At Sheila's this afternoon we discussed the novel Not Me by Michael Lavigne. The major question was whether Heinrich/Heschel, the S.S. bookkeeper who changed his identity to that of a Jew who died in the camps, deserved redemption.
I gave him partial redemption because even though his hatred was pretty ugly, I believed that at some point he felt remorse. I felt that his philanthropy went beyond what was necessary to avoid detection and that maybe he had grasped the evil of his previous identity.
In all, though, a majority of the group did not feel he ever really got beyond his initial hateful feelings even though he did come to care for two of the Jews he met in Israel. So even though he became a philanthropist they felt he was just trying to get into God's good graces and not really feeling genuine remorse for aiding and abetting in the Holocaust.
As usual it was a lively discussion with many different viewpoints. Kudos to Sheila for leading such great guided conversations. Next month on April 19th we'll be discussing The Secret Lives of Bees.
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