Simon Wiesenthal The Sunflower

Elie Wiesel’s somber speech, “The Perils of Indifference”, demonstrated the harsh reality of the numerous evils harvesting in the world. The main evil though was simply indifference, or a lack of concern. As a young Jewish boy, he faced the wickedness of the Holocaust, imprisoned at Buchenwald and Auschwitz and also losing both his parents and younger sister. The speaker saw atrocious horrors and suffered for a prolonged amount of time. Why was this permitted?

I believe Karl's primary motivation for confessing to Simon was that for Karl's own sake, and peace of mind, he wanted to see a "Jew", any Jew, so that he could die in peace. Karl is unable to see the suffering of others due to fact he is blinded by his own suffering, he is unable to see the suffering of the Jewish people he participated in murdering and the ones that still haunt him. He confessed because he wanted to be at peace with himself, I see that as his prime motivation for telling Simon what he did. I interpreted Simon's silence as he was having an internal moral struggle with himself, unsure of whether or not his silence was right or wrong since the Nazi whose bedside he was at was dying. I don't think Simon had the authority to

In December 1939, Poland was being torn apart by the savagery of the Holocaust. Oskar Schindler took his first faltering steps from the darkness of Nazism towards the light of heroism. “If you saw a dog going to be crushed under a car,” he said later of his wartime actions, “wouldn't you help him?” Poland had been a relative haven for Jewish people and it numbered over 50,000 people, but when Germany invaded, destruction began immediately and it was very harsh. Jews was forced into crowded ghettos, randomly beaten and humiliated, and continuously murdered for no reason.

“Bit your lips, little brother... Don’t cry. Keep your anger, your hate, for another day, for later. They day will come but not now… Wait.

This soldier confronts Wiesenthal with the existential question of forgiveness; he asks for a Jew’s forgiveness after killing hundreds of innocent people. At the end of the memoir, Wiesenthal’s moral dilemma becomes open to other interpretations when he poses the question: “What would you have done?” Though many people have grappled with this question, one respondent, Jose Hobday, supports forgiving the Schutzstaffel (SS) officer and expresses her ideas with passion. She supports her claim by stating that forgiveness is essential for maintaining a productive society.

In his story, the Sunflower on the possibilities and limits of forgiveness by Simon Wiesenthal tell his story about whether should or should not forgive Karl’s. To forgive someone is not as easy as just as ask them to forgive you, it is more than that. I understand Simon when he walks out the room when Karl’s was trying to ask him for forgiveness because after knowing that Karl’s has killed many innocent people and heard about everything he has done before can be hard to believe he’s sincere. Since the soldier waited until he was about to reach death. It was hard for Simon to think of forgiveness and think about peace with one another who moments before were their mortal

The thought flashed through my mind… And then a shell exploded by my side,'” (Wiesenthal 51). This quote makes me understand more about Karls morals as a person because the atonement in his voice is clearly not one of his actions, I feel that it is borne of only regret for the result of his actions in relation to himself. He has taken time to reflect on what he did and how wrong it is only because it has placed him on his deathbed.

Do you believe people should be held responsible for their actions, and accountabilities? Even if it’s beneficial or makes the other person happier, or feel better? I believe so because if something you do wrong but you believe it helps you and you makes you feel better as a person someone somewhere else doesn’t agree and didn’t like what you did.

He knew he was dying and he wanted to confess to a crime he had committed to a Jew (Wiesenthal, 1998). Wiesenthal does not call him by his name in the book when he speaks or thinks of him; however, for the purpose of this book review his birth name will be used. He had grown up in a religious household, however, when he joined Hitler’s Youth that was the end of the significance of the church for Karl. His parents never accepted his decision, but dared not to speak against it. Karl spent much of their time

Who are we to say that someone is truly forgiven for their sins? It is not our right. I do, however, believe that we should remain compassionate and kind to everyone, even the sinful. My response is that Simon Wiesenthal did the right thing by keeping his silence when the Nazi soldier asked for forgiveness. Simon could not have forgiven the Nazi for crimes and brutalities he did to other Jews.

In Night by Elie Wiesel, Wiesel says, “Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed….Never shall I forget those things, even were I condemned to live as long as God Himself.” (Wiesel, 2006, pg. 34) Eliezer perseveres not simply in light of the way that he his related Jews murdered before his eyes, additionally he feels that his God was slaughtered. The concentration camp experience pounds his chastity and his trust in a reasonable and revering God. Another evidence is shown in Elie Wiesel’s Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech, in which he says, "Human rights are being violated on every continent….

In a span of 10 years, the Holocaust killed over 7 million people, that’s just as much as the population of Hong Kong. In the book Night, by Elie Wiesel, Wiesel shares his experience on how he survived the Holocaust and what he went through. How he dealt with the horrors and even to how he felt of his dad’s death and how he saw himself after it was all over. As he tried to publish it he was constantly turned down due to the fact of how horrid and truful it was. He still tried and tried until it was finally published.

The book The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal is about a Jew in a concentration camp in the height of World War II in Germany. One day when he is working in a hospital, Simon is asked to forgive a dying Nazi soldier, Karl. He is faced with a dilemma that everyone has to encounter at some point in their life, but this is different than forgiving a family member for lying to you. Simon has to decide right then whether or not to forgive a murderer of many innocent Jews. Simon Wiesenthal wrote this book because he wanted to reach out and find closure for his actions.

In “The Moral Logic of Survivor Guilt” by Nancy Sherman, one has done no wrong, but still has guilt, even in situations that are unexpected, as this happens way too much, and that those who have done wrongdoing should be feeling guilty. She states, “We often take responsibility in a way that goes beyond what we can reasonably be held responsible for. And we feel the guilt that comes with that sense of responsibility. Nietzsche is the modern philosopher who well understood this phenomenon: “Das schlechte Gewissen,” (literally, “bad conscience”)-his term for the consciousness of guilt where one has done no wrong, doesn’t grow in the soil where we would most expect it, he argued, such as in prisons where there are actually “guilty” parties who should feel remorse for wrongdoing”(Sherman 154). Illustrating, this proves that we take the responsibility for actions that we did not do, and should not feel any remorse, but that the people who have done wrongdoing, should have this feeling of guilt.

In the case of the story the parents of those 5 young girls killed forgave the murder and his family, without holding a grudge against his, without nursing bitterness against his, without seeking revenge by killing the murder’s children. Don’t hold them in resentment, release them from your heart, don’t hurt yourself, don’t hurt your health, depression, stress, heartaches some even grow mad and begin to hate everybody associated with the offender or the person involved. It is not easy to do that, it takes a lot of courage and prayers to do