Must one forget before one can forgive? Forgiveness involves not holding a sin against a person any longer, but forgiveness is a decision of the will. Since we cannot selectively remove events from our memory, it is impossible to truly forget sins that have been committed against us. Simon Wiesenthal, a Holocaust survivor, in his book The Sunflower, writes of an experience that occurred when he was a prisoner in a concentration camp during the Holocaust. He recounts a day when he was taken from work and lead to the bedside of a dying man. The dying man Karl, a member of the SS, confessed to Simon about his dreadful act for he sought absolution from a Jew. As Karl begs for Wiesenthal to forgive him, Wiesenthal remained silent and walked away. Wiesenthal’s purpose is to argue whether the inhumane acts of the SS should be forgiven. Because …show more content…
Karl disregarded any of his parent’s feelings on the subject; consequently, his father was afraid to speak in his presence. In this case, it resulted in the end of his church services and any relationship with his father. Wiesenthal states, “But it turned out differently; I joined the Hitler Youth, and that of course was the end of the Church for me” (Wiesenthal 31). Based on this evidence, one can conclude that Karl’s dedication to the Hitler Youth was far greater than his beliefs in God. In addition, Karl showed no remorse for defying his parents and continued to alienate himself from his father, first when he joined the Hitler Youth and later when he joined the SS. Wiesenthal states, “When the war broke out I volunteered, naturally in the SS” (Wiesenthal 32). This quotation shows that since he enthusiastically volunteered, Karl is a supporter of the murderous association of killers, known as the Youth League of the National Socialist Workers ' Party. For that matter, the fact that Karl had no moral courage makes him a murderer despite his Catholic
FDR and the Holocaust by Verne W. Newton provides a basis for scholarly discourse for the Hyde Park Conference of 1993. The book includes essays, articles, and chapters from different scholars specializing in the Holocaust and Roosevelt in which they examine FDR’s response to the Holocaust. The first chapter of the book is a summary of the participants’ remarks of the “Policies and Responses of the American Government towards the Holocaust,” which was prepared by rapporteur J. Garry Clifford. The objective of the conference was to determine through discussion whether or not the controversy over the Roosevelt administration’s response to the Holocaust was correct. Following this chapter, the first section of the book is filled with essays, articles, and chapters submitted by participants at the conference. The second section of the book includes papers by historians who were not participants at the conference, but whose contributions are relevant to the issues discussed. The articles written by the scholars throughout the book look at the policies between 1933 and 1942, addressing the critiques of FDR and his failure to stop the genocide of the Jewish community in Germany. The overall book not only looks at the rescue efforts during the war and the possibilities for future research and analysis, but also supplies a definitive resource for a pivotal time in United States history.
When Simon was asked to forgive the SS officer, he blankly looked at the man, stood up, and left. One of the main problems that he faced is he definitely was not able to absolve the man of the crimes considering he could not speak for his entire people. Wiesenthal did not have authority to absolve the actions of those who were responsible for the holocaust nor did he want to in the first place. Different people have different ideologies about the way that one can accept forgiveness. Literature from the Jewish culture has a lot to say about this and understandably so. For one, it is clear they thought little about verbal apologies from the Nazis for the atrocities they had committed in the
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 act of forgiving a murder is out of the question for most people. Simon is confronted with this very dilemma in The Sunflower. Karl, a dying Nazi, is asking forgiveness from a Jew, the narrator. The narrator leaves the dying Nazi with no answer, leaving him with an agonizing thought of whether he did or did not do the right thing. Due to the fact both Karl and the narrator’s psychological well-being is affected by not only wartime but other extenuating factors, the narrator should grant Karl forgiveness, as this dying man is an individual who is genuinely repenting for the crimes he has committed. Forgiveness will allow Karl to die with piece of mind while the narrator will continue life with a stable and clear conscience.
As Karl starts to confess his crimes to Wiesenthal he started off with telling him about his upbringing and why he was not born a murderer. Karl was raised by a Catholic mother and Father who was a Social democrat; Karl even participated in the church as a server.
Who was Elie Wiesel? Elie Wiesel is a famous Holocaust survivor, a political activist, professor, and a novelist. He is the recipient of many different accomplishments and achievements throughout his life. He is most known for his novel Night, which is about his survival during the Holocaust.
The Holocaust was a terrible and tragic time for Jewish people. They were constantly treated bad, harassed, and killed. The Nazi’s maintained many concentration camps, the most infamous of which being Auschwitz, where Vladek Spiegelman was sent to during the war. In the graphic novel, Maus, Art Spiegelman tells the tale of his father, Vladek, and his life during the Holocaust. In order to improve his chances of staying alive, Vladek got involved in helping the guards with certain tasks and jobs. By doing so, Vladek was able to raise his reputation among the Nazi officers, which improved his living conditions and saved his life a few times, and he was able to help his fellow prisoners and his wife, Anja.
Approximately six million Jews died during the holocaust, which was two-thirds of the Jewish population at the time of World War Two. This catastrophe is considered to be one of the most deplorable events caused by the human race itself and will live on for eternity. Often people hear the miraculous stories about survival and escape. However, it is unlikely for one to hear a story of rescue due to the high security surrounding the camps. Many prisoners had no hope of finding refuge and were often destined for the gas chambers. However, one man was able to save nearly two thousand Jews by simply knowing how to play both sides properly. His name is Rudolf Kastner. On the surface Rudolf Kastner appears to be a selfless man who devoted many years of his life aiding Jews before and during the Holocaust. While Kastner portrays a good-natured journalist on the surface, he is highly controversial in the Jewish community based on his bias towards Jews that could afford to pay him the large sums of money for their freedom. His inability to think of others prior to himself adds to his repertoire of poor personality traits and greedy decisions. Rudolf Kastner exemplifies all of the characteristics of an insufficient leader due to his selfish tendencies, lack of concern for others, and arrogant personality.
