The Sunflower_ On the Possibilities and - Wiesenthal, Simon copy

seems to be denying to the Jews their humanity. And it is the man's self-indulgence which
propels him to impose an additional burden on a concentration camp inmate who is
sentenced to death. The Nazi knows that his request causes pain to his helpless listener. He
says: “I know that what I am asking is almost too much for you but without your answer I
cannot die in peace” (p. 54).
Wiesenthal knows that the dying man feels sorry for himself and that he was filled with
self-pity. He remarks: “He sought my pity, but had he any right to pity? Did a man of his kind
deserve anybody's pity? Did he think he would find pity if he pitied himself…” (p. 52).
The SS man's self-pity might have blinded him to the needs of others. He fails to consider
the needs of the Jew who is in front of him and with whom he wants to share his most
intimate longings. Indeed, he does not even want to know who the Jew is. The Nazi is well
aware of this fact, when he says: “I do not know who you are, I only know that you are a Jew
and that is enough” (p. 54). But why should only Simon's Jewishness matter? Because the SS
man does not see his listener as an individual, as a person. He only sees him as a Jew, a
representative of all the Jews, of a mass, of a race, but not as a human being. Perhaps for this
Nazi all Jews are the same, their individuality is of no consequence. This attitude fits the
Nazi ideology which defines all Jews as inferior beings, as nonhumans.
Wiesenthal was reluctant to remain with this dying man. He wanted to get away soon after
he had come. But he stayed on. He explains: “All my instincts were against continuing to
listen to this deathbed disavowal. I wanted to get away. The dying man must have felt this…
for he groped for my arm. The movement was so pathetically helpless that all of a sudden I
felt sorry for him. I would stay, although I wanted to go” (p. 35).
Although the dying man knew that the prisoner wanted to leave he insisted that he stay. But