Wow guys, I enjoyed reading the responses to The Sunflower probably as much as I have enjoyed anything of yours I have read this semester. I just can't get over the amazing writing skill of this class. There was not a poor response in the whole bunch. Amazing. Interestingly, there were seven of you who said you would not offer forgiveness, one who very convincingly straddled the fence, and eighteen who would have forgiven. I read one review of this book who said that her Christian students tended to forgive and her Jewish students tended to not. I wonder if that is a religious difference or the fact that the Jewish students related differently since it was their people. Most of the ones who would have offered forgiveness did offer religious reasons as to why in our class. I am not going to put any entire responses on here, but here were a few powerful thoughts.
...The fact that an SS man is begging for forgiveness from a Jew is quite ironic, especially since he joined the SS voluntarily...
...I would turn to him and begin to tell him my story...
...Apathy is what I have been given and apathy is what they will receive...
...He believes that forgiveness is going to make up for the thousands that he voluntarily killed...
...He would have his sunflower on his grave while millions of innocent people would have nothing and be forgotten...
...I will never grant him forgiveness no matter what he does before his murderous life ends...
...the one that matters is God's forgiveness...
...he may have (originally) been a good man, a man of integrity, but I cannot forgive him, for he did nothing...
...How dare he beg and plead for some feeling, some compassion out of me, when no similar emotions surface towards the millions of murders for which no crimes were committed?...
...I cannot forgive you because I cannot speak for all Jews, but you are only asking forgiveness from me... I forgive you...
...The Jews and Nazis who walk past his grave, his sunflower, will see the symbol of forgiveness, a promise that will bind this man's story and mine forever...
...In the end, it comes down to the person's beliefs, thoughts, and ideas...
...It doesn't matter what you have done, when someone asks for forgiveness it is from a heart...
...As I am looking at the sunflower laying across his chest, I think of life...I forgive you...
...If he took the time to ask me for my forgiveness, he really had to have truly meant it...
...He must be forgiven. To not allow him the dignity or mercy of dying being forgiven would make me no better of a person than he...
...I would probably have forgiven him (personally), but not all SS guards...
...I am just glad that he has come to recognize the things he has done as bad things...
...(In the minds of the SS) he is lowering himself to ask my forgiveness...
...I honestly don't understand why I have been chosen to come and talk to him, but I do know God picked me for a reason...
..."Thank you," he said, then he died, finally at peace. The peace that all men deserve to die with...
...No deed is too horrible for its wickedness to be overcome...
...I am glad you are sorry for what you have done and I will forgive you...
...Would God forgive him for all that he has done?...
...I forgive you, though you deserve none. I am better than those who kill my people. I can't let hate and anger continue. Someone must stand up and I intend to...
...Deep inside myself, I felt a new sense of strength. I looked at his bandaged hand and I said, "You are forgiven."...
...I forgive you. What you did was wrong, but I am just as human as you are-- rotton to the core...
I think one consideration that none of you brought up is the fact that he was in the middle of the situation when he was asked to forgive. This is not years later, at a trial, when the murderer of your family asks you to forgive him or her. This is a situation when a murderer has just killed your family in front of you, is holding a gun on you, and asks you to forgive him or her. Does that make a difference? To me, yes it does. And I will say, I would have been one of the seven who said no. I respect those of you who said that denying him forgiveness would make you no better than he was, but I would have just had to lower myself to his level because I don't think I could have said yes while wearing my prison clothes and going straight back into the pit of despair and danger.
Really good and thoughtful responses from all of you. I got pretty sad tonight when I realized that I won't be reading anything from most of you again and not for a long time from some of you. Maybe you all could write some papers for fun over the summer and next year and send them to me? :)
10 comments:
I don't know if it's the fact that I listened to piano music while I read this blog post, but it made me really tear-up to think about leaving Holocaust Lit. It's been one amazing semester and I just love how everything has come together. Thanks Mrs. Davis. You're my hero! :) That writing assignment was definitely challenging. When you reiterated that Simon was "in the moment" that made me realize just how difficult it would be. It's much easier to write something as a person disconnected from what happened. I can't imagine being in his shoes...
