Remorse

The book, The Sunflower, by Simon Wiesenthal, recounts his experiences in the concentration camps, specifically his experience of being forced to listen to a dying SS officer begging his forgiveness, the forgiveness of a Jew, ostensibly as a representative of the race.  The book recounts in the first person Mr. Wiesenthal's reluctance to grant the dying SS man forgiveness, which decision haunts him in later years.  The book also offers the opinions of some luminaries about the rightness or wrongness of his withholding of forgiveness.



Which provokes some very intriguing facts in my mind:  The Holocaust typically refers to the systematic extermination of a whole race of people, namely 6 million Jews.  But the Holocaust was far more virulent than that: It was actually a plan - which proved somewhat successful - to exterminate an entire population that was not Aryan.  In fact, some 12 million men, women and children, from Jews to Catholics, Gypsies, Poles, Russians, and every other non-Aryans were systematically exterminated.  How did that happen?  How could a nation, a group of people, experience such a deep hatred for anything other than their own; a hatred sufficient to consider them subhuman, "vermin," and needing extermination?  The answer (albeit a very simplistic one) lies in the psychology of groups.

There is something else to consider here of paramount importance: The Holocaust did not happen overnight.  Unlike the Occupy Wall street phenomenon, which as of today is about 2 months old, the Holocaust was the result of some 25 years of foment, discontent, political and economic upheaval that catapulted Hitler to power and thus permitted the atrocities to take place.  In several ways, Hitler "stole" his position of power, but be that as it may, he did rise to power,  through eloquent, galvanizing speeches that spoke directly to the fears and frustrations of the populace, along with some downright larcenous machinations that secured for him the top seat at the table.  Hitler began his propaganda by associating the Jews to the Bolsheviks, because of his deep shame that Germany lost the war in 1919.  Because of its loss of the war, Germany was obligated to pay huge reparations.  At the time, many German banks were owned by Jews, 80% of shops were Jewish run, and most stockbrokers were Jewish.  It therefore became easy to blame Germany's economic malaise on the Jews.  Hitler blamed the Jews for the Russian Revolution, citing Leon Trotsky's and Karl Marx's faith, as well as the fact that Lenin was one-quarter Jewish.  Combined with an economy on the brink; the loss of an important war; and the fanaticism of a man, it is perhaps easier to understand how certain "facts" become distorted in the mind, morphing from dislike to blame to murderous hatred to the Final Solution.  The Final Solution took many years to become an almost reality.

What does this have to do with remorse?  True, many Germans (Christians and Jews alike) felt the pinch of a bad economy; and many young Germans became caught up in the "movement," before that movement became virulent.  Sadly, in time and with sufficient momentum, group think took over and the same young people who joined a cause now found themselves practicing acts which violated their own principles.  The problem with groups is that it is not at all easy to extricate oneself and declare that one will no longer participate.  Once entrenched in a group, one tends to obliterate one's own personality in favor of the group's.  And so it was that many Nazis committed acts of cruelty in the name of the group they belonged to, even though they, themselves, may not have wished to.  History is full of such stories, the regret of murderers who can only gain perspective from far afield.

The book, The Sunflower, recounts of one such SS officer who has had a chance to contemplate his acts, and on his deathbed, asks a Jew for forgiveness.  The important thing here is not whether Simon Wiesenthal was able to forgive, but that the SS officer asked for forgiveness.  It was his remorse that's important.  On his deathbed, it is hard to believe that he had some kind of hidden agenda to manipulate a Jew, although that's not impossible, yet his contrition, his own contemplation of his acts when in the throes of the murderous rampages, is telling - and it must be said, touching.  It takes courage to face one's demons; it takes bravery to say I'm sorry; ultimately, it takes a soul to see the error of one's ways.