"The Sunflower" by Simon Wiesenthal

[LiamNL]

Very interesting book. Deals with a jewish man (Simon Wiesenthal) who’s in a concentration camp in Poland. While on work duty, off of the camp’s grounds, at a school he used to attend when he was younger (which is now a military hospital) he gets called into a hospital room by a nurse.
He’s brought to an SS man who’s very close to dying. This SS man wants to essentially confess some terrible things he has done to Simon (a Jew) and possibly be granted some type of forgiveness from Simon.

The SS man relays a terrible story to Simon. Mind you, Simon is still currently a prisoner in a concentration camp. After the man, who is as contrite as one can be, finishes his story and his request Simon simply walks away… saying nothing to the SS man. Forcing him to die tormented (assuming God didn’t grant him the grace of a peaceful mind after that confession… independent of Simon’s response to it).

The rest of the book has respondents writing to Simon as to how they would have acted in that situation. If forgiveness should have been granted. Simon actually solicts them for advice after he got out of the camp. People ranging from Jean Avery to The Dali Lama to Dennis Prager and to Cardinal Koenig (Konig).

Maybe I’m coming at this all wrong… but sometimes the responses are frustrating. And, it’s almost always from a Catholic respondent who seems almost embarrassed and angry at the Church’s response to the Holocaust.

One respondent (Alan L. Berger) essentially says (paraphrased) “if the Catholic Church was so deficient so as to not be able to impress its morality upon young men who would eventually become Nazi’s then shame on that Church”.

Numerous things can contribute to the weakend impact that a faith should have on its adherents. The same Church who he feels should take the blame is also the same Church that produced a Maximillian Kolbe.

Curious if anyone else has read this book… how they feel about it. maybe if they even have some corrections for the way that I’m reacting to the respondents.

Thank you.

 

[Irishmom2]

I remember hearing about that book and I thought I would like to read it as I like Simon Wiesenthal. But I never did. Will have to bump it up on my to do reading list.

I am confused as to why anyone would blame Catholics for “not being able to impress it’s morality on young men.” It is my understanding that the Nazis liked Catholics only slightly more than Jews. Regardless, why is it that we only hear about how Catholics should have done something to save the Jews from the death camps? What about the Baptists, Methodists, the Church of England or any other religion? Yes, something should have been done, but you can hardly expect a religion to do something like that on its own.

 

[utah_rose]

But many Catholics in Austria (greeting Hitler) and Poland were either Nazis or sympathetic to their views on Jews. Polish people especially were anti Semitic and some of that could be blamed on the Church’s teaching from the pulpits re Jews being Christ killers. Granted, there were some priests and lay Catholics and nuns that did try to hide and protect them, but what about the ones that turned them in to the Nazis because of malice or a reward? You can read many books written by Jews who survived saying they even faced persecution when they came home to Poland especially! I know that the Vatican was instrumental in saving Jews but seems more could have been done by the church if they’d been braver and spoke out. Seems we are facing a similar problem today re secularism, abortion, and SSM here and in Europe.

 

[LiamNL]

But do the actions of individual Catholics represent the entirety of Catholicism?

In the book Simon was told that he couldn’t forgive the SS man because the particular crimes he committed were against others… and that Simon wouldn’t be able to forgive him of those crimes towards others.

Then with the same frame of mind: how is the Church as a whole culpable for the actions of those who weren’t acting inline with the expressed sentiment of the Church’s doctrine?

You can’t have it both ways. Simon can’t be told that it’s not his job to forgive a man who’s evil actions were not directed at Simon; while the Church can be held responsible (and have the need to seek forgiveness) for the actions of the few that were not representative of the Church’s views.