...joezayed7@gmail.com THE SUNFLOWER SIMON WIESENTHAL THE SUNFLOWER SUPERSUMMARY 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS PLOT OVERVIEW 3 CHAPTER SUMMARIES AND ANALYSES 5 Chapter 1 Chapters 2-5 Chapters 6-10 Chapters 11-15 Chapters 16-20 Chapters 21-25 Chapters 26-30 Chapters 31-35 Chapters 36-40 Chapters 41-45 Chapters 46-50 Chapters 51-54 5 8 12 15 20 23 26 29 33 36 39 42 MAJOR CHARACTER ANALYSIS 45 Simon Karl Josek Arthur Adam Bolek Karl’s Mother 45 45 46 46 47 47 47 THEMES 49 SYMBOLS AND MOTIFS 51 COPYRIGHT 2016 THE SUNFLOWER SUPERSUMMARY 2 IMPORTANT QUOTES 53 ESSAY TOPICS 61 COPYRIGHT 2016 THE SUNFLOWER SUPERSUMMARY 3 PLOT OVERVIEW The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal is a book of non-fiction. The first section, also titled “The Sunflower,” is an account of Wiesenthal’s experience as a concentration camp prisoner under the Nazi regime. In the account, Wiesenthal describes his life in Poland prior to the German occupation, his experiences of anti-Semitism within the Polish culture, and his life as a concentration camp prisoner. He describes life in the concentration camp, the continuous humiliations, the hunger, the illness, and the constant threat of death. Central to the narrative in “The Sunflower” is the story of Simon being summoned to the deathbed of a young Nazi soldier whom Simon calls Karl and who has been wounded in combat. Karl confesses to Simon his activities...
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...Name Tutor Unit Date of submission Simon Wiesenthal Acted Right by not forgiving the Nazi, Karl, for his for his crimes against the Jews The reality of forgiveness is one of the hardest things incomprehensible in the human life. Throughout our lives, we are faced with a number of challenging situations that understanding them goes beyond the conscience of our thoughts. The ease at which we forgive largely depends on the nature and the effect of the actions that require forgiveness. Simon Wiesenthal’s novel, The Sunflower is one of the narratives that leave us in dilemma on whether Wiesenthal should forgive the dying soldier (Nazi, Karl) or not. However, I support Wiesenthal’s act of moving away from the dying soldier rather than just forgiving him for his past deeds. Karl actions towards the Jews are an act of inhumanity that requires deep heart, mind, and soul searching. Despite the fact that Karl is dying, Simon should not forgive since the dying soldier is still better placed in the society as compared to the Jews. He will receive a decent burial, as he will be buried in a graveyard with sunflower lighting his dark grave. I believe that not forgiving Karl for his actions is better than forgiving him. Simon has acted to his level’s best by listening to Karl’s confession. Therefore, it is best for him to leave Karl face the consequences of his crimes, victims, and sins (Wiesenthal, Simon, Harry, Cargas, and Bonny 25). By doing this, it provides Karl with the best opportunity...
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...Simon Wiesenthal, a Holocaust survivor, wrote a narrative called The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness. In this he writes about his experiences in concentration camps, as well as one, almost life changing question that was brought to him buy a Nazi soldier on his death bed. One day he was taken into a hospital room that occupied a wounded Nazi named Karl. Simon, worried and confused by the situation, remained silent as Karl proceeded to tell him about himself and a terrible crime that he had committed. He tells Simon about how one day he and his fellow comrades were out on the job and rounded up a large group of Jews and put them all in a house, where they were tightly packed together. The soldiers then threw in grenades that set the house on fire. Any Jew that tried to jump out of the house or to escape would be shot. After sharing the story with Simon, the soldier explained how guilty he felt and asked Simon for forgiveness. This was a question that Simon could not and did not know how to answer, so he walked out of the room. The question still harasses Simon, wondering what he should have done in that situation. In his narrative, he asked many different essayists for their thoughts, and with that he received many answers. Dith Pran, a witness and a survivor of the Cambodian killing fields, is one of many that wrote a response to Simon Wiesenthal. In his response, he says that the key to forgiveness is understanding. Pran believes that the soldiers...
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...The Sunflower is a first person account of a Jew living in a concentration camp during the Holocaust confronted with the question, when such an atrocity has been committed is it possible for a person to forgive? Throughout Simon flashes between the present in the concentration camp, back to his recent past, even further to his time as a youth. Selected to work outside of the camp one day Simon and others were marched through the town. Along the way he noticed a graveyard for Nazi soldiers and above each grave, a sunflower, had been planted. Upon seeing this, he experienced envy for the soldiers who were still connected to “the living world”(Wiesenthal, 1998, p. 14). Simon indicated his desensitization to death, but upon seeing the graves with flowers and knowing when he died, he would be placed in an unmarked grave with no flowers to tie him to this world, he felt bitterness along with a small hope that he “would come across them again; that they were a symbol with a special meaning”(Wiesenthal, 1998, p. 15). Arriving to the work site, Simon is approached by a nurse inquiring if he was Jewish. Acknowledging this, she took him to a room that had been transformed into a sickroom for Karl, a dying SS soldier. Karl’s story began with his youth and Catholic upbringing and he joined the Hitler Youth and SS willingly. He then gave his account of the crime he committed and was so desperately seeking forgiveness for. Simon listened silently to the murder of more Jews and walked...
