In The Sunflower Simon Wiesenthal confronts us, the reader, with a dilemma that has supposedly been plaguing him since the 1940's. Simon Wiesenthal describes a German SS man who wishes to escape his impending fate and receive forgiveness for the evil he has been a part of. This Nazi, Karl, is the dilemma for Simon. Should Simon have forgiven the Nazi? This is the question he puts forward to us.
Simon Wiesenthal presents the question of forgiveness and this remains the soul of the book. However, he fails to properly define forgiveness. So, the different inferable meanings must be reviewed. Certainly he does not mean to condone the actions of the Nazis. Nor did he mean to forget the wrongdoings of the Germans and absolve them of responsibility for their actions. Rather forgiveness could be viewed as a third person (non-victim) moral response to an injustice. Or should Simon forgive Karl because of the religious belief that forgiveness warrants Simon's own eternal salvation, regardless of resentments? Many religions teach that forgiveness is an act of benevolence and will result in a better divine judgment. Does Simon have the right to forgive Karl for a massacre of people with whom he has no other connection than an ethnic history? These are all issues that will have to be evaluated in order to justify forgiveness for Karl.
The first scenario we are faced with is that of forgiveness as a benevolent act. Should Simon forgive Karl because it is the "right" thing to do according to Christian beliefs? Here is where God becomes part of the equation. If God exists and he is benevolent then it is Simon's religious duty to forgive Karl. However, the Jewish views on forgiveness are a little harsher. Moses, though the greatest of Israel's prophets, was denied entrance to the holy land for a single murder as a young man. So, by Hebrew standards, regardless of God's benevolence, Karl cannot be forgiven for murder.