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The importance of forgiveness Essay
Elocution on importance of forgiveness
The importance of forgiveness Essay
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Sunflower Reflection The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal shares many valuable lessons about life. Along with these lessons it gives the perspective of a holocaust survivor. The main idea throughout the book is the concept of forgiveness. Given that the author, Simon, is a Jew trapped in a German work camp is put in a unique situation when a SS officer asks him for forgiveness. This leads to the moral question of whether he should be given forgiveness for his actions and why this story has been written. While reading the story of what Simon had to endure and the story that troubled his conscience for the rest of his life makes the reader stand in his shoes. The most significant part of the book is after the entire story is told and the reader …show more content…
He opens the piece by telling the reader that we should forgive each other, however we should never forget the crimes that have been committed. Even though The Dalai Lama may not have know what was going on in the situation he still feels that no crime should go unforgiven. After telling the story of the Chinese invasion of Tibet and how they were treated terribly his forgiveness policy never swayed. At the end of the passage he describes the life of a Tibetan monk who had served nearly two decades in a prison. Even after all that he had been through, he described that when asked how he felt towards the Chinese he felt …show more content…
They felt that he was being inconsiderate to the race that he wished would forgive him. Although I agree he should not have said this in way I do not feel he was trying to be inconsiderate. If you do not know someone’s name then how can you ask for them personally? All he wanted to do was have a last confession with someone who would listen to him and many of the authors still considered this as a way of saying he was superior to the Jews. When we die it does not matter who is superior because we are all equal in the end. People will always think that they are better than others but really we are all blessed with unique traits and blessed lives. There is a quote by Camille Pissarro that reads, “Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.” Even the people who are not blessed with wealth and good fortune are blessed with the understand that living each day is a gift and nobody knows how long it will be until that gift is taken away from them. This is why we are all equal in the end the only difference between people is how they view different situations in their
Simon Wiesenthal’s book The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness spoke to me about the question of forgiveness and repentance. Simon Wiesenthal was a Holocaust prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. He experienced many brutal and uneasy experiences that no human being should experience in their lifetime and bear to live with it. Death, suffering, and despair were common to Simon Wiesenthal that he questioned his own religious faith because he asks why would his God allow the Holocaust happen to his people to be slaughter and not do anything to save them. During Simon Wiesenthal time as a Jewish Holocaust, Simon was invited to a military hospital where a dying Nazi SS officer wanted to have a conversation. The Nazi SS officer told Simon his story of his life and confesses to Simon of his horrific war crimes. Ultimately, the SS officer wanted forgiveness for what he done to Simon’s Jewish people. Simon Wiesenthal could not respond to his request, because he did not know what to do with a war criminal that participate in mass genocide to Simon’s people. Simon Wiesenthal lives throughout his life on asking the same crucial question, “What would I have done?” (Wiesenthal 98). If the readers would be on the exact situation as Simon was
The author of my essay is Simon Balic and he is a historian and culturologist. The title of the work is, Sunflower Symposium (109-111). Balic wrote this essay thirty years after The Sunflower was written. Balic argues that he does not forgive the sufferer, although he does feel some remorse. The author supports and develops the thesis in a chronological order in order to take the reader through exactly what was seen, heard, and thought of during this time. Both Weisenthal and Balic had a liable reason to not forgive the soldier, “There are crimes whose enormity cannot be measured. Rectifying a misdeed is a matter to be settled between the perpetrator and the victim” (Wiesenthal 54). Through this, Balic was trying to speak to his audience of fellow historians.
Wiesenthal, Simon, the Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness Synopsis and book setting The story is a about a dying SS officer who asks for a Jew in his last moments so he can seek redemption. Simon Wiesenthal was called and he decided to become silent when the apology was delivered to him as the representative of his people. Some comment on the perpetuation of the crime through the ambiguous apology of the SS man. The reason why Simon did not comment was partly because of the offense that was caused considering the officer meant there was no individuality for the Jew and therefore any Jew would have sufficed for the entire apology.
Six million Jews died during World War II by the Nazi army under Hitler who wanted to exterminate all Jews. In Night, Elie Wiesel, the author, recalls his horrifying journey through Auschwitz in the concentration camp. This memoir is based off of Elie’s first-hand experience in the camp as a fifteen year old boy from Sighet survives and lives to tell his story. The theme of this memoir is man's inhumanity to man. The cruel events that occurred to Elie and others during the Holocaust turned families and others against each other as they struggled to survive Hitler's and the Nazi Army’s inhumane treatment.
In Simon Wiesenthal’s The Sunflower, he recounts his incidence of meeting a dying Nazi soldier who tells Simon that he was responsible for the death of his family. Upon telling Simon the details, Karl asks for his forgiveness for what he helped accomplish. Simon leaves Karl without giving him an answer. This paper will argue that, even though Karl admits to killing Simon’s family in the house, Simon is morally forbidden to forgive Karl because Karl does not seem to show genuine remorse for his committed crime and it is not up to Simon to be able to forgive Karl for his sins. This stand will be supported by the meaning of forgiveness, evidence from the memoir, quotes from the published responses to Simon’s moral question, and arguments from Thomas Brudholm, Charles Griswold, and Trudy Govier. The possibly raised objection, for this particular modified situation, of forgiveness being necessary to move on from Desmond Tutu will be countered with the logic of needing to eventually find an end somewhere.
