The Sunflower By Simon Wiesenthal: Character Analysis

The Sunflower is a non-fiction book; written by Simon Wiesenthal. In this book, Simon (a Jew) was working for the Nazi’s, while he got pulled aside by a nurse. The nurse asked him to come speak to a dying S.S. Man (Karl). Simon went into the room, and Karl told him the horrendous crimes he has committed. Karl tells Simon this to get forgiveness from a Jew for his crimes; so he can die in peace. Simon is overwhelmed and walks out, and says nothing. For the rest of his life he contemplates-did I make the right choice? After reading four essays from the back of the book, I have decided I would have forgiven Karl for his crimes. Jean Améry is an atheist, who was a Jewish survivor from the Holocaust. He believes that there are two ways of looking at forgiving, or not forgiving: psychologically and politically. He says that, physiologically, it could have been easier to forgive Karl if he (Simon) could have actually seen him (such as his pleading eyes), because people are more likely to forgive when you have an emotional connection. Politically, Jean understood where Simon was coming from-Karl knew as he was committing the crimes when he was doing it. He believes either way it does not matter what Simon decided, it is his own guilt that he had to live with. Jean Améry said, “You didn’t …show more content…
He believes to forgive, we must understand the situation. He said, “We need to learn to separate the true culprits from the pawns, the evil masterminds from the brainwashed” (232). Karl was just a pawn in the scheme of it, while Adolf was the culprit. We shouldn't hold grudges on the ones who were forced to do, what they were told to do. We should blame the ones that forced the pawns to commit those acts. Karl didn’t come up with the plan to kill millions of Jewish people, he was brainwashed and trained to kill. I think Simon should have forgiven Karl, because even though he killed people, it was what he was told what to