That book really made me think. I did not go through the holocaust so I am not sure what choice I would have made if it was me. It is difficult to put yourself in the shoes of someone who has been through those awful events.
I actually felt kind of guilty for fence-sitting when everyone else had such good responses. But I honestly don't know what I would do. I truly am not leaning one way or the other. In my heart I feel like I should forgive anyone who asks me to, just because that's what I've been taught is fair in God's eyes. Then again, I will never understand the trauma those people had to endure. It was a good assignment, and it made me think a lot about situations a lot closer to home in which I've struggled with forgiveness.
Wow! Excellent exerpts everyone! They are all great.
That assignment really made us think. I really enjoyed it.
Naturally I forgive everyone. I don't care what they've done I forgive. We, as Christians, are not supposed to take offense of anything. As a Jewish person, this poses a totally different question.
To me it's just, as I said, natural for me to forgive and also a religious matter to forgive.
I find it very interesting that only 7 people wouldn't forgive. I thought there were going to be much more than that.
Sad? Don't be sad Mrs. Davis! Just think of...hmmm...*thinking of something good to say*...I have it! Think of a nice summer break without any worries and NO stress. How about the beach? That sounds really nice. haha.
I'll write you something over the summer! I'll wirte you a paper on the Holocaust Memorial in Paris.
-Josh
Stephen
This probably wont make it on the site since none of my comments work on this blog :(. I think his reaction of walking out on the man not only shows how low he has become, but also the loss of his faith. We are supposed to forgive others for their wrongs. I believe Judaism is similar to Christianity in the respect that we are supposed to forgive all wrongs and move on with our lives. What little humanity he could have saved by comforting the man before his death was lost due to his arrogance. I know i have never been in his position, but a dying man sees things more clearly than he would if he was in good health...even if he did not mean it he should have comforted him before death. Even if he decided not to he should have at least told him to ask God for forgiveness that way he could have avoided forgiving him and still made him feel better
I liked the new blog and how you put a piece of everybodies respone with it. Feeling sorry for a SS guard for me is a big thing, because I KNOW without a doubt that I would fight the Nazis tooth-and-nail until I was killed or we won the war. Yes, I know about the horrors of war and the death, desolation, and chaos that ensues, but I know that I would fight, and I am not afraid to die for a cause I believe in. I was once told that you don't know if you are afraid of death until you experience it, I don't think you have to experience death to know if you are willing to die for what you believe in.
Harry Edward "Zombie Killer" Koonce III
BOOMSHAKALAKA SHAKAKON!!!
Mrs. Davis said that these responses were the best pieces of writing that she had received from us this semester. After reading the lines she pulled out of each person's response, I definitely agree. I don't know what it was that made us really take this assignment to heart and truly try to put ourselves in Simon's situation(perhaps it was the amazing educator), but the thoughts we generated and then put down on paper were amazing. Although our responses display what we think our reactions would be, none of us truly know how we would react in a situation like that because we have never and probably will never experience anything as horrific as the Holocaust.
i loved this. i really liked how we got to think about it and think about how you would respond. it really makes you think about the situation better than if we were just to read it.. i absolutely loved it. the whole story was really moving and i loved reading that one thing where you put all the pieces together.. that was really neat. I also liked reading and hearing about the other "important people's" thoughts and stuff.. that was awesome.. this whole assignment was awesome.
-katie
After thinking more about my response to the book, I think that I would probably change my mind. I really could not put myself in that situation. When I tried to though I realized that I have no clue what i really would have responded to that question. I think that i might have done the same thing he did and just walk away, but at the same time I would want to forgive him but would not know how to say it.
The sunflower was a very good book for the parts of the book we read. It is so interesting how you can read all the holocaust books and so many of them have different stories, but they all hve one topic. Simon had to go through alot. I honestly don't know if i would have been able to forgive the SS guard for what he and many others did. I did right in my paper that i would have, but now i began to think about it I would not know if I would or not. I am kind of with alison i don't know if i could or not.
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