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Summary: My book looks at the intragal part of one's morality
Review: Discovering witnesses is just as important as catching criminals. I see how my life was and feel still, great discomfort from those who did not come to my aid.
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Summary: I know the answer
Review: Faced with the choice between compassion and justice, silence and truth, Wiesenthal said nothing. But even years after the war had ended, he wondered: Had he done the right thing? What would you have done in his place?The first time I read this book I struggled with the questions of what I would do in Wiesenthal's situation. Reading all of the views of the contributors did not resolve this matter in my mind. Subsequently to reading this book, I purchase a copy of the book An Encounter With A Prophet which favors forgiveness and gives a unique prayer to achieve forgiveness even when you do not want to forgive. This author made sense but I still could not answer the questions in Wiesenthal 's book. Then one night walking home from work, I was attacked by a mugger. Coming up from behind me, out of the shadows, the mugger managed to hid me twice on the back of my head before I knew what was happening. Due to space limitations I will skip the details of what followed suffice it to say when the ambulance picked me up off the street , I was drenched in my own blood. On the way to the hospital my mind started to race. Having grown up as a fighter, I vowed to find this man and evoke some Charles Bronson style justice. As I engaged in this type of thinking, in my mind's eye I could feel and see the mugger sneaking up behind me getting ready to hit me - something they call a flashback a frightening experience to say the least. As this flash back phenomena continued, it occurred to me to pray the unique prayer suggested in that book An Encounter With A Prophet, I started saying this prayer repeatedly. The flashback dissolved. However, every time I stopped praying, my mind immediately started planning more Bronson style justice and the flashback phenomena would returned. This phenomena gave me the continued motivation to pray for the S O B all that night and for the next few days. (This strange prayer let's you call the person an S O B while you are praying) When I returned to work I was surprised that I could, against all advise to the contrary, walk home down the very same street at night without experiencing any fear whatsoever. The only feeling I had for the mugger was compassion and all fear was gone. Now I have no question of how to resolve the issue which still plagues Wiesenthal. Forgiveness is the answer.
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Summary: The Solution
Review: I found my self in conflict over the issue of forgiveness after reading this book. Then I read the book An Encounter With A Prophet where the author gave me a different way to look at forgiveness - not as something we did out of the goodness of our hearts but as something we do to prevent harboring resentments and experiencing flashbacks of the harms we have suffered.
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Summary: The Courage of Forgiveness!
Review: I have always stood by my belief that it takes more courage to forgive than anything else. This book did not challange that belief in the slightest. While I hope that I would be able to forgive anything done to me, it is impossible for me to question another persons choice to forgive or not to forgive, especially a victim of the Holocaust. Mr. Wiesenthal's story is horrifying, hauting, chilling, compelling, and inspiring to a level that I hopefully will never be able to fully comprehend. How can I? Not being a victim of such a massive crime- I will never be able to comment on what he should or should not have done. No one can...so in a sense, the response part of this book is unimportant. What is highly important is the story Mr. Wiesenthal shares with us. He is obviously a man of tremendous courage. Yes he stood silent when asked for forgiveness, however, the compassion he showed to the SS soldier and his mother can and should be highly commended. That alone shows what wonderful heart this individual has. I imagine to come out of his experience and be compassionate would be very difficult, and he handled it with grace and true heart. For that, he is a hero. This is a great piece of work because of the honesty with which Simon shares his story, and this is a story that must always be told, remembered, and learned from. Despite the fact that the memory Holocaust is something that very much is still alive, it is saddening to realize that genocide is still very much apart of our world today. This book is important for Mr. Wiesenthal's experience, but pointless as far as the question/commentary that composes its second half. All the reader needs to know is the experience and story of this great man, not what others think of his actions. It is impossible to relate to such an experience without experiencing something even remotely similar, however, it is very possible to appreciate, learn from, and cherish the story of Simon's experiences that he shares with us.
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Summary: Powerful little novel about the significance of forgiveness.
Review: I recently picked up this book because I recognized the name of famed nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal. The Jews suffered terribly under Pharaoh during the days of Moses and under Hitler during World War II. The tale of a nazi soldier asking a Jew - enslaved in a concentration camp - to forgive him for his sins is incredible. To ask forgiveness of one person as a representative of his people is quite a believable notion. Haven't US Presidents apologized for slavery, internment camps, etc in the name of the citizens of the United States??
I liked the fact that Simon's conscience bothered him after he left the soldier's bedside once he heard his terrible tale. I enjoyed his philosophical talks with his fellow prisoners as well as the trip he took to the soldier's mothers house after the war. This was a well-written book and it should be required reading in all high schools.
