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The Sunflower Simon Wiesenthal Analysis

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In The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal, we follow his personal experiences in a concentration camp. In his time there, he meets a dying SS officer named Karl who begs him for forgiveness. As his recollection progresses, Simon is posed with a burdening question; should and can he forgive the desperate officer for his heinous crimes? Despite being a Nazi prisoner himself, Simon’s understanding of both the suffering that he had caused as well as the power and benefits of forgiving Karl made the decision a heavily moral one. In the end, though, he decides to make the call to not forgive Karl, walking out of the room after hearing his story. From Simon’s perspective, as well as throughout the Holocaust as a whole, we can see a multitude of instances …show more content…

He would not have been okay with a universal rule of genocide, as joining the Nazi Party meant that he desired the existence and thriving of a superior race. In addition, his actions were a breach of his victims’ autonomy to live. In addition, in the instance his comrades and him killed burning Jews escaping from a house set ablaze, he describes how he “’heard screams and saw the flames eat their way from floor to floor’” and how they “’had [their] rifles ready to shoot down anyone who tried to escape from that blazing hell...’” (Seidl 42). Even though Karl said that he was deeply uncomfortable and traumatized with what had happened, he did not do anything to stop himself or others from partaking in the mass murdering. The issue lies not in whether he had an issue with what he did, but rather the fact that he chose not to do otherwise. His lack of initiative is only more unforgiveable when knowing the consequences of not killing, or more fittingly, the lack of them. According to FacingHistory.org, “Germans were not forced to be killers. Those who refused to participate were given other assignments or transferred. To this day, no one has found an example of a German who was executed for refusing to take part in the

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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.

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In Sam Wiesenthal’s novel, The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness, the author puts readers into a scene of what he had experienced when he was forced into a concentration camp during the Holocaust. In this novel, Wiesenthal experiences many horrifying things in the concentration camp, especially death. In this particular scene of the novel, Wiesenthal encounters a dying Nazi soldier who asks for his forgiveness. As the dying soldier is speaking to Wiesenthal, he mutters, “ ‘I shall die, there is nobody to help me and nobody to mourn my death’ “ (Wiesenthal 27). Wiesenthal had to face a dilemma when this wounded soldier was asking him for help.

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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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The Sunflower is a memoir of Simon Wiesenthal’s experience in a Polish concentration camp and his internal conflict of whether he did the right thing by remaining silent when a dying SS man asked him for forgiveness. Wiesenthal wrestles with this choice and at the end of his memoir, he extends the question “What would you do?” to the readers. Drawing my own opinion from a number of people including “theologians, writers, human rights activists, Holocaust survivors, political leaders, and victims of attempted genocide in Bosnia, Cambodia, China, and Tibet” whom have responded to this question. I personally would have been just as conflicted as Wiesenthal was, but ultimately I would have chosen to forgive him.

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For the rest of Simon’s life he remains tormented by Karl’s apology and even asks his readers at the end of The Sunflower to ask himself: “What would I have done?” (98) When we respond to this question, we have to keep in consideration the amount of atrocities and suffering the Jewish population went through. I feel that it is not our right to deeply forgive another for their sins. To forgive by word of mouth seems to me to be so superficial. A deeper forgiveness does not come from us but from God.

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The overall purpose of Wiesel’s speech was to emphasize the danger of indifference and the importance of compassion. He has made this compelling to the reader through his use of devices such as pathos, and by calling us, the readers and listeners, to take action, warning us that passivity is itself a choice. Wiesel’s prime exigence is his experience in the Holocaust, where ‘a Jewish boy discovered the Kingdom of Night’ (118). This boy is a symbol; a version of himself separated and personified as another victim, lost to the horrors of the Holocaust. He is Wiesel’s naivety, his innocence, and his youth, and now Wiesel’s duty to remember.

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Enter the world of Simon Wiesenthal, who relays this episode of his life to readers in his book, The Sunflower. Wiesenthal describes in great detail his experience, in which he ultimately responds to the SS man with nothing but his silence (53-55). Not fully satisfied with his actions, he urges the reader to ask themselves what they would have done had they been in his position

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This horrific method for murder most certainly was one of worst ways they committed crimes against humanity. This method was burning people alive which was one of the most painful ways to die. Additionally, through this they committed a war crime because they cause excessive suffering. Unfortunately, the Germans most humane way to kill was shooting the prisoners. This was illustrated in the quote “if one is missing you will all be shot like dogs”(Page, 22).

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Someone can keep their sense of humanity even when faced with evil and cruelty by keeping empathy and compassion towards others. Throughout human history, there have been events that have led people to ask. Why would someone do such a thing? Inside the two books Night by Wiesel and “The Diary of Anne Frank” by Goodrich and Hackett, an incredibly evil event is taking place, in particular, The Holocaust. The Holocaust was performed by German officers led by Adolf Hitler.

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Still further, Wiesel watched as others received punishment. Fortunately, he was one of few that was able to escape. He came back to his town to tell his story, his innocence and faith shattered, no one believed him. He witnesses the cruelty and brutality of the Nazi’s, losing his trust in humanity. The suffering and death he witnesses in the concentration camps challenge his belief in a just and compassionate God.

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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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According to Jewish religion, fully repentance was really important for them to determine whether a person deserve forgiveness. As Wiesenthal’s friend Bolek mentioned in the book “In our religion repentance is the most element in seeking forgiveness” (Wiesenthal 83)”. From this quote we could conclude that any person who was deeply repentance was eligible to ask for forgiveness. Therefore, firstly we should decide whether Karl was truly sorry about the mistake he has made. It was important to note that if he was not truly regret about his fault, he would not find someone who might hate him so much according to his identity as a Nazi soldier to confess his sin when he was dying.

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661 Words | 3 Pages

The story of The Sunflower, mostly takes place while Wiesenthal is in Janwska concentration camp. Wiesenthal worked on the Eastern Railroad, however, as this story begins his service on the railroad is no longer needed. The Jews are put on a new assignment at Technical High School, which was converted into a reserved hospital. Wiesenthal and his friend Arthur had gone to school there, now here imprisoned together. Once at the hospital, a nurse asks Wiesenthal if he is a Jew, which by his apparent state he is, then she leads him to an office.

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Showing the German people there was no loyalty just

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In which millions of Jews were innocently killed and persecuted because of their religion. As a student who is familiar with the years of the holocaust that will forever live in infamy, Wiesel’s memoir has undoubtedly changed my perspective. Throughout the text, I have been emotionally touched by the topics of dehumanization, the young life of Elie Wiesel, and gained a better understanding of the Holocaust. With how dehumanization was portrayed through words, pondering my mind the most.

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