I was looking at some statistics for my blog and realized that I had received numerous hits for the paper that I wrote on Simon Wiesenthal’s The Sunflower. The number of people using those search terms in various search engines is in all likelihood a function of the popularity as a book in academic settings, but it got me thinking, nonetheless.
In the book, there is an overarching question of the ability of Wisenthal to come to terms with his own position and in a sense forgive himself. Many times in life it is difficult to reconcile positions that we have taken in the past or are contemplating taking with principles that we hold. Often it is nearly impossible to describe the circumstances that led you to overwhelm a belief that you thought ran through your very core. In The Sunflower, Wiesenthal describes impossible circumstances with literary finesse. The valuable lesson here is that even when you can peer deeply into your mind, your thought process, and the circumstances surround it, it is still nearly impossible to decode the evolution of that decision.
What would life be without the possibility of looking back over time and contemplating our past decisions. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), no one has an impeccable record of actions, when compared to their principles. I say maybe fortunately because people learn from mistakes and no one has a perfect set of principles. So why do we punish ourselves so much when we perceive failure? I am sure this is different for all people, but speaking personally, I consider myself self-critical and error frustrates me (however inevitable). Wiesenthal, returning to the concentration camp, believes that he has let down his fellow Jews for his course of action. It takes him a long time and many different pieces of advice to attempt to reconcile his actions.
Interestingly, I think that this book shows that a microcosm of the most absurd circumstances, a Nazi concentration camp, can reflect the feelings and frustrations of everyday life. Somehow, decisions whether or not to forgive (even if it is a Nazi soldier) humanize us all. These sort of shared human experiences give human beings a common existence. Ultimately, as my initial post on this book attempts to make clear, Wiesenthal’s position was uniquely humanizing in a period of time where he had been continually degraded. Of course, I hope that none of us ever experiences similar circumstances (and not to say that Wiesenthal’s microcosm wasn’t incredibly more painful than any of our lives), but we can use this example to help guide decisions of forgiveness, especially when they pertain to forgiving ourselves.
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