Wiesenthal's Other Hobby

As I was writing a research paper for my english class about The Sunflower, I ran across an interesting website that mentioned Wiesenthal’s involvement as a Nazi War Criminal Investigator after the Holocaust. This did not surprise me too much because I’m sure that once he got out of the concentration camps and regained his strength, he wanted justice... who wouldn’t? How could the Nazis not be punished for the horrible crimes they committed during the Holocaust? I decided to research more about Wiesenthal’s life, and found out that his work prosecuting the Nazis was legendary. Who would have guessed that a well-known author in his genre would also be famous for something completely different? Wiesenthal was able to bring 1,100 Nazis to justice, and his greatest success was with Adolf Eichmann. Wiesenthal was the leader of a campaign that uncovered information about Eichmann’s whereabouts, and brought him to trial in 1961. I’m very impressed with Wiesenthal’s accomplishments, and I recommend reading the link I posted above to anyone who is reading The Sunflower, or anyone who is considering reading it.

Answering Wiesenthal's Question

Throughout the second half of part one of The Sunflower, Wiesenthal contemplates if he made the right decision in regards to the dying soldier's request. In the last sentence of The Sunflower Wiesenthal tells the reader to ask, “What would I have done?” if I were placed in this situation. For me, the answer is simple. I would not have forgiven the soldier, and I would not be hard on myself for not forgiving him. How could Wiesenthal even consider forgiving a man who has killed so many innocent people, and who probably would have killed him if he was told to? The people that the Nazi really should be asking for forgiveness from is the people he killed. Wiesenthal should never forgive the SS soldier, especially after everything he had been through in his life at the Nazi camps. I found this link about Wiesenthal's life to be very interesting, and I recommend it to anyone interested in reading about his life.

What probably surprised me the most about the book was the fact that the Nazi soldier asked for forgiveness. If I had just killed a bunch of innocent Jews, and was on my death bed, I would not have had the audacity to even face a Jew. The soldier, being the Christian that he was, should have talked to a priest before he died. The priest would have been more likely to have helped him die in peace.

There are many reasons why I believe Weisanthal should not forgive the Nazi. I do not understand why he felt somewhat bad for the Nazi, or why he visited the Nazi’s mother. Maybe with time, he thought that the soldier was just following orders and really didn’t have a choice. Maybe he thought that the soldier knew he was doing the wrong thing, and asked for forgiveness because he was trapped into doing a horribly wrong deed. However, I still think that everyone has a choice about their actions, and the soldier was wrong to kill those innocent people even if he was doing it under orders.

First Impression

My first impression of Simon Wiesenthal
s autobiography, The Sunflower, was not positive. The story, which took place in a Nazi death camp, was about Wiesenthal
s difficult experience with a dying SS man and his final request of Wiesenthal. I recently read a criticism stating that Wiesenthal, "in less than one hundred pages, painted a vivid picture of what it was like to be a Jew in that place and time." His book was an easy read and was very short, but while the book was quite short, I found it difficult to become interested in because he was repetitive with some of his thoughts. As I got further into the story, I noticed that things began to pick up and became much more interesting, especially when Wiesenthal met the SS soldier. I do not want to spoil the story for anyone who is considering reading this book, but Wiesenthal
s response to the dying Nazi
s request for forgiveness surprised me. I
m looking forward to reading the diverse viewpoints in part two based on what occurred in part one. Overall, I think that part one is a pretty good read, but be patient with it.