The Sunflower_ On the Possibilities and - Wiesenthal, Simon copy

philosophical or metaphysical, but the exact conduct of the evildoer: what precisely was
done; when and where; by whom; to whom)—this so-called vengeance is fired by the
furnaces of pity. This so-called vengeance—justice in apposite dress—generates fire after
fire of pity.
I forgot for a moment where I was and then I heard a buzzing sound. A
bluebottle…flew round the head of the dying [SS] man, who could not see it nor
could he see me wave it away.
“Thanks,” he nevertheless whispered. And for the first time I realized that I, a
defenseless subhuman, had contrived to lighten the lot of an equally defenseless
superman, without thinking, simply as a matter of course. (p. 37).
The young man who will become Simon Wiesenthal, who will become the world's
“Nazi-hunter,” waves a fly from the wound of the dying Nazi “without thinking, simply as a
matter of course.” A hand striking out for pity. At that moment the SS man is seen as the
victim of a fly.
Vengeance, only vengeance, knows pity for the victim.
You will object: “Oratory! And if he had forgiven the SS man, he would not have waved
away the fly?”
He would not have noticed it at all. Whoever forgives the murderer blinds himself to the
vastest letting of blood—how then should he see the smallest mite?
It is forgiveness that is relentless. The face of forgiveness is mild, but how stony to the
slaughtered.