The Sunflower_ On the Possibilities and - Wiesenthal, Simon copy

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level: from within themselves, they know the true difference between right and wrong. It is this unique human ability to know the difference between right and wrong which makes teshuvah transformational. But repentance is not a simple thing. Before we can evaluate the prisoner's response to the soldier from a Jewish perspective it is necessary to delineate the various steps entailed in repentance. First one must ask forgiveness of the aggrieved party. This personal encounter is a sine qua non when it comes to sins between two human beings. A number of years ago, on 60 Minutes, Mike Wallace interviewed Chuck Colson, former head of the Nixon White House Plumbers, the Watergate era dirty tricks unit. Wallace asked Colson, who while in jail had become a devout Christian, if he felt any need to go to the people whose lives he so severely dislocated and apologize to them. “No,” Colson answered, “I have made peace with God in my heart.” This is in striking contrast to teshuvah, which calls for going to the wronged party first. Judaism believes that it is only through human interaction that the victim can best be healed and the wrongdoer most profoundly changed. Making peace with God comes later. By forcing a face-to-face encounter with the aggrieved party Jewish tradition teaches that sin is not a generalized amorphous act but something quite specific done against a particular person or group of people. If I sin, I cannot go to someone else who has some remote connection with the person I have harmed and ask that third party for forgiveness. After confronting the person against whom the sin has been committed and trying to correct that wrong, one turns to God. Then one verbally confesses one's sins, expresses shame and regret for having committed this act, and resolves never to act that way again. But this does not yet bring one to the highest or most complete level of the process, teshuvah gemurah, complete teshuvah. This is achieved when the individual is in the same situation
in which he or she originally sinned and chooses not to repeat the act. The person still has the potential to commit that sin again; i.e., his/her strength has not diminished nor has the capability been lost. Nonetheless, they choose not to repeat it. Finally, it is important to differentiate between teshuvah, repentance, and kaparah, atonement. Atonement only comes after one bears the consequences of one's acts. Some might ask, is not repentance enough? Why is punishment also necessary? Judaism is founded on the notion that actions have consequences: righteous acts result in blessing, evil acts in punishment. When King David sinned by scheming to have Bathsheba's husband killed so that he could have her for his own, he subsequently performed teshuvah. (His genuine remorse is evident in Psalm 51, written after he committed his heinous crime.) Nonetheless he was punished for his actions. Only then was his relationship with God returned to its original place. The question to be asked is not should the prisoner have forgiven the SS man but could the prisoner have forgiven him? The prisoner could have told the soldier that he personally forgave him because he was different from his fellow SS soldiers who had shown no remorse. But this Jew could not have offered the soldier atonement. The SS man had done nothing against him specifically. The Jews who had been burned to death by this soldier had not authorized anyone to forgive on their behalf. The prisoner's dilemma has contemporary reverberations. Jews are often asked by non- Jews, “Isn't it time ‘you Jews’ forgave the German perpetrators? Isn't it time you forgot?” (It is interesting to note that few other people who have suffered the consequences of persecution, including persecution of a far less heinous nature, are asked this question.) When asked, I respond that I am yet to encounter a perpetrator who is actually seeking
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CONTENTS Preface BOOK ONE The Sun
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Edward H. Flannery Eva Fleischner M
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Cardinal Franz König Harold S. Kus
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Matthieu Ricard Joshua Rubenstein S
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PREFACE When the first American edi
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Holocaust, repeat many of its horro
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What was it Arthur said last night?
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they splintered into small groups,
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If so, why were some murderers and
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order in which God has a definite p
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always led to dire punishment. If a
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Our gaze roamed the crowds on the p
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last look at the forest of sunflowe
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We turned left. I knew the way well
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designed as a prison gate. They had
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The other soldiers didn't seem to s
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work with Derdacki—a design for a
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I obeyed. His almost bloodless hand
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“I heard from one of the sisters
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All the atrocities and tortures tha
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closed the door behind me I heard m
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spirits. Oh, the jokes we used to p
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see symbols in everything. It was a
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He took a deep breath. Then a sip o
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“As we approached I could see the
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forget—least of all the child. It
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constantly warned Eli's parents to
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monotone. Sick people when they are
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“Our rest period did not last lon
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“In that moment I saw the burning
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the fact that he spoke to me was a
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“I was beginning to think you had
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At the end of Grodezka Street we tu
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Luckily the commandant was nowhere
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was better to keep my mouth shut ab
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career when the war broke out. Duri
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He now had me where he wanted me: I
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His father brought him to me in his
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though the Poles were now themselve
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to prove they were earning their sp
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swallowed it ravenously. Soldiers s
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failed. Then one day the extra labo
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whole stock of drugs consisted of i
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“Bolek,” I insisted, “you who
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“Maybe. But had he come to the ri
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At that time the world was seeking
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confronted the mother I did not kno
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move to my sister's, but I don't wa
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She could not tell me enough. I had
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Germans to find out who was guilty.
