The Sunflower

Alan Berger characterizes Wiesenthal’s story as a morality tale. What is a morality tale, and how does The Sunflower fit this description? Are there ways in which it does not meet the criteria for a morality tale?

Some respondents to Wiesenthal’s question talk about forgetting as a function of forgiveness, while others assert that remembering is the means by which true reconciliation can take place. Using three or four of the respondents in The Sunflower as your basis, discuss forgetting and remembrance as they relate to reconciliation.

Matthew Fox says that Wiesenthal’s story is troubling, because of its universality, that it “lays bare the sins of complicity and the sins of omission and denial that render our participation in evil so profound” (147). In what ways are individuals guilty of complicity and denial in the face of misdeeds in our world today?

According to Christopher Hollis, “The real issue is whether the Jew and Nazi were two of God’s children sharing a common humanity or whether they are two different sorts of being, irrevocably at war with one another” (180). Which do you believe to be true? Explain why.

Lawrence L. Langer says, “The ‘disappearing criminal’ is one of the most dangerous and lamentable legacies of the Holocaust experience” (188). Explain the idea of the “disappearing criminal” as Langer presents it, and then discuss how other respondents in The Sunflower may or may not share this theory.

Several respondents to The Sunflower comment on the fact that our understanding of the encounter between Karl and Simon is limited by the fact that Simon is recounting the story some time later. Discuss the nature of storytelling, how it can both reveal and obscure truth.

According to Erich H. Loewy, “rationality without compassion and compassion without rationality are both ineffective when it comes to grappling with ethical problems” (206). Discuss how both rationality and compassion figure in Simon Wiesenthal’s account in The Sunflower.

Many of Wiesenthal’s respondents discuss the role of silence in The Sunflower. What is the value of silence in response to the historical truth of the Holocaust? What are the negative consequences of silence?