[Title in Hebrew]

NEWS. JEDIOTH CHADASHOTH

Founder and first editor: S. Blumenthal s.A.

S. Blumenthal s.A. [HEBREW]

Publisher : JEDIOTH CHADASHOTH Ldt., T.-A.Harakeweth Str. 66, Tel. 33248, 32249

POB. 28165, Ed. Dr. I. Lilienfeld,

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Retail price 40 Agorot

MONDAY, SEP. 21. 1970 [HEBREW] No. 10.098

...

Simon Wiesenthal and the dying SS man

By our Germany correspondent

At the book fair in Frankfurt, which will now take place, Simon Wiesenthal, who had called himself "Hunter of the Nazi Murderers," intends to present his latest book to the German President Heinemann. In this book one finds a surprising chapter. In it, Wiesenthal tells the story of a dying SS-officer who asked him, i.e. the present Nazi-hunter, around 1942, in Lemberg for forgiveness for everything that had been done to the Jews. At the request of the dying SS man, Wiesenthal was taken from the camp to a hospital. A nurse fulfilled the dying man's request to let Wiesenthal work in the hospital. At the SS man's bedside, Wiesenthal hears the dying man's story: how he murdered a Jewish family and how his conscience is bothering him now because of it. Wiesenthal refuses to grant the dying man forgiveness. But since then he has had pangs of conscience. Again and again he asked himself whether he had acted correctly. After the war, Wiesenthal visits the SS officer's mother in Germany. He tells her nothing of her son's deeds and lets her believe that he has always acted according to the principles in which he was brought up. This is part of the forgiveness that was granted after the fact.

Here, one has to ask oneself what made Wiesenthal pose in this way, the Wiesenthal who had hunted down Nazi murderers. Maybe he does not feel good in the role of the hunter, does he not like that victims fall in the process? Or is it just the desire to be in the spotlight? Remorse? Those who are otherwise engaged in such activities generally have other remorse. They ask themselves for what reason they have remained alive, or whether they could not have done more to keep others alive. One can have one's doubts about such remorse, like Wiesenthal's.

Because one wonders how he can continue his hunt now, knowing that probably other Nazi greats of the past could have remorse today, as the SS-man felt. This question is significant because the author presents his SS man as a person who had not been brought up to murder, who only came to it through the general tendency in his country.

Wiesenthal submitted the question of whether he was right in refusing to forgive the dying man to 43 people, writers, public men, and politicians. He published their answers in his book. The majority of these people are Germans, some are surprised that this question is still relevant today, others think that only God can grant such forgiveness. A well-known Austrian author, anti-fascist, thinks that only a political, not a theological or philosophical answer can be given here. It seems that it would have been better if this book by Wiesenthal had never been published.

Oct. 2, 1970

SW/bp

Mr

Dr I. Lilienfeld

JEDIOTH CHADASHOTH

Harakeweth Str. 66

Tel-Aviv

Subject: Article "Simon Wiesenthal and the dying SS man of 21 September".

Dear Mr Editor-in-Chief,

I have no intention of polemicising with Ms Deutschkron, whose "review" of my book "The Sunflower" appeared in your esteemed newspaper on 21 September. In conversations with German acquaintances, the author has already announced several times that she intends to "finish offWiesenthal". That is what she has tried to do here.

But allow me to suggest that Ms Deutschkron has not read the book, but has written her criticism on the basis of the blurb. Otherwise a sentence like: "A nurse honoured the dying man's request to let Wiesenthal work in the hospital" would not be possible. There is no mention of this in the book.

"The Sunflower" has so far been published in seven countries and hundreds of newspapers have published reviews and letters from readers. The fact that it was an Israelinewspaper in particular that published the first negative review, possibly based on personal motives, does not necessarily speak against the quality of the book.

Ms Deutschkron also claims of me: "Wiesenthal, who had called himself 'hunter of Nazi murderers'...". I am willing to donate DM 1000 to Magbith if Ms Deutschkron can prove this. Or should the intention with which this criticism was written also become clear here?

The book deals with the ethical question of the legitimisation of forgiveness. Ms Deutschkron does not seem to be well versed in this area.

I do not know whether you can fulfill my request to have this letter published as a letter to the editor in your newspaper, but you should do so in the spirit of the maxim "audiatur et altera pars".

Yours sincerely

Simon Wiesenthal