The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness: Amazon.ca: Simon Wiesenthal: Books

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Author Simon Weisenthal recalls his demoralizing life in a concentration camp and his envy of the dead Germans who have sunflowers marking their graves. At the time he assumed his grave would be a mass one, unmarked and forgotten. Then, one day, a dying Nazi soldier asks Weisenthal for forgiveness for his crimes against the Jews. What would you do? This important book and the provocative question it poses is birthing debates, symposiums, and college courses. The Dalai Lama, Harry Wu, Primo Levi, and others who have witnessed genocide and human tyranny answer Wiesenthal's ultimate question on forgiveness. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In this 1976 volume, divided into two sections, Wiesenthal tackles the question of the possibilities and limits of forgiveness. The first part relates the story of how Wiesenthal, as a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp, was brought before a dying SS trooper, who explained his actions and asked for forgiveness, which Wiesenthal could not bring himself to bestow. In the second section, Wiesenthal presents the story to an array of leading intellectuals and asks, "What would you have done?" This edition contains all the original responses plus additional ones from Primo Levi, Cynthia Ozick, Albert Speer, and others. Heavy stuff.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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4.8 out of 5 stars (26 customer reviews)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Increased weight, Dec 23 2001

By

Alyssa A. Lappen (Earth) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness (Paperback)

I relish this volume for the story that Simon Wiesenthal shares of his Holocaust experiences.

Much of his 98-page account covers his unwilling audience with a dying SS man named Karl who had asked the nun on duty to fetch a Jewish prisoner, any Jewish prisoner. He did not tell her why. Once Wiesenthal entered, Karl began a long tale of how he had come to this place, what he had done and why he wanted forgiveness. What Karl said and how Wiesenthal reacted are riveting. Years later, the latter traveled to Stuttgart to meet Karl's mother, yet did not tell her what he had learned about her son. I could have done no better in his place.

I found the details surrounding his encounter equally riveting. One day, Wiesenthal was ordered to join a concentration camp work detail that hiked into the town of Lemberg, where he had attended Technical High School in Sapiehy Street. By coincidence, the guards brought the enslaved men through the streets he had once walked as a free young man, to the very building where he had attended school. As he walked, he thought of events, both recent ones in the camp and more distant events in Lemberg and at his school. He recounts them all.

Readers also learn of Wiesenthal's friends Arthur and Josek, neither of whom survived, who comforted and consoled one another and him, talking philosophically under the most inhuman circumstances in order to maintain their humanity.

The reactions of various famed writers, religious leaders and others are less important. Some are nevertheless compelling by virtue of their authorship or unique content. These include replies by Holocaust survivors Jean Amery, Moshe Bejske, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Primo Levi and Nechana Tec, two of whom later committed suicide, and Rabbi Lawrence Kushner. I was especially struck by Theologian Franklin H. Littell's call for increased awareness "of the earnest nature of the choice between good and evil, between innocence and guilt."

This book has been important for 25 years. In the wake of Sept. 11, 2001 it carries increased weight. Alyssa A. Lappen

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Powerful little novel about the significance of forgiveness., July 30 2003

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Nelson Jimenez "nelsonzz" (stamford, ct USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness (Paperback)

I recently picked up this book because I recognized the name of famed nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal. The Jews suffered terribly under Pharaoh during the days of Moses and under Hitler during World War II. The tale of a nazi soldier asking a Jew - enslaved in a concentration camp - to forgive him for his sins is incredible. To ask forgiveness of one person as a representative of his people is quite a believable notion. Haven't US Presidents apologized for slavery, internment camps, etc in the name of the citizens of the United States??
I liked the fact that Simon's conscience bothered him after he left the soldier's bedside once he heard his terrible tale. I enjoyed his philosophical talks with his fellow prisoners as well as the trip he took to the soldier's mothers house after the war. This was a well-written book and it should be required reading in all high schools.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Moving & Thought-provoking, July 23 2001

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spideranansie (Singapore - Manchester) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness (Paperback)

Wiesenthal's book on the extent of forgiveness is one of the treasures in Holocaust literature. Writing on the Holocaust has often been very generic -- autobiographical, psychological or thematic -- but Wiesenthal's book brings together these different methods of writing and leaves us with a masterpiece that stirs us emotionally and intellectually. Oftentimes, Holocaust writing appeals to our emotions, rather than our rationality. In fact when writers have tried to look into the psyche of the perpetrators and tried to explain rationally just what drives one to commit such crimes against humanity, they have been accused of siding with the perpetrators in trying to understand them. Others argue that the victims and survivors of the Holocaust should be the focus of anything written on the Holocaust, and that focusing on perpetrators is a negation and diminishing of the victims' suffering. I do not agree with this, and I think a fuller understanding (if it is possible to comprehend such inhuman activity) of the events that happened cannot be achieved without looking at both groups of people involved. Wiesenthal's book has this balance, exploring both the psyche of the perpetrator, an SS man, as well as the thoughts running through the head of the victim, a concentration camp inmate. Can we forgive such crimes which have been perpetrated on our people? And is an individual even in a position to forgive on behalf of everyone? If we do not, are we as bad as the perpetrators themselves? "The Sunflower" asks us questions which we have to confront in our lives. It doesn't just describe a situation and give an answer to it. Instead it leaves us to make our own value judgements about the questions we face, and in doing so, it brings out the prevalent dilemmas in the human condition. A classic and must read for anyone trying to figure out humanity.

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Most recent customer reviews

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