The Sunflower By Simon Wiesenthal: Literary Analysis

The Sunflower is a very interesting story about Simon Wiesenthal and a peculiar interaction with Karl, a dying SS officer while he was imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp. In his memoir, he describes how Karl request his attending nurse to find “a Jew” as he wanted to confess and at the same time, ask for forgiveness from his crimes agains Jews. Karl seemed to have experienced a change of heart and understood his acts were morally wrong. He began to talk to Simon first about his childhood and upbringing. He described how he was raised by a religious mother and how his pastor hoped he would study theology (Wiesenthal Pg 31). Why was this important? Because he wanted Simon to understand he was not born evil, but instead got carried away

He then proceeded to explain how he joined Hitler Youth; he described his own parents became cautious around him, as they were afraid he would “turn them in to the Führer (Wiesenthal Pg 31-32).” Karl’s tale then turned into how he was involved in the “Führer’s mission”and without a second thought, he joined the army and how inhumane the battles against Russians were fought. However his tale turned into an incident that happened a hot day in Dnepropetrovsk, where he describe in detail how about 200 Jews were moved to an abandoned house, and began to throw grenades inside the house. Not only were grenades used, but the SS officers were given order to shot at anyone that tried to escape the gruesome scene. Karl felt particularly guilty of a family he shot, specially the children, whom reminded Simon of Eli, a young boy he cared for at the concentration camp (Wiesenthal Pg

It does not matter what you do or others can do for you, you would not be able to forgive, unless you are ready to do so. Forgiveness is not about the person that did you harm, but is more so one’s soul could begin to heal and be able to move past what caused you pain. This does not in any way goes in conjunction with forgetting the act that was committed or excuse the offender. This is where the disagreement about forgiveness seem to be divided. Some people claim forgiving is forgetting, while others claim you can forgive and not forget. When I read The Sunflower, I think of the reaction Simon had to the story of the SS officer. He could not react to his plea, as he was experiencing first hard the harsh treatment of other SS officers. How can he be ready to forgive when he was not ready to move on? However I think back to when Simon went to look for Karl’s mother, and at that point the war had ended, and he had some time to somehow settle in his new life. He decided not to tell Karl’s mother about her son’s atrocities, and to some degree he forgave Karl by spearing his mother the suffering of knowing the truth about her son. While Karl is always in Simon’s mind, I believe deep down he forgave him, but not necessarily the rest of the officers as a whole. I believe due to the level of remorse Karl showed while asking for forgiveness, I would eventually end up forgiving him. However if I