Simon Wiesenthal's "The Sunflower: Exploring the Possibilities and Limitations of Forgiveness"

priscila ribeiro prado barrros: I was surprised with the story. It is awesome

Canada on Nov 21, 2022

sirius: Quick delivery, excellent condition and then I opened and started to read. Damn dinner to prepare so had to stop but the start makes me want to read on. I knew it would be challenging and it is but in a positive way. So many contributors and all with a perspective on the human condition and forgiveness. Yes if you are interested in the subject then this is well worth the cost and time taken to read it.

United Kingdom on Apr 18, 2021

Reviewer: This book is not a summer read, it is too deep to be absorbed lightly but, I think it is an important book to read.

Wiesenthal first relates his experience of being a prisoner in a concentration camp and having a dying Nazi soldier ask him for forgiveness for his crimes against the Jews.

Wiesenthal then proposes the question, under the circumstances, "What would you have done?" What would I have done?

That is an impossible question to answer.

United Kingdom on Apr 23, 2020

GJC: This is not like any other book I’ve read. The author’s time in the concentration camp is harrowing, his life and the lives of his companions was under constant threat. Every day he lived with the terror he could have been murdered at any moment in an act of random violence. Taken to the bedside of a dying SS soldier and forced to listen to his story of Nazi brutality, the author asks a question, “What would you have done?” when asked to forgive?
The question was posed to notable academics, religious leaders, politicians, writers, human rights activists as well as survivors of genocide in the 20th century. Some of the respondents avoid the question completely and pose their own question, some discuss the difference between forgetting and forgiving, others ponder the question of collective guilt. Unsurprisingly, some of the responses are quite predictable. Most contributors assert that Wiesenthal was not in a position to forgive in the name of another victim. I found Dennis Prager’s comments helpful concerning the differences in the Jewish and Christian views to forgiveness of murder. The Jewish tradition was something I was not fully aware of. My own view is that...

United Kingdom on Jan 17, 2020

Hannah1: This is a soul-searing book. I started reading it at 5pm on the day it arrived, read until I fell asleep at 10, woke up again at 2am and carried on reading until I finally finished it at 4am. It took possession of my mind as no other book has done, and ever since, I have continued to work through its implications.
The fact that these events occurred 75 years ago is irrelevant. Evil is evil, however long ago it happened. The moral situation is unchanged.
My father was Jewish, and had Hitler's armies invaded, both he and I would have been murdered. I can therefore try to
put myself to some very tiny extent in Wiesenthal's position: what would I have done if this man had been responsible for the horrific death of my beloved father?
There are some enormities before which only silence is possible, and I admire Wiesenthal beyond measure for his self-control and his life-time's dedication to the hunting down of these monsters.
This book is one which should be required reading for everyone. No moral position can be posited which does not in some measure take account of this situation.

United Kingdom on Jan 08, 2015

Claudia Moscovici: Would you forgive the Nazi perpetrator? The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal

The Sunflower is a philosophical narrative about moral responsibility and the possibility—and limits--of forgiveness of genocide. In this parable, the narrator describes his hellish daily existence in the Lemberg concentration camp. The story reflects, in some respects, Wiesenthal’s own experience in several Nazi concentration camps during WWII: including Janowska, Plaszow and Mauthausen. Although the narrative shies away from vivid descriptions of violence, it alludes to the sadistic mistreatment of Jewish inmates by SS officers as well as to the starvation, disease and constant threat of being shot or selected for the crematorium that were part and parcel of the daily horrors experienced by inmates. The book, originally published by Schocken Books in 1976, has been taught for decades in schools as an introduction to the Holocaust. Written in a simple yet elegant prose, The Sunflower has been especially popular because it raises the important questions about moral responsibility for national crimes and explores the victims’ capacity for forgiveness. The latter point was particularly relevant to...

United States on Jul 17, 2014

Scamp Lumm: "who can be indoctrinated with evil. Mankind is ostensibly striving to avert catastrophes; medical progress gives us hope that one day disease can be conquered, but will we ever be able to prevent the creation of mass murderers?"-Simon Wiesenthal

The Lord loves justice Isaiah 6:18

All people who call themselves christians should read this book because christianity is under attack and for good reason many times. I grew up in the bible belt; you were extremely weird if you didn't go to church and there are churches on every corner practically in this part of the country. Christian Germans, continental europeans had their faiths tried by fire in this last century, it is not so obvious in America, but I believe we are standing at the edge of a cliff in so many ways and we have choices to make and those choices will save or condemn your soul; no matter how many apostles creeds you say, the choices you are making today will determine your salvation or not.

This book is probably the best book I've ever read. I love Simon Wiesenthal not just for his books' content but because Simon understood G-d's demands for justice; he then tracked down the Nazi killers who took...

United States on Mar 30, 2010