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diff --git a/jones-la/wiesenthal.tex b/jones-la/wiesenthal.tex new file mode 100644 index 0000000..75870fd --- /dev/null +++ b/jones-la/wiesenthal.tex @@ -0,0 +1,81 @@ +%%Formatting +\font\twelverm=ptmr7t at 12pt +\font\twelveit=ptmri7t at 12pt +\font\fourteenrm=ptmr7t at 14pt +\twelverm \baselineskip=29pt %%double spacing = 2.5x spacing tf +\parindent=0.5in + +%%Header +\headline={\hfil\ifnum\pageno>1 Rohrer \number\pageno\fi} \nopagenumbers +\vsize=9in +{\obeylines\parindent=0in% +Holden Rohrer +Jones +AP Lang +27 Mar 2020 +\centerline{\fourteenrm The Sunflower}\baselineskip=35pt\par} + +\def\book{{\twelveit The Sunflower}} +%%Content +I, like many of the respondents to \book, struggle and hesitate to give +a definitive answer to the question ``Would I have forgiven the SS +man?'' Like Sven Alkalaj says, ``Nobody who hasn't bodily gone through +what [genocide victims] went through will ever be able to understand +fully.'' I fear that, in giving a definite answer, my viewpoint is so +uninformed as to be inapplicable or, worse, hold the eventual +implication that Wiesenthal has committed some great wrong by not +forgiving Karl. This fear drives me to the conclusion that the +SS man should not be forgiven. At least and especially under +Wiesenthal's circumstances, I certainly would have done the same if I +had been so gracious to hear out the dying soldier as Wiesenthal had. + +Before reading Cynthia Ozick's response, however, I relucted to wholly +rule out forgiveness. She outlines, in great detail, that what the SS +man did is not just unforgivable on some religious or metaphysical +principle of the meaning of forgiveness ``in God's eyes,'' but for the +legitimate setting of precedent against obtaining ``cleanliness of +heart'' lightly. Despite the soldier clearly appearing to be genuinely +remorseful, I can't believe that his record could be so lightly +expunged. + +Some responses, like Robert Brown's attempt to draw a line between +forgiving and forgetting, which is understandable, but in this case, +Karl continues to commit grievances which undermine his repentance. The +first of these is treating the Jews as a monolithic group: ``any Jew +will do.'' The second is the selfishness of his repentance. He is sorry +for his actions, but only to the extent it helps him ``die in peace.'' +I sympathize with Wiesenthal's disgust at the soldier, for it appears +that no fundamental change occurred except that he seeks an easy way +out---a ``moral escape valve'' as Robert Brown puts it. Karl is +pitiful insofar as he cannot understand what he is doing, and he, in his +distressed state, appears to miscomprehend his effect on Wiesenthal. +Wiesenthal is clearly conflicted by his choice when confronted by Karl, +and this is an undue burden placed on Wiesenthal. Karl doesn't +demonstrate atonement in the shallow words of a deathbed conversation, +so to forgive him, in this instance, would be to ignore the quality of +his crimes. + +Karl killed dozens of families of Jews by fire, without immediate +remorse. In some ways, this could be considered an act for which one +cannot atone or be forgiven. But Albert Speer, a Nazi Minister, has felt +great guilt for his wartime actions, and he has atoned by spending time +in prison and has realized the deep err of his ways. Wiesenthal treated +him with kindness, and I believe that this atonement is what separates +Speer's worthiness of forgiveness from Karl's. Matthieu Ricard says it +best with ``the perpetrator of evil will himself suffer\dots until he +is ready for inner transformation.'' Karl had only taken the first step +to deserving forgiveness, and even then it may have been corrupted. +Terence Prittie notes that his dying means he may just be ``praying and +promising ``to be good.'''' + +\book\ has dramatically shifted my opinion on the possibility of +forgiveness---to be more harsh. Before reading, I took a na\"\i ve +and weak pro-forgiveness stance, loosely affected by a perception of +nobility in Buddhist tradition and a misunderstanding of the ultimate +theological and moral implications. I still believe that forgiveness is +possible, but I think that vengeance is justified if not right in the +immediacy of an event as terrible as the Holocaust, and that forgiveness +requires sacrifice by both sides, because that proof of stake defines +the value that forgiveness is able to create. + +\bye |