The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal

[Bubble]

I have to do a 10-15 minute presentatio on this book, and it can be on basically anything that has to do with this book...i was thinking of doing something about forgiveness, but that is kind of broad...any ideas????...or even any comments on the book would be helpful!!! thanx

[noxlumos]

Hi, One of the things that always struck me about this book is that Simon Weisenthal really would only have been able to give his own personal forgiveness to the dying man as I don't think you either have the right or indeed it is possible to give forgiveness for crimes against others.If Weisenthal had chosen to absolve him personally, sure the man may indeed have felt better, but even so he could not presume to speak for all of that man's victims.Although deeply disturbing to him, Weisenthal at least on some level must have found the experience to be empowering, because despite all of the horror and degredation, here he was making a free choice, in a situation where normally he would have had none.His decision to leave the room without speaking haunted him and because of this book has caused an entire generation to question what they would have done, so it's almost fitting that if the Nazi was genuinely as pentitent as he appeared, his remorse for his terrible crimes has caused many to appraise their attitudes to the way we treat people on every level, thus quite possibly leading to an improvement in our levels of personal responsibility and thus making the possibility of such atrocities happening less likely.