“I do not forgive people because I am weak. I forgive them because I am strong enough to understand people mistakes.” (Marilyn Monroe) Simon Wiesenthal was facing a dying Nazi solider who was seeking for forgiveness in his death bed. In the novel, The Sunflower, Simon writes about a situation he confronts in the concentration camp. While arriving at the military hospital to start labor, a nurse approaches Simon and asks him to follow her. When he arrives in the room, he meets Karl, the dying Nazi solider. Karl is asking for forgiveness for the awful crimes he committed while being an SS. He informs Simon he cannot die in peace without being forgiven by a Jew for the awful things he did to the Jewish people. Simon listens to the detailed confession
In particular, he addresses questions he has about limits and opportunities for forgiveness. In the beginning of the book Wiesenthal tells his encounter with an SS officer who was dying. This dying man’s request was that Wiesenthal forgive him for the crime he had previously committed against the Jews. This SS trooper had participated in the mass killing of the Jewish people. When the Jews had been trapped inside a burning building their vain attempts of escaping were met by the SS officers’ harsh brute rejection. The Nazi soldiers shot and killed each Jew that managed to escape the burning building. The SS officer requested for the nurse to bring a Jew to him. Wiesenthal was on a labor brigade at a hospital when he met Karl. Karl was deathly wounded and was being tormented by his conscious. He thought that absolution could be received from another Jew. Wiesenthal was not able to bring himself to grant the dying SS troopers request, because he felt it was not his place to do so. Even though he left the dying man’s...
In the “American Holocaust” by David Stannard, Stannard points out how the Spaniards, British, and Americans were treating the indigenous people differently. In chapter 1 of the “American Holocaust,” Stannard talks about how the Europeans main goal was to find and acquire gold. When the Europeans began to arrive in America they began to discover a land that contained a variety of gold. Once they discovered that there was gold they began to establish and did not see the indigenous people as part of the land. Indigenous people were required to work in forced labor and take care of the land however they were not part of the land and did not have their own property, towns and villages. In the first chapter of the American Holocaust Stannard
Six million perished in the flames, mass shootings and gas chambers of concentration camps during the Holocaust. This started when the Nazi party established a “Final Solution” that sought out to eradicate the inferior Jewish race from Germany and the world (“Holocaust”). A person cannot look at this event and see nothing except for the dark, evil side of human nature. However, if a person looks at the Holocaust from a survivor’s point of view, they can see the good side of human nature, especially if someone looks at it from Elie Wiesel’s perspective. Elie Wiesel and his family were Romanian Jews who were, unfortunately, swept into the Holocaust’s horrors. Elie managed to escape the Holocaust using tools of survival, including love for family and impassivity. He did not let being a victim of the Holocaust define him, so Elie moved on to become an inspirational figure that represented and spoke out for all of those who constantly suffer due to the oppressive aspects of society. No one could have predicted such an outcome that is Elie Wiesel’s life story in the face of catastrophe like the Holocaust.
It is a means of self-liberation and self-empowerment” (About forgiveness – Candles). This is a quote from Eva Kor. Forgiving those perpetrators involved in the Holocaust is a highly debated topic. However, Kor saw it as a necessity for herself to be liberated from the pain. Kor stated that, “I forgave the Nazis not because they deserved it but because I deserved it” (Forgiving the Nazis). Another quote from Kor explains the complex nature of forgiveness, “The day I forgave the Nazis, privately I forgave my parents whom I hated all my life for not having saved me from Auschwitz. Children expect their parents to protect them; mine couldn’t. And then I forgave myself for hating my parents” (Forgiving the Nazis). The public display of forgiveness allowed Kor to remove hate and negativity that accumulated throughout her life. This will allow people to be liberated in a healthy and meaningful way, like Kor was. There are physical health benefits of forgiving. After granting forgiveness people have lower blood pressure, sleep better, need fewer medications, and overall, feel better physically (John Hopkins). The physical and emotional health benefits that forgiveness offers can change a survivor’s life for the
I agree because if one forgives someone does not mean that person is going to forget their crimes, but acknowledge what has become of them and how they will act in future based on their experience. So to get to the point of Mr. Wiesenthal question, “What would you have done in my place?”
Holocaust Survivor, Simon Wiesenthal says, “Today the world demands that we forgive and forget the heinous crimes committed against us. It urges that we draw a line, and close the account as if nothing had ever happened” (Wiesenthal 97). However, they can forgive whenever they like but they can't never forget what happened to. Simon later second-guessed himself on not forgiving Karl, a Nazi. He had a choice and he picked not to forgive Karl, but he was not sure if that was the right thing to do. Simon had to ask others in the camps if that was the right decision. Wiesenthal was hard on himself weather to forgive Karl. Then he had to go ask other Jews and he even went to talk to his mom. But how do they know now what Wiesenthal feel because he didn't even know himself. Wiesenthal states, “Forgetting is something that time alone takes care of, but forgiveness is an act of volition and only the sufferer is qualified to make a decision” (Wiesenthal 97-98). On the other hand, how can he not forget something so bad like the Holocaust and forgiving would help him. It would not make him sufferer. Eva Kor forgave, and she probably would never forget what happened to her. She was healed and weight came off her shoulders after she forgive the