Book Review of The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal

August 6, 2009 · Filed Under Book Reviews 

A review of The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness by Simon Wiesenthal

Review by Gavriel Elijah

After you read this, please login and comment to share your thoughts.

On a recent Saturday evening I found myself at a bookstore, after Shabbat of course. While perusing the bookshelves like a fat kid in a candy store (I can lose a few pounds myself so I can say that) I came across a book titled The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal.  My first thought was why Simon Wiesenthal would write a book on a flower. I then decided I had to get it along with another book or two.

I should start with the premise of the book. The Sunflower is the true account of famed Nazi Hunter Simon Wiesenthal and a certain experience he has while a prisoner in a concentration camp.  Mr. Wiesenthal tells us his account of a dying SS soldier asking for forgiveness for the horrible atrocities that he had committed, especially one act in particular.

After we learn of Mr. Wiesenthal’s actions towards the SS soldier, 53 men and women from around the world, all important in their own right, give their thoughts on Mr. Wiesenthal’s actions, how they feel, and how they hope they would have reacted in his place.  These great men and women include Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin (whose books on Ethics I am currently reading), and Tenzin Gyatso (The Dalai Lama).  All three are men whom I love to read and whose books make up a good portion of my library.  As a reader you find yourself not only asking if you could forgive someone for such horrible acts, but if you even have the right to forgive such acts. This book will make you think in ways I doubt most books ever will. I know the book left me spending hours pondering when we have the right to forgive and the reasons we should forgive.

In closing I cannot recommend this book enough. I even emailed my High School Honors Literature teacher to recommend it to her as well.  I recently added a hard cover of this book on my list of must haves. This book is not only a must read for Jews, but for people anywhere. Only with books like this can we hope to achieve an understanding that humanity as a whole needs to reach.

 

Tags:

Comments

3 Responses to “Book Review of The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal”

  1. Angela Roskop Says:
    August 7th, 2009 at 9:09 pm

    I think this is a really important book. I was so inspired by it, I wrote my own essay. You can find it here if you’re interested: http://imaginarygrace.blogspot.com/2007/04/sunflower.html.

    I am teaching an intro theology course this fall, and Sunflower is assigned reading. I found the exercise of getting my own thoughts down on paper so helpful that I want to have students write their own Sunflower essay that talks about their own thoughts on forgiveness. I would encourage you to do it too. Would be neat if we could assemble a bunch of them online.

  2. LGreyhawke Says:
    August 9th, 2009 at 9:58 am

    I will definitely have to acquire this. By the way, I LOVE reading Telushkin. Of course, he doesn’t appreciate the same liberal point of view that I currently hold but he has such a marvelous grasp of the laws of ethics and how to apply them. His knowledge of Torah is wonderful. Rabbi Telushkin was the guest speaker for theology at Chatauqua this year and I could’ve kicked myself for not scheduling the time off to hear him speak! Thanks for the tip on a great read!

  3. Pat Chambers Says:
    October 17th, 2009 at 11:32 am

    “Sunflower,” while a memoir related to Simon Wiesenthal’s time in a concentration camp, also raises the bigger question about the issue of forgiveness. This is an age-old dilemma. I’ve learned in my years as a Jew that the High Holidays focus time on this issue of forgiveness as related to our interactions with others more so than does Christianity, though there is still the tenet “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” The issue of “forgiveness” is not related to just Judaism or Christianity. But it is pertinent to the book “Sunflower” because of Wiesenthal’s encounter with a Nazi soldier asking for forgiveness for his treatment of the Jews.

    In my own life, I have learned,sadly, that even on lesser issues than Nazi/Jewish encounters, forgiveness is sometimes very hard to obtain, even with a well-meant, heartfelt apology for wronging someone.

    My best friend in college did not forgive me regarding a transgression of sharing something she told me with someone else who already knew the same information. It was my act of telling that she saw as a betrayal.

    With the passage of time, and both of us ironically ending up coming from Christian background (different denominations) to convert to Judaism, I began to contact her by mail, sending a card for approximately five years during the High Holidays asking for forgiveness and a mending of our once close friendship. It has never happened.

    I still feel a twinge of remorse that I did not regain that relationship, but others since have told me that I did the best I could, and if she was unwilling to forgive and work toward a renewal of our relationship, there was nothing more I could do. I have known that in my “head” for many years, but it still affects the “heart.” It has also made me be very careful about relationships I have had in the years since.

Leave a Reply