Forgiveness In The Sunflower By Simon Wiesenthal

To Forgive or Not Forgive, That is the Question Throughout the New Testament of the Bible, Christians are constantly reminded of the importance of forgiveness. Mathew 6:15 states: “But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (KJV). In other words, a person cannot expect to be forgiven by God if that person does not forgive others. When it comes to forgiving those that I love, I do not have a difficult time forgiving them, and this is probably because I love them so much. In his book, The Sunflower, author, Simon Wiesenthal is faced with an SS soldier who asks forgiveness for a horrific crime. Simon was unable to forgive the man; and I too would find it very hard to forgive a Nazi soldier if I were in Wiesenthal’s shoes--how can one forgive …show more content…
One day when he was working, a nurse took him aside and told Simon to follow her. She led him to the hospital room of a dying SS soldier. What followed had a huge impact on Simon’s life. The SS soldier, Karl, sought out Simon’s forgiveness for a horrible act he was part of in which hundreds of Jews were stuffed into a 3-story house and then hand grenades were thrown into the windows of the house. After hearing this horrible confession, Simon silently walked away. He did not offer forgiveness to the young soldier. Upon discussing this event to his friends, they assured him that he was right in not forgiving the soldier. One of his friends, Josek, stated, “Who gave you the right to forgive our murder?” (Wiesenthal 66). In other words, Josek believed that it was not up to Simon to forgive a man who killed so many of their fellow Jews. Unfortunately, this incident continued to haunt Simon, and when the war was over, he decided to seek out the opinions of others. These people come from many different backgrounds, ethnicities, and