The Sunflower

Cynthia Ozick’s response is divided into four sections:

The Uses of Jesus. That the SS man had a Christian education seems like a ridiculous situation, and yet that is the case. Is it possible that being taught to worship a “Master depicted in human form yet seen to be omnipotent [would] make it easier to accept a Führer” (213)?

The Sources of Pity. It is the commandment against idols that teaches people pity. Wherever people have idols, they will hunt for victims. Did Germany make Hitler an idol?

Vengeance and Forgiveness. It can be said that “vengeance brutalizes, forgiveness refines” (215), but rabbis also teach that being kind to cruel people can cause a person to be indifferent to victims. While it might be argued that forgiveness can lead to a fresh start, this can only be true when the forgiven has the opportunity to make the same choice again and instead chooses differently. But murder cannot be undone, and therefore the act cannot be forgiven. Vengeance, that is to repay the criminal with a matching act, serves by “bringing public justice to evil” (216) as an alternative to complicity through failure to respond to the crime. Forgiveness is, then, the crime, because “it forgets the victim” (216)

Moral Tenderness and Moral Responsibility. The SS man is contrite, which is very different from an unrepentant Nazi. The difference is that this man suffered moral twinges throughout his career, and yet continued to kill people. It’s easy to want to consign the unrepentant to hell, but we should hold to higher and more brutal account the man who was taught better, who knew he was committing evil and yet did so anyway.

John T. Pawlikowski points out that there is a difference between forgiveness and reconciliation. He observes that, through the course of Wiesenthal’s narrative, there is indication that he wishes to view the SS man as a fellow human being. Reconciliation, on the other hand, is a more public matter, requiring time and a process of stages: “repentance, contrition, acceptance of responsibility, healing, and finally reunion” (221). Since Karl seems to have been asking Simon for reconciliation on behalf of an entire group of people, Simon was right in withholding such forgiveness.

Pawlikowski addresses the comment Wiesenthal hears about God being on leave. He suggests that the Holocaust was a historical moment, in which people came to think of God’s interaction with humanity in a different way. Rather than God having left people behind, believers begin to see their faith in a moment-to-moment way, and God’s involvement in the world as less interventionist than the ancient teachings portrayed it.

He also addresses the issue of Polish-Jewish relations Wiesenthal raises in The Sunflower. He acknowledges that there was a large degree of anti-Semitism in Poland and the Ukraine, but also points out that the Zegota movement was “the only organization aimed at saving Jews during the Holocaust” (225). He adds that, while Wiesenthal’s personal experiences of anti-Semitism were inexcusable, there is a multi-faceted history of Jewish people in Poland that has yet to be fully studied or documented.

Dennis Prager begins by identifying his position as a Jewish person who has, through much discussion with Christians, come to respect Christianity as a “holy path to God for non-Jews” (225). He observes that many Jewish respondents have expressed their belief that Simon was correct in not giving forgiveness, while many Christians have said that they would offer forgiveness. He suggests that the reason for this is because of “the nature of “Jewish and Christian responses to evil, which are related to their differing understandings of forgiveness” (226).

He goes on to state his belief that “tolerance of murder is a characteristic of a world in decay” (227), referring to the western world’s tendency to offer light sentences to criminals convicted of murder. He suggests that Christian tolerance of murder may be rooted in the belief that people should pray for their enemies rather than seek to do them harm, that all human beings are loved by God, and that the eternal afterlife has more value than the mortal realm. 

Dith Pran talks about his own experiences as a Cambodian victim of the Khmer Rouge regime. Having witnessed the murder of his immediate family members and close friends and having been imprisoned like an animal, he can find no way to forgive those leaders. He does acknowledge, however, that he can forgive the soldiers who did the actual killing but that he cannot forget what they did. Therefore, he believes that if he were in Wiesenthal’s position, he would have forgiven the SS man. While he does not judge Simon for his decision, he believes that it is important to recognize a difference between the regime leaders who create the systems in which the crimes take place, and the people who carry out the orders, people who are often brainwashed or otherwise under the control of evil leadership.