Book : The Sunflower

In this event, you’ll learnThe pre-cursor to Wiesenthal and Seidl’s exchangeWhat Wiesenthal offered Seidl, if not forgivenessIn which post-war situation Wiesenthal most struggled with the pros and cons of forgivenessWhy some people are more deserving of forgiveness than othersAn example of forgiveness from the Dalai LamaHow Jewish and Christian views on forgiveness differAbout the AuthorSimon Wiesenthal was born in 1908 in Buczacz, Galicia, at that time a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was incarcerated between 1941 and 1945 in Buchenwald and Mauthausen and other concentration camps. In 1946, together with 30 other survivors, he founded the Jewish Historical Documentation Center, which was instrumental in the identification of over 1,100 Nazi war criminals. He has been honored by the governments of Italy, the Netherlands, Israel, and the United States.OverviewForgiveness is complex. Many people have different notions of who has the right to ask for it and who has the right to grant it. Simon Wiesenthal learned that there are no easy answers or pat conclusions, but he also discovered that we must keep asking questions in order to find out more about why atrocities happen in the first place.What would you do if someone was involved in the Holocaust? Would you forgive them or not? This is a difficult question to answer, but Simon Wiesenthal tried to address it while he was still a prisoner. What did he decide and how can we apply that to our lives today?The man decides to do something, but he is not sure if it was the right thing. Afterward, he talks with more than 50 people about forgiveness. He tries to understand what forgiveness really means and how one goes about forgiving another person for wronging them.The Dalai Lama emphasizes the need for forgiveness, but Judaism does not. Murder cannot be forgiven by Judaism, and forgiving sets the forgiver free from hatred.The Big Takeaways:The choices we make today will have an impact on us tomorrow.There are no simple ways to discuss forgiveness and righteousness.Judaism believes that murderers are not deserving of forgiveness because the murderer made that choice himself.Those in favor of forgiveness believe it holds value to responsibility and helps with the process of moving forward.There are not any right answers to the question of mercy, which is why it’s important to continue asking why.