George Makreas
Prof. Christopher Dowling
ENG 100 T-TH
G00848186

The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness

The Holocaust will always be remembered by the world as a period where human evil was most prevalent, and where millions of innocent lives were taken in cold blood. It doesn’t matter whether your ancestors were involved, or if you were around to experience it, you only have to be human in order to feel for all of the people who were affected. Over the years studies like Milgram’s Obedience Experiment, and Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Study have shed light on some of the basic roots of human evil, but these roots are not enough to pave the way for forgiveness of the events that occurred. Simon Wiesenthal’s story “The Sunflower” exploits these evils and presently brings us into the life and character of Simon, a Jew in a concentration camp in Poland, who has ultimately been sentenced to death for just being born the way he is. He is brought to the bed of a dying SS Nazi soldier named Karl, who after telling him of his life decisions, asks for forgiveness as his dying wish. Simon leaves the soldier in silence, and we never find out if he ever truly forgives him. But Wiesenthal does leave us all with the question of what we would do in his position. With such brutalizing and horrific events, the atrocities that Karl commits are unforgivable because he willingly participates to take the lives of innocent people, which are acts that cannot be undone.

When brought to the deathbed of another man, it is hard to imagine not granting his last dying wish. On page 54 Karl says, “I know that what I am asking is almost too much for you, but without your answer I cannot die in peace”. In this case it seems as though this dying man’s wish comes from a place of selfishness and egoism. Karl doesn't want to repent for what he did, nor does he even