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My picture of Karl was almost compl
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And later when I met his mother I a
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tool of war. Over 10,000 individual
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I explicitly and emphatically rejec
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JEAN AMÉRY My high regard for your
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part in the extermination, he knew
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SMAIL BALI Now that nearly thirty y
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shape the views of the masses. One
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epresentative of German Nazism, or
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Even if Wiesenthal believed that he
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except when the state declares an a
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forgiveness is forbidden. Judaism t
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ROBERT MCAFEE BROWN Warsaw, 1979. W
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after twenty-seven years in jail, p
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HARRY JAMES CARGAS I am afraid not
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ROBERT COLES We are told at the end
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inconceivable to us. Still, with ca
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THE DALAI LAMA I believe one should
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EUGENE J. FISHER Simon Wiesenthal's
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Secondly, I believe it is the heigh
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a prayer or two that the efforts in
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Simon's sleep was not to remain so
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unanimity on such issues is rarely,
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course; it has invariably led to an
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elates to the concept of atonement,
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MATTHEW FOX Simon Wiesenthal is a t
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the dying but guilt-ridden soldier.
Page 160 and 161: allows these sins to take root and
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Page 164 and 165: increments in his humanity add up,
Page 166 and 167: the community that gives him that r
Page 168 and 169: Did the Germans actually feed into
Page 170 and 171: even saw one, and whatever atrociti
Page 172 and 173: HANS HABE On reading The Sunflower
Page 174 and 175: the question of punishment. If Karl
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Page 178 and 179: those Jews who tried to isolate Ger
Page 180 and 181: ARTHUR HERTZBERG This personal hist
Page 182 and 183: had carried out the murders. On the
Page 184 and 185: ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL Over fifty y
Page 186 and 187: SUSANNAH HESCHEL I would have done
Page 188 and 189: JOSÉ HOBDAY The question, “What
Page 190 and 191: CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS The Sunflower, w
Page 192 and 193: these are explanations. They are no
Page 194 and 195: confessing to an unknown Jew? The J
Page 196 and 197: had also reached the same point, th
Page 198 and 199: Archbishop of Vienna Reading about
Page 200 and 201: HAROLD S. KUSHNER I am not sure the
Page 202 and 203: while he's living it up with his ne
Page 204 and 205: Although many have hailed the since
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Page 214 and 215: deathbed moment of crystal clarity.
Page 216 and 217: outsiders, cynicism and atheism hav
Page 218 and 219: e sure, the conviction that we gain
Page 220 and 221: ERICH H. LOEWY Anyone who has never
Page 222 and 223: Of course, Wiesenthal could not for
Page 224 and 225: HERBERT MARCUSE I think I would hav
Page 226 and 227: “What would I have done?” becom
Page 228 and 229: the cheapening of grace. A second f
Page 230 and 231: CYNTHIA OZICK
Page 232 and 233: 2. THE SOURCES OF PITY Pity is not
Page 234 and 235: But that is a misunderstanding. Ven
Page 236 and 237: 4. MORAL TENDERNESS, MORAL RESPONSI
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Page 240 and 241: more complex process, especially in
Page 242 and 243: interventionist possibilities can n
Page 244 and 245: DENNIS PRAGER I am a religious Jew
Page 246 and 247: murderer, not his punishment (let a
Page 248 and 249: has been taken to mean “pray for
Page 250 and 251: Pulling away from the Khmer Rouge l
Page 252 and 253: TERENCE PRITTIE Men who are dying e
Page 254 and 255: MATTHIEU RICARD For a Buddhist, for
Page 256 and 257: JOSHUA RUBENSTEIN As we near the cl
Page 258 and 259: We know today, if Simon did not at
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SIDNEY SHACHNOW Having spent most o
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from communism. I was prepared to g
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extraordinary happened, something I
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human beings. And yet, those eyes a
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themselves into a collective and un
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mission. But if that young man had
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he have the right to ask for forgiv
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treat the man as a monster who had
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nasty lie. As a child survivor of t
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give up prosecuting those who have
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seems to be denying to the Jews the
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Forgiveness is not a simple, discre
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JOSEPH TELUSHKIN Was this young Naz
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that if a murderer accepts his puni
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specifically human activity which c
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What would I have done? Our preside
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left the Jewish people still strugg
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HARRY WU Reading Simon Wiesenthal's
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out of the barracks and braced ours
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CONTRIBUTORS SVEN ALKALAJ is the am
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volumes); The Moral Life of Childre
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ecipient of the Herzl Prize, his wo
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He has taught at the Jewish Theolog
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at the Catholic Theological Union i
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died in 1981. MANÈS SPERBER, Frenc
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A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR SIMON WIESE
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Other SCHOCKEN BOOKS of Related Int
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Available at your local bookstore,
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-P
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