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Put
yourself in the position of a prisoner in a concentration camp. A dying
Nazi soldier asks for your forgiveness. What would you do? In The
Sunflower, Simon Wiesenthal raises that question for readers to
wrestle with, and they have been passionately doing so ever since.
As a young man imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp, Wiesenthal was
taken one day from his labor brigade to a hospital at the request of
Karl, a mortally wounded Nazi soldier. Tormented by the crimes in which
he had participated, including the murder of a family with a small
child, the SS man wanted to confess to—and if possible, receive
absolution from—a Jew. Wiesenthal, left the room in silence, but
remained intrigued by the issues the man’s request raised about the
limits and possibilities of forgiveness. Must we, can we, forgive the
repentant criminal, no matter how heinous the crime? Can we forgive
crimes committed against others? What do we owe the victims? Twenty-five
years after the Holocaust, Wiesenthal asked leading intellectuals what
they would have done in his place. Collected into one volume, their
responses became one of the most enduring documents of Holocaust
literature and a touchstone of interfaith dialogue. This new edition of
The Sunflower, issued in honor of the twentieth anniversary of
it’s publication in the United States, brings together the voices of a
new generation of thinkers, including Robert Coles, Matthew Fox, Arthur
Hertzberg, Harold Kushner, Dith Pran, the Dalai Lama, Dennis Prager,
Tzvetan Todorov, and Harry Wu. Their answers reflect the teachings of
their diverse beliefs, and remind us that Wiesenthal’s question is not
limited only to events of the past. |
As
I stated in the June newsletter, this selection of a book provides our students
with a chance to experience life in another part of the world where the
philosophy and ideology are very different from the one that we have here in the
United States. While at North Catholic, the community and I became involved
with the plight of the lost boys of Sudan. The experience of listening first
hand to one of my students explain in graphic detail the torture, humiliation,
death, and complete disregard for human rights has changed my mind about
allowing students to grapple with the problems faced by many members of our
global community. When he told his story to the school community, they were
riveted and horrified by the torture that he and thousands of others experienced
at the hands of the militants. As he told his story, a whole community wept.
This no holds barred story riveted a school community to action to help the 30+
young men that had settled in the region by providing a Christmas drive that
exceeded all expectations. The selection of our universal reading reminded me
of this young man and his struggle for a better life where fear was not part of
his daily routine. Had the North Catholic community not met him, we would not
understand the atrocities taking place on the African continent.