"Vergebt mir diese meine Tugend"

Translated title of the contribution: "Forgive me this virtue"

Peter Banki

Research output: Chapter in Book / Conference PaperChapter

Abstract

This chapter proposes a new interpretation of Simon Wiesenthal’s novel The Sunflower (1969), which is the autobiographical narrative of an encounter during World War II between a Jewish prisoner and a dying repentant Nazi soldier, who asks for his forgiveness. It argues that it is possible to read The Sunflower, on the one hand, as the author’s request for forgiveness for being unable to forgive the SS man, if ‘forgiveness’ means closure, drawing the line and renouncing the demand for justice for the victims. On the other hand, however, it also argues that is also possible to read this story as an inventive, poetic gesture of forgiveness granted to the SS-man, to whom the narrator feels bound by virtue of his remorse, despite its hopeless insufficiency.
Translated title of the contribution"Forgive me this virtue"
Original languageGerman
Title of host publicationDie Sonnenblume: Uber die Moglichkeiten und Grenzen von Vergebung: Erzählung und Antworten = The Sunflower: The Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness: Narrative and Responses
EditorsNicola Jungsberger
Place of PublicationGermany
PublisherEuropa
Pages162-167
Number of pages6
ISBN (Print)9783958900066
Publication statusPublished - 2015

Keywords

  • Wiesenthal, Simon. Sonnenblume
  • Wiesenthal, Simon. Sunflower
  • World War, 1939-1945
  • forgiveness
  • Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)

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