The Sunflower

By: Dr. Collin Skye

Take a moment and try to imagine having your all of your family, friends, and

neighbors rounded up and slaughtered like cattle for no legitimate reason. Unless it's

happened to you, you can't. Now, imagine being brainwashed into believing in something so

much that you are convicted that the end justifies the means, no matter what means. These

two circumstances are similar to the vantage points of Simon Wiesenthal and the SS Officer

Karl in Wiesenthal's book, The Sunflower. The memory that Wiesenthal struggles with

throughout the book takes place in the concentration camps during the Holocaust.

The dilemma beings when Simon is escorted by a nurse to the bedside of a dying SS

soldier, Karl. Karl then proceeds to narrate a story of how he had participated in the

incineration of a house that contained hundreds of Jews and those who tried to escape were

immediately shot. The soldier recounts the picture of a father, mother, and child trying to

leap to safety from the second floor. "I can see the child and his father and his

mother...Perhaps they were already dead when they struck the pavement. It was frightful.

Screams mixed with volleys of shots.." (Wiesenthal, 47-48). After describing at length the

inhumane training and treatment they endured as a result of joining the Hitler Youth, the

dying soldier asked for the forgiveness of the Jew. "I know what I have told you is terrible.

In the long nights while I have been waiting for death, time and time again I have longed to

talk about it to a Jew and beg forgiveness from him. Only I didn't know whether there were
any Jews left..." (Wiesenthal 54). Simon responds to this request with nothing but silence

and exits the room, leaving the dying soldier to die without peace.

"There are many kinds of silence. Indeed it can be more eloquent than words, and it can

be interpreted in many ways." (Wiesenthal 97). I feel as though Simon's silent response to

the request of forgiveness conveyed more than any amount of words could have. Sometimes

the lack of an answer is an answer in itself. One possible reason Simon responds this way is

because he feels as though the fate of the soldier isn't in his hands but rather lies in the hands

of god. This isn’t the only instance either when Simon responds with silence in regards to

the SS soldier. After surviving the camps, Wiesenthal visits the mother of the soldier to try

and put his moral struggle to rest and gain a better insight into the personality of the soldier.

It can be inferred that he secretly was trying to rid himself of "the feelings of sympathy

which [he] could not reject would then perhaps disappear" (Wiesenthal 87). When he finds

her she is still clinging on to the “faith in the goodness of her son" (Wiesenthal 94.) Due to

her emotional instability and the belief that taking this notion from her was a sin in the

Jewish community Simon decides not to divulge the story that Karl had shared with him and

depart once again in silence. Wiesenthal is distraught with the questions of morality about

his silence long after the incident, relating the silence to the silence of the Jews in the

concentration camps.

"The crux of the matter is, of course, the question of forgiveness. Forgetting is

something that time alone takes care of, but forgiveness is an act of volition, and only the

sufferer is qualified to make the decision" (Wiesenthal 97-98). If the author had been

personally affected by the soldier in question then he could have the capacity to pardon his
behavior for the suffering caused to him but in no way does this give him the privilege to do

the same for others? The only way in my mind that he can be truly forgiven for his wrong

doings is to address each of his victims’ families and beg for it. Does the fact that Simon is a

Jew gives him the right to forgive the soldier on behalf of other Jews? Simon appears, to the

Nazi, to be a symbol for the Jewish community that Karl is using to seek peace on his

deathbed. I think it is impossible for one Jew to forgive on behalf of the entire Jewish

community. On the other hand though, I honestly don't think that Karl cares if it is an

unreasonable request, at this point he is just seeking a peace of mind. "I know that what I am

asking is almost too much for you, but without your answer I cannot die in peace"

(Wiesenthal 54). Herein lies the fact that Karl is asking for forgiveness solely to "die in

peace" and because of this his motives for seeking this forgiveness are completely wrong. If

this wasn't his motive why had he not tried to seek forgiveness earlier? It is because he didn't

care enough about the issue until it affected his own fate. Through the silence, Simon

demonstrated the impossibility of Karl's request. "Forgetting the crimes devalues the

humanity that perished in these atrocities" (Wiesenthal 102).

It has been said that end justifies the means but I ask do the means justify the end?

Kant's Categorical Imperative says several things, firstly one should treat all persons as an

end and not as a means. Secondly, don't use people or allow yourself to be used. And

thirdly, people should be treated as having intrinsic worth. I think all three of these are in

conflict with the actions of the SS soldier. It is evident that Karl follows the Nazi ideology

which sees the extermination of Jews as a means to the Nazi goals and not an end violating

the first rule of the categorical imperative. Nextly, the Nazis had a cost-benefit analysis type
view of the Jews where they essentially were slaves until the price it cost to keep them

outweighed their benefit, at which point they were exterminated. Lastly, the Jews were seen

as an inferior race to the Nazis that lacked intrinsic value and worth. So according to the

second categorical imperative the soldier was morally in the wrong in every possible. If Karl

had followed the ideology of Kant instead of Hitler then I think the argument for forgiveness

wouldn’t even be in question because none of this evil would have happened.

There is no concrete answer when one's virtues come into question, only through

careful examination of actions and motives can one make a decision on the foundations of

them. Though it might not have been the SS soldiers desire to do the evil deeds, he chose to

do them therefore he is guilty of his crimes and should be punished. Still though the matter

of forgiveness is not up to Simon or anyone else but the victim himself and needless to say,

the dead don't forgive. “Is it possible to forgive and not forget? How can victims come to

peace with their past, and hold on to their own humanity and morals in the process?”

(Wiesenthal XXI) The answer is up to you.