The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness
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Product Description
While imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp, Simon Wiesenthal was taken one day from his work detail to the bedside of a dying member of the SS. Haunted by the crimes in which he had participated, the soldier wanted to confess to–and take absolution from–a Jew.
This unusual encounter and the moral dilemma it posed raise fundamental questions about the limits and possibilities of forgiveness. Must we, can we forgive the repentant criminal? Can we forgive crimes committed against others? What do we owe the victims?
Thirty-five years after the Holocaust, Wiesenthal questioned leading intellectuals what they would have done in his place. Collected into one volume, their responses became a classic of Holocaust literature and a touchstone of interfaith dialogue. This revised edition of The Sunflower includes 46 responses (ten from the original volume) from prominent theologians, political leaders, writers, jurists, psychiatrists, human rights activists, Holocaust survivors, and victims of attempted genocides in Bosnia, Cambodia, China and Tibet. Their answers reflect the teachings of their diverse beliefs–Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, secular, and agnostic–and remind us that Wiesenthal’s question is not limited to events of the past.
Regularly surprising and permanently thought-provoking, The Sunflower will challenge you to define your beliefs about justice, compassion, and human responsibility.
Amazon.com Review
Leader Simon Weisenthal recalls his demoralizing life in a concentration camp and his envy of the dead Germans who have sunflowers marking their graves. At the time he assumed his grave would be a mass one, unmarked and forgotten. Then, one day, a dying Nazi soldier questions Weisenthal for forgiveness for his crimes against the Jews. What would you do? This vital book and the provocative question it poses is birthing debates, symposiums, and college courses. The Dalai Lama, Harry Wu, Primo Levi, and others who have witnessed genocide and human tyranny answer Wiesenthal’s essential question on forgiveness.
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One of my professors extolled the virtues of this book, but I was not too tickled with it. It was ok. Still have not read the whole thing and will likely give it away to a name who may appreciate it.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
Recieved item on time, right when we were told it would arrive. Book in very excellent condition.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
This book is a must for anyone who wants to know the mortal dilemas which affected persons who suffered so much from the violence of the holocaust. Incredible that ther leader was able to retain his huaminity in the face of such evil, and a tribute to his moral character.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
This is a very weird book in many, many ways. A dying S.S. officer questions for ‘a Jew’ (any Jew concentration camp inmate will do) so that he can question for forgiveness for killing some additional point Jews in the past while, at the same time, expressing no all-purpose guilt for any additional crimes he has done as a Nazi Officer. Simon Wiesenthal is selected as that Jew. Mr. Wiesenthal is silent, he walks away after being forced to listen to this confession(?) and this experience troubles him for decades after. I establish it weird at first, that he is so troubled. His going to meet the mother of that officer years later I establish weird. One may marvel why he formed, with the mother, a support to allow this man to be recalled by her as a ‘excellent son’.
Yet, weird is not terrible and this book is an brilliant book. I establish the opinion (from many people) after the tale were; enlightening, exasperating, brilliant, ridiculous, inspiring, even stupid. In additional words they are an brilliant spectacle of human result and judgement. These reactions form a debate about when and why a name should be forgiven or not forgiven. The question of when a plea for forgiveness is genuine is discussed. Questions are raised about when it is even morally possible to forgive. The reader may walk away ambivalent regarding the conclusions the facts have led to. There is an element of uncertainty. The book causes the reader to reflect. Even if the reader’s initial choice remains from beginning to the last page, there may be fundamentals discussed that make that choice less comfortable after all. And although the soldier’s plea remains bizarre, that Mr. Wiesenthal remains troubled becomes understandable.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
If this book were not written by the already legendary Simon Wiesenthal it might not garner such notoriety. Had an unknown published it I doubt that it would be so widely used in teaching situations and as a base for discussion. Many of the commentators simply do homage to Wiesenthal by answering the prompt at the end of the tale. I did not find the commentaries to be of much use. What possible difference could Simon’s response make to persons who perpetrated the crimes or to their victims? How would his forgiveness or rebuke change anything for any of persons dead or alive? Would his response have altered Nazi behavior? Would it make a difference to future generations of criminals? I doubt it. Forgiveness is between the victim, the perpetrator and God. I’m not sure that a example from the past (Or a discussion of the past) makes much difference to the person who is either committing the crime or the victim sometime in the future.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5