The Question of Forgiveness

Simon Weisenthal was an inmate in the Ostbahn Concentration Camp from late in the war. He escaped in October 1943, just before the Nazis began mass exterminations there.

The camp contained a hospital for German soldiers. Many of them died as would most of the captive inmates. Weisenthal reported that death wasn't as much the issue as were the sunflowers. Each soldier who died and was buried there, got a sunflower planted over his grave. The inmates knew that they would be buried in a mass grave.

They envied the sunflower. It was a symbol of the humanity that was granted the soldiers, but denied the inmates.

One day a nurse came to the bunker and motioned for Weisenthal to come with her. She took him to the bedside of an adolescent Nazi who was dying. Weisenthal had learned the natural wariness of a prisoner in that precarious situation, but was surprised at what happened.

The soldier wanted to make a confession and more than that wanted forgiveness from a Jew, any Jew. Weisenthal happened to be that Jew.

The confession was horrific. Nazis had gathers up a couple of hundred Jews and forced them into a tiny two story house. That would have been horrible enough, but then they locked the doors and downstairs windows before they set the house on fire.

A man, woman and boy jumped from a second story window and the young soldier participated in shooting them to death.

He wanted to be forgiven.

Weisenthal's mind raced with so many emotions, but he did nothing and said nothing. He was taken back to the bunk.

Back at the bunks he told his fellow inmates what had happened and asked them what he should do.

If you are not familiar with the Jewish law, it provides that if you harm someone you can only get forgiveness from that person, not anyone else.

Many of the men reminded him of this, few if any suggested that he should have granted the request.

Early in his career as a Nazi hunter found and visited the home of the mother of the dead soldier. She had no idea who he was and was told merely that he was someone who had known her son.

She had lost her husband and only son in the war and her home was a monument to them.

Weisenthal wanted to tell her what a monster her son had been, but also felt some compassion for the lonely old woman.

He ended up repeating what he had done with her son. He said nothing, offering neither comfort nor the truth.

This too haunted him in his life.

Although Simon spent the rest of his life tracking down war criminals and bringing them to justice, something that sometimes lead to their deaths, he was haunted by these events. In the 90's he wrote the story of the Sunflower and then asked many prominent people to answer the questions: Could you, would you, should you grant forgiveness to this young man who had committed such terrible crimes?