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Summary Of The Sunflower By Simon Wiesenthal

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Simon Wiesenthal said, “The schools would fail through their silence, the Church through its forgiveness, and the home through the denial and silence of the parents. The new generation has to hear what the older generation refuses to tell it.” The main purpose for Simon Wiesenthal to tell his story of the Holocaust was to educate others and to prevent similar horrific events from reoccurring. Wiesenthal tells his personal view on how he suffered and questioned his own morals. After years of living in the concentration camps in dire conditions Simon was faced with a difficult situation. A dying Nazi soldier named Karl asked Simon a complex question. Karl finishes talking to Simon by saying “I know that what I am asking is almost too much for …show more content…

Harry worked in a labor camp in China. As a result for speaking out against the meager conditions Harry was sent to prison for 19 years. While in prison he described it as “…often experienced harsh treatment at the hands of guards and prison officials. I was beaten and degraded to this day; Ackershoek 2
I suffer injuries from the abuses that I suffered.” (272) Simon encountered similar situations while at the concentration camp. Harry also described kindness from some guard who helped him. This reminded me of the soldier who gave Simon bread on the train. Harry Wu though it was shocking that the Nazi soldier asked for forgiveness and would not expect anyone from the People’s Republic of China to do something like this. Unlike the Karl many of the Communists had no remorse for their actions. Jesus had a similar experience to Simon’s since they were both persecuted for their beliefs. Jesus was condemned by Pontius Pilate and nailed to the cross …show more content…

Jesus’s experiences of injustice can be related to the Holocaust since they both the discrimination of people with different religious beliefs. Another historical figure who fought injustice was Ghandi. Ghandi fought for independence and freedom for India. Ghandi was concerned for worker’s rights, women’s rights and to stop poverty. For his actions he was put in jail for conspiracy. In 1947 he was assassinated for his involvement in stopping the Hindu-Muslim conflict. Jesus and Ghandi both sacrificed their lives for other and are the ultimate examples of people who encountered injustice but were able to forgive.
If I was in Simon’s place I would struggle to make the right decision. I would feel sympathy for the dying soldier and would want him to die peacefully. But selfishly I would not feel he has the right to be forgiven since I would be angry that he was one of the soldiers who was a part of the heinous crimes on Jewish people that included my family and friends. I don’t think the soldier fully understands how his actions impacted all the other people and for that reason would find it very difficult to forgive him. Ackershoek

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282 Words | 2 Pages

He had asked to speak to a Jew as his last dying wish. Simon did not know why he was there but he could not find himself being able to leave. When Simon first walked into the room he was confused on why he was there. That was when he heard Karl begin to talk, asking him to get closer than talking about wanting to confess to a Jew so he would to be able to “die in peace”(Wiesenthal 27). When Karl began

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Type 4 Nora FCAs Summary Character Opinion Forgiveness “Is it possible to forgive and not forget? How can victims come to peace with their past, and hold on to their own humanity and morals in the process?” In The Sunflower, Simon Wiesenthal writes about an incident that occurs when he is imprisoned in a concentration camp. One day, when he is working in a hospital, he gets summoned to the room of a dying SS member.

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He also wanted to tell the reader about his life as a Jew in a concentration camp and the horrors he faced. He wanted us to think about what we would have done in his place and what forgiveness means to us. After he published his book, he asked certain people to respond to the story and what they would have done in his place. Some people are Jews, some are Christians, some are young, some older, some were even part of the war. Everyone who wrote an essay was different from the rest in some way, but they all had one connection, Simon.

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487 Words | 2 Pages

The Holocaust was one of the most tragic events in history. It just so happened to be the cause of six million deaths. While there are countless beings who experienced such trauma, it is impossible to hear everyone's side of the story. However, one man, in particular, allowed himself to speak of the tragedies. Elie Wiesel addressed the transformation he underwent during the Holocaust in his memoir, Night.