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...George Makreas Prof. Christopher Dowling ENG 100 T-TH G00848186 The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness The Holocaust will always be remembered by the world as a period where human evil was most prevalent, and where millions of innocent lives were taken in cold blood. It doesn’t matter whether your ancestors were involved, or if you were around to experience it, you only have to be human in order to feel for all of the people who were affected. Over the years studies like Milgram’s Obedience Experiment, and Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Study have shed light on some of the basic roots of human evil, but these roots are not enough to pave the way for forgiveness of the events that occurred. Simon Wiesenthal’s story “The Sunflower” exploits these evils and presently brings us into the life and character of Simon, a Jew in a concentration camp in Poland, who has ultimately been sentenced to death for just being born the way he is. He is brought to the bed of a dying SS Nazi soldier named Karl, who after telling him of his life decisions, asks for forgiveness as his dying wish. Simon leaves the soldier in silence, and we never find out if he ever truly forgives him. But Wiesenthal does leave us all with the question of what we would do in his position. With such brutalizing and horrific events, the atrocities that Karl commits are unforgivable because he willingly participates to take the lives of innocent people, which are acts that cannot be undone. ...
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...In “The Sunflower” by Simon Wiesenthal the roles and relationships between justice, forgiveness, confession, judgement, compassion, and morality play a big part in discovering who we are as a person. “The Sunflower” recalls an incident that occurred during the second World War in the concentration camp, a 21-year old dying Nazi soldier calls on a Jew, Simon Wiesenthal, to confess all of his wrong doing and ask him for his forgiveness. When the Nazi soldier, Karl, asked Simon for forgiveness, Simon left the room without a word and left him with all the weight of his wrong doing to die in agony and regret. The next day, Simon was informed that Karl had died. During the remainder of the next years of the war, Simon would recall Karl and wonder...
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...When people hear the word “Nazi,” most people think of the words: evil, murders, horrible, or something along those lines. Most Nazis were murders and evil, but were they any Nazis that were not necessarily evil? The Sunflower shows us that maybe not all Nazis were evil killing machines. In The Sunflower, Wiesenthal shares his story with a dying Nazi. The Nazi tells Wiesenthal his story, and at the end of the story the Nazi asks Wiesenthal for forgiveness. Wiesenthal recalls multiple times that he thought the dying Nazi was being truly sincere about feeling horrible. The story could make someone question the possibly of a Nazi being regretful. Night is Elie Wiesel’s story of his experience when he was taken away from his home and was sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Wiesel tells the reader the horrible suffering he was put through by the Nazis. He tells about how he was taken away from his home with only a few items. He describes being taken away from his mother and sisters, never to see them again. Wiesel gives description after description of all the horrible things...
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...26 May 2013 In a different pair of eyes In the story The Sunflower, written by Simon Wiesenthal, discusses his life changing experience during the Holocaust. Like any other prisoner, he is taken to a hospital in a group to clean up for trash. While at the hospital, he meets a dying Nazi soldier, by the name of Karl. He listens to his story about what he has done to Jews, the people he’s killed, and his mother. They later have a unique connection with each other. Although, when he’s done telling his story, he asks Wiesenthal for forgiveness and ends up passing away. Wiesenthal remains silent, but later questions himself about his experience whether or not he should have accepted his apology. If I were in his situation, I would have not remained silent and forgave the Nazi soldier because he was not promoting any action of hate, rather than forgiveness, my moral values, and my own experiences. A writer that does not reflect my point of view is Herbert Marcuse. Marcuse states that Wiesenthal should not have forgiven the soldier because it perpetuates the crime. I do not agree with his view completely because in this case, the entire government was promoting evil and majority of people were brainwashed. Also Karl was a growing up child and comprehended the propaganda from a very early age. He was not trying to promote any type of war, but rather forgiveness. For example, when he had asked for forgiveness, Wiesenthal had second thoughts after he had remained silent. “Had a doctor...
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...not have pardoned Karl. If I was in his shoes I probably would have gone with it because you would have to do it. Or you would have probably gotten killed by the Nazis. Simon is a Jew who is in a concentration camp, and one day he and his work detail were sent to clean medical waste at a converted Army hospital. Then on the way there the truck stops by a Cemetery in Simon notice to Sunflower on every shoulders grave. But soon he realized he would have no sun flower on his grave. His grave was a mass grave with thousands and thousands of bodies. Nothing would ever bring light to his grave. Simon grew up Catholic and was the son of a Catholic father. His father was also a Social Democrat. His father stopped talking to him and if that was me I would be hurt but at the same time understand that we have different views. He did join the Nazi youth group by choice. He all chose to be apart of the youth group, he had no influences to join the Hitler youth group. Which probably brainwashed him into joining the Nazis....
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