Robert Cole

Never Forgive What You Can’t Forget
While I agree completely with Robert Coles, “Only the sufferer is qualified to make the decision”, I’ve been asked to state my opinion and while I am unqualified to do so, it would be disrespectful to Simon Wiesenthal if I declined the opportunity. As Alan L. Berger stated in his excerpt, Judaism has two types of sins: Beyen Adam Le-Makom (human v God) and Beyen Adam Le-Adam (human v human). The Judaism religion believes that Beyen Adam Le-Mankon is an unforgiveable sin and many believers live by the motto, “I may not forgive one who has taken the life of another” as Berger explains on page 119. It is shocking that Simon, a follower of Judaism, did not initially walk away once he determined Karl’s intentions.
If that is not reasoning enough for a believer of Judaism, Karl additionally perpetuated the Nazi stereotype by saying, “Bring me a Jew, any Jew will do.” Karl also stated “I must tell you this horrible deed – tell you because .
. . you are a Jew.” His words proved he feels a Jew is an undifferentiated mass rather than individuals with souls, feelings, aspirations, and emotions. (Berger, page 119). Robert Cole also points out another insincerity. Karl feels repenting to Simon is repenting to the entire Jewish race: an impossible task. Rebecca Goldstein and Rodger Kamenetz also agree that Karl does not give the individualism that Simon deserves. Kamenetz believes that Karl has “not moved past the deeper sickness of his soul.” (page 181). He continues saying. . . .
“You were not addressed as a person. You were addressed, from his perspective, as Jew. Not as a Jew, a Jewish person, as an individual with a life, a history, a heartbreak of your own, but merely as Jew. For his purpose, any Jew would
do.” Moreover, Karl does not deserve any pity or sympathy because he put himself in the situation; he was a criminal by choice. As Arthur Hertzberg states on page 166. . .
“This young man had not drifted into being a Nazi, for he was raised by a mother who was a pious Catholic and a father who never wavered in his opposition to Hitler and his followers. When he decided to join the Hitler Youth, his mother did not put up much of a struggle, but his father was vehemently opposed. The teenager would not listen at fourteen, and he was even more defiant when he enlisted in the SS.” Hertzberg shows that Karl brought this guilt onto himself. If Karl was sincerely sorry, he could have stopped his wrongdoing. Hertzberg also states “The Nazi regime did allow “faint-hearted” soldiers to ask for other assignments.” Therefore, Karl could have avoided committing horrible crimes, but instead, he chose to mass-murder innocent Jews. While Alan L.
Berger, Rebecca Goldstein, Rodger Kamenetz, and Arthur Hertzberg are all against forgiving Karl, their reasoning’s behind non-forgiveness vary. Alan Berger provides various reasons. First, he questions the repentance of Karl and ponders on if it’s genuine or not. He provides a valid reason to not forgive: the beliefs of Judaism followers. Additionally, he also feels Karl perpetuated the Nazi stereotype and expected to cleanse his own soul at the expense of a Jew. Robert Coles, however, believes that Simon does not have to forgive, but he must be prayed for. He agrees with Berger’s idea that Karl spoke in the name of all Jews, not just Simon (page 137). Rodger Kamenetz is on the same page in that he believes Karl did not address Simon as a person, rather a Jew thus removing any individualism left in Simon. Rebecca Goldstein also feels that Karl does not have the right to die in peace because he does not provide each Jew with the individualism deserved. She provides a valid comparison of the Nazi’s thinking Jews are like water. She states,
“You are summoned for no reason other than that you are a Jew, as if “Jew” were a mass term comparable, say, to “water” or “salt”. Here is a bit of water, we say, and any sample of it will do. All water manifests the same interchangeable water properties. That a Nazi should think this way about Jews is not in the least surprising. Mass terms, mass murders, mass graves: they are all of a piece.” (page
149)
Hertzberg is the only exception. His belief varies from the previous stated writers. Hertzberg feels that Karl was raised in a catholic family and that he would not forgive him because he brought this pain onto himself.
Frankly, from 1933 to 1945 11,000,000 people were killed with an estimated 6,000,000 being Jews. Two thirds of the Jewish race was mass murdered by the Nazi party throughout this time period. Why would anyone want to forgive Karl?
“You and your sensitive feelings! Men, you cannot go on like this. This is war! One must be hard! They are not people. The Jew is not a human being. The Jews are the cause of all our misfortunes! And when you shoot one of them it is not the same thing as shooting one of us- it doesn’t matter whether it is a man, women, or child, they are different from us. Without question one must get rid of them. If we had been soft we should still be other people’s slaves.” (page 49). These discriminating words were shoved into Karl’s everyday thoughts and helped secure his guilt. It’s beyond sickening that Karl realized his wrong-doings but let peer-pressure take over his morals and tricked him into murdering innocent Jews.
Personally, Karl was wrong in all aspects. Forgiveness might be acceptable if he had terminated his violence at an earlier stage, but he fought until his end. He only asked for forgiveness when he faced death, not because he understood the Jews were actual people with feelings and dreams. His acts were selfish thus explaining why I would never forgive Karl, even if his repentance was genuine.