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Elie Wiesel: Keeping Memory Alive Purpose: Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor is informing us the importance of speaking out and never to remain silent- like many countries did, during the Holocaust. Throughout his writings Elie Wiesel tries to give honor and respect to the 6 million who perished in the Holocaust, the survivors and their children with his powerful, uplifting words. Elie Wiesel also bears witness to “the horrors of his experiences at the hands of the Nazis”. Tone: Elie Wiesel’s “Keeping Memory Alive” is a very short but powerful acceptance speech. Throughout his speech, he hints to us that he was humbled by getting the nobel peace prize.

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In the book “The Sunflower”, Simon Wiesenthal, who was the author, was one of the victims of the Holocaust. Within this book, Wiesenthal presents his readers with his problem of whether or not to forgive the disgraceful delinquencies of one of the dying Nazi soldiers. Wiesenthal asks, “Was my silence at the bedside of the dying Nazi right or wrong? This is a profound moral question that challenges the conscience of the reader of this episode, just as much as it once challenged my heart and mind” (Wiesenthal, 97-98).

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Elie Wiesel is a Holocaust survivor who strongly believes that people need to share their stories about the Holocaust with others. Elie Wiesel was in concentration camps for about half of his teen years along with his father. After being the only member of his family to survive the Holocaust he resolved to make what really happened more well-known. Elie Wiesel wrote dozens of books and submitted an essay titled “A God Who Remembers” to the book This I Believe. The essay focused on Elie Wiesel’s belief that those who have survived the Holocaust should not suppress their experiences but must share them so history will not repeat itself.

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Not only does it take courage to confess to wrongdoings, it also takes courage to forgive. The SS soldier, Karl, is not forced to confess to a Jew, he takes it upon himself to try to make things right. The genuineness is palpable as Karl grapples for Wiesenthal's hand in the dark to prevent him from leaving. To Karl, Wiesenthal's forgiveness is the difference between dying peacefully and dying in distress.

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123 Words | 1 Pages

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

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196 Words | 1 Pages

Simon Wiesenthal and Sven Alkalaj both agree that you cannot forgive someone for something they did to someone else (The sunflower, Sven Alkalaj). Both Simon and Sven have experienced the inhumanity that a whole country can cause. Simon spent years in a concentration camp and Sven went through similar conditions in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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518 Words | 3 Pages

Although Simon does show traits of a Christ figure, he does not fully live up to the archetype of a Christ figure. To be a Christ figure is someone must show the traits of the Biblical Christ. In the Bible, Christ fed people who could not feed themselves, and Simon fed the littluns ripe fruit, so that they could eat without getting sick. Simon’s role as a failed Christ figure is shown in his violent and ineffective “crucifixion” and “resurrection”, and his failure at getting them to listen and be reassured by what he had to say. One of the reasons Simon is a failed Christ figure, is that he just died, unlike Christ, who died a martyr to save humanity, and was resurrected from the dead.

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609 Words | 3 Pages

When Wiesel makes it clear that he has suffered personal loss, he is evoking an emotional response from his audience. By stating that he senses their presence “The presence of my parents, that of my little sister.” the audience empathizes with him and the horror of the Holocaust is made more clear for them. They cannot only understand his feelings; they can connect to them which strengthens their understanding of the need to act whenever they witness inhumanity.

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1129 Words | 5 Pages

Wiesel pinpoints the indifference of humans as the real enemy, causing further suffering and lost to those already in peril. Wiesel commenced the speech with an interesting attention getter: a story about a young Jewish from a small town that was at the end of war liberated from Nazi rule by American soldiers. This young boy was in fact himself. The first-hand experience of cruelty gave him credibility in discussing the dangers of indifference; he was a victim himself.

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661 Words | 3 Pages

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

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806 Words | 4 Pages

Elie Wiesel voiced his emotions and thoughts of the horrors done to Jewish people during World War II whilst developing his claim. Wiesel “remember[s] his bewilderment,” “his astonishment,” and “his anguish” when he saw they were dropped into the ghetto to become slaves and to be slaughtered. He repeats the words “I remember” because he and the world, especially those who suffered in the ghettos and camps, would never be able to forget how innocent suffered. Consequently, he emphasized that “no one” has the right to advocate for the dead. Like many other people in the world, he lost his family during the war.

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