“The Dalai Lama” in The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness. New York:
A Lucky Child by Thomas Buergenthal is a memoir about his time as a Jewish child in multiple ghettos and death camps in and around Germany during World War II. The author shares about his reunions with family and acquaintances from the war in the years between then and now. Buergenthal wished to share his Holocaust story for a number of reasons: to prevent himself from just being another number, to contribute to history, to show the power and necessity of forgiveness, the will to not give up, and to question how people change in war allowing them to do unspeakable things. The memoir is not a cry for private attention, but a call to break the cycle of hatred and violence to end mass crimes.
Any great novel seeks to explore human nature, our morality, our trust in each other, the delicate inner workings of our societies. A classic that does more than explore the ways of our world, it exposes them, down to the nitty-gritty bare bones. These books force us to look at the world around us and truly see everything that is happening around us, not just the outer layers.... ... middle of paper ... ...
...d in this quote, “The action of the story continues nearly nonstop pausing occasionally to look at the stars or talk about southern gentlemen but only for a short time before rushing ahead” (Daly 17). The action of the story can make the reader get bored of it quickly or it can continue to keep the reader interested. Some of the action was forced to keep the book going but overall it was not bad. Many young readers like reading a book with lots of action so this is why the book is such a big hit.
Eliezer Wiesel loses his faith in god, family and humanity through the experiences he has from the Nazi concentration camp.
Both Night and The Sunflower are works which must be spread to society as a whole. Night and The Sunflower must be read and comprehended because they provide lessons for the current society to utilize. Night and The Sunflower provide for society, a moving, descriptive, first-hand account of the inhumanity and atrocities committed during the Holocaust. The guiltlessness of the Jews allowed the German Nazis to decimate any trace of the culture. A better understanding of the causes, events, and results of the Holocaust allows society as a whole to discourage such genocides. Comprehending these two works will allow the current society to prevent such atrocities. Another Holocaust must never emanate again; spreading the works of Elie Wiesel’s Night and Simon Wiesenthal’s The Sunflower will aid in the cause.
The position to choose between forgiving one’s evil oppressor and letting him die in unrest is unlike any other. The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal explores the possibilities and limitations of forgiveness through the story of one Jew in Nazi Germany. In the book, Wiesenthal details his life in the concentration camp, and the particular circumstance in which a dying Nazi asks him for forgiveness for all the heinous acts committed against Jews while under the Nazi regime. Wiesenthal responds to this request by leaving the room without giving forgiveness. The story closes with Wiesenthal posing the question, “What would you have done?” Had I been put in the position that Wiesenthal was in, I would ultimately choose to forgive the Nazi on the basis
Although our past is a part of who we are nowadays, we will never be happy if we can never let go of the painful feeling attached to our suffering. In addition, “suffering pulls us farther away from other human beings. It builds a wall made of cries and contempt to separate us” (Wiesel 96). We should not be afraid to let go of our haunting past and grow closer to others because “man carries his fiercest enemy within himself. Hell isn’t others. It’s ourselves” (Wiesel 15). The wise advice this book gives its audience is one reason it won a Nobel Peace Prize. The books are also part of a very famous Holocaust trilogy, which is one reason it has been so widely read. In addition, it blends everyday stories with Holocaust stories.Therefore, readers are very compassionate towards the narrator and readers create a bond with this character due to his hardships and the similarities he shares with us. Lastly, Day speaks to the needs of the human spirit by intertwining a love story. Readers wonder if his girlfriend will change his attitude towards life because he tells the doctor, “I love Kathleen. I love her with all my heart. And how can one love if at the same time one doesn’t care about life” (Wiesel
The Symposium is the second part of the novel The Sunflower and is a collection of responses to the question Wiesenthal poses as a result of his real life experience. He interviewed fifty-three men and women to respond to what they would have done if they were in the same situation he was put through on that life-altering day. The first response to Wiesenthal’s question I found intriguing and chose to discuss was that of Alan L. Berger, who is the Raddock Eminent Scholar and Chairman of Holocaust Studies at Florida Atlantic University (Wiesenthal, 118). The second response I found interesting and chose to talk about was the Dalai Lama’s, who is the spiritual leader of the Buddhists (Wiesenthal, 129). Both of these responses were the ones I
I believe that there are many important events that tie to the main plot of the book, but there are definitely some that stick out more than others. One of the important events that occured was when Charlie woke up in a chair. Beside that chair was torture items. Charlie was terrified, and he had just heard someone order to kill him outside of the door. This is when Charlie proceeded to escape by knocking out two