The Sunflower_ On the Possibilities and - Wiesenthal, Simon copy

JOHN T. PAWLIKOWSKI
To respond adequately to the questions raised by Simon Wiesenthal in The Sunflower
may exceed human capacity. But we can begin to get some hold on them if we come to
understand the significant difference between forgiveness and reconciliation. Unfortunately,
in the popular mind, and perhaps in Wiesenthal's conception as well, the two notions easily
become intertwined. While Wiesenthal refuses to speak the words of forgiveness the dying
Nazi soldier wishes to hear, one has the sense that in his heart he has come close to such an
act. His dialogue with the priest who was his fellow inmate, as well as his conversation
with his camp partners Arthur, Adam, and Josek, coupled with his unwillingness to destroy
the “good boy” image of her son held by the mother of the dead Nazi soldier leaves me with
the impression that his public silence may not fully represent his innermost feeling.
His willingness to forgive in a way at the inner level of his being was no doubt rooted in
part in a remark he makes early on in the narrative where he reflects on the question “Were
we truly all made of the same stuff?” (p. 7). While Wiesenthal leaves the answer rather
ambiguous at that point, subsequently one is left with the impression that he recognizes a
certain basic human equality as common both to “victim” and “perpetrator,” even if we must
continue to condemn publicly the perpetrator's crime. And his willingness to acknowledge
the dying soldier's “warm undertone in his voice as he spoke about the Jews” (p. 40) further
confirms this perception.
The public form of forgiveness is reconciliation. And this is of necessity a much longer,