How Did Simon Wiesenthal Forgive Jewish

When Simon Wiesenthal walked away from the dying SS officer who asked him, a Jew, for forgiveness, Wiesenthal questioned whether it was the right thing to do. He asked others this question, and some said that it was justified and that they might even take it to the next level and scold Karl, the SS officer, while others said that Wiesenthal should have forgiven him because it was part of their religion to forgive. Edward H. Flannery said that Wiesenthal should’ve forgiven Karl because he wasn’t asking Wiesenthal to forgive him on behalf of all Jews, but just personally. I disagree with Flannery because I believe that someone can still be angry with another person and their actions even if they were not a victim of that other person’s actions, and that there are some actions that are so horrible, like the war crimes committed by Nazis, that cannot be forgiven.

He says, “The Sunflower story brings up the question of whether Simon had the right to forgive Karl in the name of all Jews. The question appears to me as irrelevant. Karl did not ask him to speak in the name of all Jews, or for that matter, for the harm done to all Jews but only for what he had done” (137). Flannery thinks Wiesenthal made the wrong decision, and later on said that if he were in the position that Wiesenthal was in, he would’ve forgiven the Karl. I, however, disagree with Flannery because I don’t think that the war crimes that Nazis have committed are something that can be