In World War II, the Nazis committed unspeakable atrocities against the Jewish population, as well as many other groups of individuals deemed unworthy in the eyes of the Nazi party. In Simon Wiesenthal’s memoir “The Sunflower”, Karl, a energetic and enthusiastic member of the SS and previous Hitler’s youth participant who has found himself in a hospital bed, is one such member of the Nazi party who has committed crimes against humanity. Despite his misdeeds against the Jewish population, Karl seems repentant while on his deathbed, as he asks for forgiveness. However, Karl asked Simon, a Jewish architect plucked from his home and forced to live in grueling concentration camps, for forgiveness on behalf of the Jewish population solely based on
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To start, Karl never never fully realized the weight of his crimes. As Rebecca Goldstein put it, “for had he understood the enormity of his crimes, he would never have dared to ask forgiveness” (154). If Karl had truly been apologetic as to his crimes, he would have known that there was no way to forgive the unforgivable acts of murder. Furthermore, based on Karl’s own catholic faith, why did Karl not attempt an apology with a catholic priest? If Karl truly believed he could be forgiven, he should have asked a priest for the absolution he desired. Erich H. Lowey, a jewish man who escaped the Nazis in 1938, instead believes “he chose to speak to a victim and to seek human forgiveness from someone who represented for him those he had hurt” (205). However, this only ties back into the belief that Karl thought, as all Nazis did, that the Jewish people were just one uniform mass instead of a group of individual people. Erich’s claim only reinforces the idea that Karl knew he could not be granted the forgiveness he sought from conventional means, so he attempted to manipulate and squeeze a reaction from the next Jewish person who crossed his
To start, Karl never never fully realized the weight of his crimes. As Rebecca Goldstein put it, “for had he understood the enormity of his crimes, he would never have dared to ask forgiveness” (154). If Karl had truly been apologetic as to his crimes, he would have known that there was no way to forgive the unforgivable acts of murder. Furthermore, based on Karl’s own catholic faith, why did Karl not attempt an apology with a catholic priest? If Karl truly believed he could be forgiven, he should have asked a priest for the absolution he desired. Erich H. Lowey, a jewish man who escaped the Nazis in 1938, instead believes “he chose to speak to a victim and to seek human forgiveness from someone who represented for him those he had hurt” (205). However, this only ties back into the belief that Karl thought, as all Nazis did, that the Jewish people were just one uniform mass instead of a group of individual people. Erich’s claim only reinforces the idea that Karl knew he could not be granted the forgiveness he sought from conventional means, so he attempted to manipulate and squeeze a reaction from the next Jewish person who crossed his