The Sunflower By Simon Wiesenthal: An Analysis

What is forgiveness? Many people have different beliefs about forgiveness. Some believe forgiveness is a virtue, and that they can forgive everything, even if the sin wasn’t done to them. Others believe that it is impossible to forgive a sin that wasn’t done to oneself. In the memoir The Sunflower Simon Wiesenthal asked a question. What would I have done, if I was asked to forgive a person that killed three hundred Jews? In the fifth commandment God says, “You Shall Not Kill” (KJV). I believe it is God’s power to forgive or not forgive a person that has killed another human being. In implying this, I believe I would not be able to forgive a person that has killed hundreds of innocent Jews, because I’m not God and I don’t have the
Berger, who is the Raddock Eminent Scholar and chairman of Holocaust Studies at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, feels outraged that an SS man is asking for forgiveness after the terrible crimes he has committed against innocent people. Alan believes that Simon should and could not forgive on behalf of those so cruelly murdered. Berger states, “I may forgive one who has sinned against me. I may not forgive one who has taken the life of another” (119). What Berger is reminding us is that Simon had no right to forgive someone’s sins against other people, but he knew that if the soldier had done wrong against him, he would have forgiven him. Karl was only asking for forgiveness not because he had changed his mind about the stereotypes of the Jews. But, because he knew he was going to die in any minute and all he wanted was to die in “peace.” How can a man like Karl, Hitler, and all those SS man live and die in peace? In other words, “Do not forgive someone for whom forgiveness is forbidden” (119). I agree with Alan, because Karl hasn’t learned anything, his only desire is to clean his own soul at any cost. If he really wanted forgiveness he should have had confess his crime to a priest, because no one has the right to forgive someone who has taken the life of another human being. Only God has the right to do that. Every person is responsible for his/her own actions, and no one is able to absolve a sin that hasn’t been done to
Berger and Telushkin response were in agreement. How could Wiesenthal forgive crimes committed against others? I agree with them, it is just impossible to forgive a crime that has been committed against someone else, only God can do that. It is also impossible to forgive someone that even at the time he is asking for forgiveness, he is still saying that Jews were guilty to when the SS man says, “those Jews died quickly, they did not suffer as I do. They were not as guilty as I am” (52). A more righteous man who really had felt sorry for what he had done, would have said, “Don’t I deserve to suffer for what I have done, while those Jews didn’t deserve such sufferings; they were innocent victims of my comrades and myself” (263). Telushkin is reminding us is that when Karl was pleading for forgiveness, he wasn’t regretting what he had done to all innocent people. He was still feeling superior than all those innocent Jews. I have learned from my religion that if you are able to forgive but you never forget what has been done to you, it’s like you never really forgive that person, it is very clear that Simon didn’t forgive the soldier, because he felt that he might never forget for all the cruel moments that he and his religion went