The Possibilities And Limits Of Forgiveness

The Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness

Eighty-nine of Simon’s relatives were murdered in the Nazi Holocaust. As far as he knew, his wife was one of them. He barely escaped death several times while funneled through five SS killing centers. One day while he was still imprisoned, a nurse came looking for a Jew. Any Jew would do. An SS officer had made a deathbed request to talk to one. She led Simon to a man swathed in bandages. He had been burned over most of his body; only his eyes were visible, and he couldn’t talk above a whisper.

The Nazi officer ordered Simon to sit on the edge of his bed. He introduced himself as Karl Seidl and said that he was raised a Catholic and had joined the SS against his father’s wishes. He then gasped out his final confession as if this Jew were his priest. Seidl spared none of the horrifying details of his years as a Jew killer. He told Simon about the day he found a house where two hundred Jews were hiding and ordered his men to set the building afire. He described the screams of people burning alive. He added that he had personally shot every man, woman, and child who had tried to escape that inferno.

When Seidl finally finished his confession, the room was deathly still. Simon shook with hatred. But SS Officer Seidl desperately wanted absolution. In the mind of this dying Nazi, Simon sat in the place of every Jew he had dehumanized or murdered. Seidl whispered with urgency, “Jew, will you forgive me?” Simon sat for several seconds looking down at the SS officer and then got up and walked away, leaving Karl Seidl to die without absolution.

Two years later, Simon’s camp was liberated. He had survived the last year on two hundred calories a day. Miraculously, he was reunited with his wife. He went on to become the world’s most celebrated Nazi hunter. Until he died at age ninety-six, he fought anti-Semitism and kept the memory of the Holocaust alive.

Yet Karl Seidl haunted Simon until the day he died. Simon constantly tortured himself with questions about whether he was right in refusing to forgive the SS officer. He remembered a day when his work detail passed a German military cemetery. He saw a sunflower on each grave and wondered if there was one on Seidl’s. In 1976, Simon Wiesenthal tried to bury the ghost of Karl Seidl by writing a bestseller entitled The Sunflower. In it he discussed the possibilities and limits of forgiveness, asking the questions that haunted him since he walked away from Seidl. In his book, fifty-three distinguished theologians, jurists, human rights activists, Holocaust survivors, and victims of other genocides respond to his questions. They prove one thing: there are no easy answers to forgiveness. Apart from Jesus there are no ultimate answers.

Some two thousand years ago, hardened religious leaders nailed a rabbi from Nazareth to a cross. This Jew responded to those who dehumanized and murdered him, “Father forgive them.” Simon Wiesenthal thought that forgiveness was a gift you give someone else and Karl Seidl wasn’t worthy. If you think someone hasn’t earned your forgiveness, you might want to remember this:

Forgiveness is the gift that you give yourself.

If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you.

Matthew 6:14