wiesenthal’s forgiveness. According to the text, Simon is deeply disturbed by the request and turns the request back t his fellow victims. In one of the passages at the end of book one, …show more content…

Analysis and explanation of Wiesenthal’s actions
When Simon was asked to forgive the SS officer, he blankly looked at the man, stood up, and left. One of the main problems that he faced is he definitely was not able to absolve the man of the crimes considering he could not speak for his entire people. Wiesenthal did not have authority to absolve the actions of those who were responsible for the holocaust nor did he want to in the first place. Different people have different ideologies about the way that one can accept forgiveness. Literature from the Jewish culture has a lot to say about this and understandably so. For one, it is clear they thought little about verbal apologies from the Nazis for the atrocities they had committed in the

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Simon Wiesenthal's The Sunflower

    761 Words  | 2 Pages

    (171). Simon Wiesenthal would possibly never forgive the SS officer because he doesn’t represent those who suffer and die by the SS officers because he is just one Jewish person out of many different Jews that died.

    Read More

  • Elie Wiesel's Horrifying Holocaust Experience

    624 Words  | 2 Pages

    Six million Jews died during World War II by the Nazi army under Hitler who wanted to exterminate all Jews. In Night, Elie Wiesel, the author, recalls his horrifying journey through Auschwitz in the concentration camp. This memoir is based off of Elie’s first-hand experience in the camp as a fifteen year old boy from Sighet survives and lives to tell his story. The theme of this memoir is man's inhumanity to man. The cruel events that occurred to Elie and others during the Holocaust turned families and others against each other as they struggled to survive Hitler's and the Nazi Army’s inhumane treatment.

    Read More

  • Morals and Forgiveness in Simon Wiesenthal's The Sunflower

    1576 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Simon Wiesenthal’s The Sunflower, he recounts his incidence of meeting a dying Nazi soldier who tells Simon that he was responsible for the death of his family. Upon telling Simon the details, Karl asks for his forgiveness for what he helped accomplish. Simon leaves Karl without giving him an answer. This paper will argue that, even though Karl admits to killing Simon’s family in the house, Simon is morally forbidden to forgive Karl because Karl does not seem to show genuine remorse for his committed crime and it is not up to Simon to be able to forgive Karl for his sins. This stand will be supported by the meaning of forgiveness, evidence from the memoir, quotes from the published responses to Simon’s moral question, and arguments from Thomas Brudholm, Charles Griswold, and Trudy Govier. The possibly raised objection, for this particular modified situation, of forgiveness being necessary to move on from Desmond Tutu will be countered with the logic of needing to eventually find an end somewhere.

    Read More

  • How Does Elie Wiesel Change In Night

    512 Words  | 2 Pages

    He experiences numerous people being hanged, beaten, and tortured daily which changes the amount of faith and trust that he has in Humanity and God. He sees faithful and courageous people crumble in front of his own eyes before their lives are stolen. Towards the end of the book, Wiesel is in the hospital at the camp for surgery on his leg and the man in the bed next to him says something that is bitterly true, “I have more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He alone has kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people,” (Wiesel 81). Wiesel doesn’t argue with this, which shows that he had lost his faith in humanity, and doesn’t know who to trust. Wiesel is also naive and vulnerable at the beginning of the book. He refuses to touch the food at the ghetto and strongly considers rebelling against the officers at the Concentration camps. At the same time, he is also a strong and fairly well-fed boy who does not grow tired easily. He is shocked that the world is letting these barbarities occur in modern times. Over time, he grows accustomed to the beatings and animal-like treatment that is routine at the camps. “I stood petrified. What had happened to me? My father had just been struck, in front of me, and I had not even blinked….. Had I changed that much so fast?”

    Read More

  • Simon Wiesenthal: The Nazi Hunter

    1747 Words  | 4 Pages

    “Nazi Hunting: Simon Wiesenthal.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Council, 10 June 2013. Web. 06 Feb. 2014

    Read More

  • Elie Wiesel Dehumanization In Night

    805 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout the memoir, Wiesel demonstrates how oppression and dehumanization can affect one’s identity by describing the actions of the Nazis and how it changed the Jewish people’s outlook on life. Wiesel’s identity transformed dramatically throughout the narrative. “How old he had grown the night before! His body was completely twisted, shriveled up into itself. His eyes were petrified, his lips withered, decayed.

    Read More

  • Night Journal

    1127 Words  | 3 Pages

    Wiesel says this because he wants to keep the Holocaust from happening again. He probably meant that it is selfish to keep something to yourself when it is important and you can prevent it from happening. When he was being tortured, the other citizens did nothing to help. Maybe he just wants to make up for what others did not do for him.

    Read More

  • The Sunflower on the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness by Simon Wiesenthal

    1381 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Simon Wiesenthal’s The Sunflower on the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness the author is asked to fulfill a dying solider last wish to forgive him because of the crimes he has committed against the Jewish people of the Holocaust. When Wiesenthal is asked for forgiveness, he simply leaves the room. Wiesenthal states that the encounter with the dying man left “a heavy burden” (Wiesenthal 55) on him. The confessions in which he admitted to have “profoundly disturbed [him]” (Wiesenthal 55). As Wiesenthal tries to make sense of what he has encountered he begins to make excuses for why the man might have done what he did. He say...