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Summary: Increased weight
Review: I relish this volume for the story that Simon Wiesenthal shares of his Holocaust experiences. Much of his 98-page account covers his unwilling audience with a dying SS man named Karl who had asked the nun on duty to fetch a Jewish prisoner, any Jewish prisoner. He did not tell her why. Once Wiesenthal entered, Karl began a long tale of how he had come to this place, what he had done and why he wanted forgiveness. What Karl said and how Wiesenthal reacted are riveting. Years later, the latter traveled to Stuttgart to meet Karl's mother, yet did not tell her what he had learned about her son. I could have done no better in his place. I found the details surrounding his encounter equally riveting. One day, Wiesenthal was ordered to join a concentration camp work detail that hiked into the town of Lemberg, where he had attended Technical High School in Sapiehy Street. By coincidence, the guards brought the enslaved men through the streets he had once walked as a free young man, to the very building where he had attended school. As he walked, he thought of events, both recent ones in the camp and more distant events in Lemberg and at his school. He recounts them all. Readers also learn of Wiesenthal's friends Arthur and Josek, neither of whom survived, who comforted and consoled one another and him, talking philosophically under the most inhuman circumstances in order to maintain their humanity. The reactions of various famed writers, religious leaders and others are less important. Some are nevertheless compelling by virtue of their authorship or unique content. These include replies by Holocaust survivors Jean Amery, Moshe Bejske, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Primo Levi and Nechana Tec, two of whom later committed suicide, and Rabbi Lawrence Kushner. I was especially struck by Theologian Franklin H. Littell's call for increased awareness "of the earnest nature of the choice between good and evil, between innocence and guilt." This book has been important for 25 years. In the wake of Sept. 11, 2001 it carries increased weight. Alyssa A. Lappen
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Summary: Inspirational but real
Review: I was given this book to read for my Fundamental Ethics course last semester. At first I thought, "What a chore," but then as I immersed myself in the reading of this book, I began to get involved in the reading. I could see the sights, smell the air, hear the sounds, and touch the people that Simon was surrounded by, I felt I was one of them. Very few times in my life has a book had such a captivating effect on me. It also resembles the book Night, by Elie Weisel, in which they share some of the same experiences and captivate the reader to the such a profound extent. While reading I found myself, not only captivated by the words, but also at the meaning behind the words. "I could easily be in his position, or something similar," I thought. Simon Weisenthal demonstrates a very real dilema and view of forgiveness which we often take for granted, or many times we don't think about. He is faced with a problem and does not know what to do about it. He made an ethical decision that had consequences he had to answer for. Also, there arises the question of religion into the whole sphere of the dilema. As a result, Simon Weisenthal ends the first part of the book with certain questions. The second part of the book are the replies by quite a number of religious and political leaders, theologians, philosophers, psychologists, holocaust survivors, lawyers, and many different professionals, giving witness to what they would have done, if confronted with the same situation as Simon. The book is so profound that one can see it interacting in one's daily life. From the little things that we take for granted, to those that we make a "big deal" out of, we will see with new eyes, after having read this book. It is a book that is for every reader and, I recommend be read several times in one's life. In other words, the book is living thought and helps tp renew not only one's knowledge, but also, experience.
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Summary: Wiesenthal better than the symposium
Review: Simon Wiesenthal authored a first rate book, one that should be read by everyone the world over, for it deals with problems that all societies struggle with in trying to achieve peace: forgiveness, justice, and grace. To what extent are we enabled to offer forgiveness on behalf of another, especially when the crimes committed are of almost unspeakable atrocity? Wiesenthal's story is gripping, moving, and haunting, a true encounter that provokes repeated pondering and contemplation. I don't have the 1997 revised version of the book containing the responses of 46 people in a symposium discussion, but I can say that in the original 32 responses, I read very few that contained a cogency and depth equal to that of Wiesenthal's story. While a handful were good, most were evasive. I therefore found the second half of the book to be a disappointment. THE SUNFLOWER, though, is worth getting just to read Wiesenthal's treatment, which is first rate. Philip Yancey also offers some thoughtful comments in a chapter from his book of essays entitled I WAS JUST WONDERING (beginning on page 70 under the title "A Haunting Deathbed Confession".)
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Summary: a beautiful, disturbing, thought provoking book
Review: simon wiesenthal is a brilliant, haunted writer who conveys chillingly the perceived moral dilemma he faced as a dying SS officer begged him for forgiveness for his crimes againt the jewish people during the second world war. while it seems obvious to this reader that the proper response would have been a prompt "rot in hell", it does give more than enough food for thought to anyone who realizes the enormity of the holocaust's unpleasant moral implications for all philosophers and sociologists who endeavor to know the actual nature of man as opposed to wishful thinking a la rousseau or kant. wiesenthal's accomplishments and inspiring life's work (much like frankl's) since his horrendous experience as one of the many victims of this unbelievable historical atrocity gives hope to all students of the human condition even in the shadow of auschwitz and unspeakable evil. a treasure of a book.
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Summary: Wiesenthal's words make you define the meaning of right
Review: Simon Wiesenthal's book, The Sunflower, is a true life story of a Jew called to the bedside of a dying Nazi to hear the Nazi's life story. The Nazi then asks the Jew, Wiesenthal, to forgive him. Wiesenthal leaves in silence, but poses to you the same question: In his position, would you have forgiven the Nazi? A very thought-provoking book, The Sunflower makes the reader ponder for hours over the meaning of right and wrong, as well as giving a vivid picture of a Jew's life during the Holocaust. An excellent read.
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