Simon dealt with the issue of forgiveness. His first situation was when he was called on to forgive while in a working party that was stationed at the Technical School. Simon was lead to a room, which was the office of a former Dean by a nurse on the request of an SS solider who was dying and was wrapped from head to toes in bandages. The man spoke of his pasts and about the horrible deed that he committed and could not stop thinking of. His thoughts were centered on himself and he was filled with self-pity. He believed that he could not die, without coming clean. But Simon felt strange because the SS solider was confessing his crime to a man who perhaps tomorrow must die at hands of the same murders. In his confession there was true repentance, even though he did not admit it in so many words, because the way he spoke was proof of his repentance. But the SS solider wanted more he wanted to ask Simon the last Jew that he probably be able to speak to and ask his forgiveness for his terrible crimes against the Jews so that he could die in peace. Simon was stunned and overwhelmed with emotion that he could not answer so he kept silent and left the room without a word. When Simon returned to the camp he asked his two friend Arthur and Josek for the opinion about choice to remain silent. Josek and Arthur both believe that Simon was right because he was in no position to forgive on the behalf of the Jewish people. Although Simon's friend told him he made the right choice, he could not put the hospital encounter behind him. Thoughts raced in his head should he have thought of something to say, after all there was a dying man and he failed to grant his last request. .
Soon after the Jews were liberated Simon joined a commission for the investigation of Nazi crimes. In the summer of 1946 while on a journey with his wife and a few friends to the neighborhood of Linz, Simon was on the hillside when he stumbled across a sunflower.