    Read More

  • Analysis Of A Lucky Child By Thomas Buergenthal

    1157 Words  | 3 Pages

    He told of being on a balcony, seeing people pass by, and wanting to have a machine gun to release his anger. His hatred for the Germans and what they had done to him and his family was very evident. On a personal level Thomas Buergenthal learned to forgive, because it benefited him more than staying bitter. He sums this up when talking about himself and his mother by saying, “ I doubt that we would have been able to preserve our sanity had we remained consumed by hatred for the rest of our lives.” The process of forgiving took a lot of time. He eventually realized “that one cannot hope to protect mankind from crimes such as those that were visited upon us unless one struggles to break the cycle of hatred and violence that invariably leads to more suffering by innocent human beings.” This realization lead Buergenthal to go to law school and work in multiple human rights organizations and courts. He felt fit to serve in such a place as he was a victim of the greatest infringement on human rights in

    Read More

  • Loss of Faith in Night by Elie Wiesel

    428 Words  | 1 Pages

    Eliezer Wiesel loses his faith in god, family and humanity through the experiences he has from the Nazi concentration camp.

    Read More

  • Elie Wiesel The Perils Of Indifference

    1733 Words  | 4 Pages

    “The Perils of Indifference” In April, 1945, Elie Wiesel was liberated from the Buchenwald concentration camp after struggling with hunger, beatings, losing his entire family, and narrowly escaping death himself. He at first remained silent about his experiences, because it was too hard to relive them. However, eventually he spoke up, knowing it was his duty not to let the world forget the tragedies resulting from their silence. He wrote Night, a memoir of his and his family’s experience, and began using his freedom to spread the word about what had happened and hopefully prevent it from happening again.

    Read More

  • The Message of Courage in Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally

    1319 Words  | 3 Pages

    Oskar Schindler, a rich factory owner, risks his life and spends his personal fortune to save Jews listed as his workers during World War 2. Oskar Schindler risks everything to help the Jews escape the Holocaust. He is a German man and he should be against the Jews, in an idealistic way in Nazi Germany, but he is against the Third Reich. His heroism is deeply appreciated by the Jews as a whole for his works. He put people to work for him and the Nazis let those select Jews live. In one scene Schindler puts a man with one arm to work, because he surely would have been killed by the S.S officers due to his disability. The Nazis confront the handicapped man, and he tells them that he works for Mr. Schindler, shoveling snow. The Nazis leave him alone and tell Schindler that “there is a defected Jew working”(123) for him. Schindler tells them that he wants the man working for him. A few days later the Nazis come back to the man and ask how is job is going. They then detain him and take him behind a building and shoot him. Schindler was a good man and he demonstrates this by giving people a helping hand. He tries to also bribe the Nazis in not killing any of his workers. “The S.S are corruptible as any police force.”(227) He wants to bribe them because he wants to keep all of his employees healthy and not dead. He stands up in a time of oppression and he shows how one person can have a major impact on a society.

    Read More

  • The Themes Of Evil In Lord Of The Flies By William Golding

    755 Words  | 2 Pages

    Simon before he was murdered had solved the case of the "monster in the cave" which was really just a surviving adult that was insured and moaning in pain. Once Simon figured this out he ran to Jack's group, Jacks groups was startled by this unidentified figure running at them. There savage environment didn't make them think of investigating the object running towards them so instead Jack ordered everyone to attack the object. Be for they realized that it was Simon he was stabbed multiple times and died instantaneously. This is in page 154 it says "Surrounded by a fringe of inquisitive bright creatures, itself a silver shape beneath the steadfast constellations, Simon's dead body moved out toward the open sea".This murder that was totally avoidable brought the evil out of the little children and lead them to murdering another survivor in cold

    Read More

  • Character Analysis Of Simon Wiesenthal In 'The Sunflower'

    453 Words  | 1 Pages

    The book the Sunflower is about Simon Wiesenthal that is forced to a concentration camp because he was Jewish. As all the other prisoners he was living his hard life normally till one day he and groups of other Jews were taken to a hospital to clean up. While walking to the hospital he looks away from the people passing by on the street on the street in, in fear he will see someone he’s known. Soon after he comes across a cemetery for Nazi soldiers, on each grave he sees a sunflower. Simon soon grows jealous for he knows when he dies there will be no sunflower connecting him to the world of the living. He thinks that the sunflower carries symbolism to him, for he knows he will be dumped in a mass grave like all the other Jews.

    Read More

  • Silence In Trial Of God By Elie Wiesel

    1423 Words  | 3 Pages

    One day, Simon Wiesenthal was called to the side of an SS member in his deathbed. Fully knowing that he was the reason of the death of eighty-nine of Simon’s relative, the SS man, Karl, “wanted Simon to somehow relieve him of his guilt” (Fox 144). There is a large dichotomy here: a man guilty of the most inhuman of acts is following a human algorithm for repentance; specifically, Karl, a lapsed Catholic, is only attempting to undergo penance like all Catholics. If one is to consider the savage man’s shoes, one would realize that he only received orders - he followed an algorithm, followed rules without emotion; it was this mindless following that was his soul’s downfall. When he was ordered to these “acts of hatred and sadism and antisemitism” (144), his mind and heart were at each other’s throats - there was cognitive dissonance; yet, he chose to follow his mind and keep his heart silent, his morals silent, his ethics silent. Specifically, he stayed silent for reconciliation, but now seeks another kind of reconciliation. Wiesenthal, when invited into this hospital for the man’s penance, “gave Karl the only penance available to him to bestow: Silence” (144). It was a trade: silence for silence - Karl was ignorant to expect more than that. As Berish was ignorant to expect God to reconcile for his “crimes,” Karl was ignorant to expect Wiesenthal to hand him full forgiveness. Clearly, the

    Read More

More about Simon, The Sunflower: On The Possibilities And Limits Of Forgiven

Open Document