The Sunflower

Rodger Kamenetz begins by stating that Wiesenthal’s silence was in fact the best response under the circumstances. Because Simon was still a prisoner and thus still subject to the power of the SS guards, he had no way of knowing whether any response he gave would result in his own punishment or even death.

Kamenetz continues by raising the objection that Simon was addressed not as “an individual, with a life, a history, a heartbreak of [his] own, but merely as a Jew” (181). While Simon was able to see the SS man as an individual, Karl could not give Simon that same measure of respect. 

Cardinal König reiterates the opinion put forth by many other respondents, that “an individual cannot forgive what was done to others” (182), but adds that, for Christians, whether one may forgive has, through Christ, been made possible. He adds that the question of whether he should forgive is still unresolved.

König acknowledges that Simon, in listening to Karl’s story and displaying sympathy for his physical condition, indeed did demonstrate compassion and allowed Karl the relief of having his confession heard. Under the circumstances, Simon could not have been expected to be able to express pardon explicitly, but he was given an opportunity to demonstrate “superhuman goodness in the midst of a subhuman and bestial world of atrocities” (183), and his decision not to do so may be the thing that continues to trouble him after the fact.