The Holocaust and the Very Idea of Forgiveness

This chapter explores the social and ethical implications of offering forgiveness to perpetrators. In the not so distant future no perpetrators and no first-generation victims of the Holocaust will remain alive. Yet, the determination of whether perpetrators should be forgiven will continue to shape our moral thinking. Simon Wiesenthal famously called attention to the problem of Holocaust forgiveness in his book The Sunflower. Wiesenthal tells how the Red Cross had converted a technical high school into a “Reserve Hospital,” where prisoners were employed to carry rubbish from the building. A nurse called aside the protagonist, Simon, to ask him to assist with a patient. After some preliminary discussion, Karl, the patient, reports to Simon that he was a SS volunteer who participated in a gruesome murder of Jews by fire. Then he presents to Simon his request for forgiveness. He said, “In the long nights while I have been waiting for death, time and time again I have longed to talk about it to a Jew and beg forgiveness from him.” (54) In this chapter we explore the possibility that perpetrators like Simon could be forgiven.