Szifra calls Kipling an "idiot…to think that forgiveness solves anything…It proves that you are willing to roll over when people are walking on your back." What do you think of this statement?

After Adam reads Rudyard Kipling's poem, "If—" to his students, Szifra calls the poet an "idiot…to think that forgiveness solves anything…It proves that you are willing to roll over when people are walking on your back." What do you think of this statement? Do you agree with it? Why or why not?

Szifra has been forced to be resilient and resourceful. Her survival and that of her brothers depends on her grit. Being forgiving could not work in her ghetto world. She has developed a hardness in spirit, shielding herself from feeling anything sentimental. In her mind forgiveness is a form of weakness.

In the face of the absolute evil of what she was experiencing, I think forgiveness is a bridge too far. And I definitely agree with her.

Szifra had to take on a lot of responsibility very young, especially after her mother died. I think she had to harden herself to keep going and doing what was necessary to help her brothers, to try to get them out of the ghetto. There was no room for forgiveness in the world she lived in.

I think that, removing any religious connotations, forgiveness is something that people do for themselves, because holding a grudge and nursing anger eats away at a person. If holocaust victims find it helpful to forgive, that's up to them.

In light of the propaganda and lies being propagated by the Nazis forgiveness was least likely to be on the prisoners minds. Fighting to stay alive was the highest priority. Interestingly,I have spoken to a number of survivors including family members over the past 15 years. I have met some survivors who will never forgive and never forget and have turned their backs on Judaism. These people say (loosely quoted), “if we were the “chosen people” according to the Bible, what would G-d have allowed this to happen?” Other survivors have continued to embrace Judaism believing their faith is what kept them alive. I have not spoken to a survivor who has said that they found forgiveness in their heart.

I think that Szifra had become hardened by the life she was forced to live in order to protect her family. Who protected her?? Where was her "soft place to fall" so to speak.? She was still a child herself, and was only trying to protect her brothers. She was forced to prostitute herself just to eat.How could she even think forgiveness existed in the world??

Given what she has endured during her young life, not to mention her circumstances at that moment, Szifra's feelings are completely understandable and, many would argue, justified. In part, her reaction to the poem is a statement about her youth because there are many accounts of Holocaust survivors discuss forgiveness years after World War II. Did they feel the same way in the midst of being tortured? I don't recall that question being asked. I think the answer would be fascinating. Forgiveness isn't for the transgressor . . . it's for the survivor and can often take a lifetime to achieve. Perhaps most importantly, forgiveness is an emotion that Szifra did not have the luxury to indulge in. She was focused on surviving and protecting her brothers. Szifra as an old woman who escaped the ghetto? Perhaps she would have been capable of extending that grace to herselves and her captors.

A poem written at a different time and for a different reason. Forgiveness is not meant for the evil doers. It is meant for the victim, to help them survive and to go on living without hate. Szifra had and was enduring the most awful life and abuse in order to stay alive and to keep her brothers alive. She watched her mother die at the hands of the enemy. I can't even imagine that the thought of forgiveness ever entered her mind. Perhaps later some will forgive, but they will never forget.

I believe that Szifra, without knowing it, was capturing the essence of the meaning of the poem "if" - as I understand it. She knew herself in that place and time. In spite of what others thought of her or others' ideas of right and wrong, she did what she believed was her duty, who she was without hesitation. She had I think forgiven herself for doing what she ordinarily would not be doing. It was not about forgiving the evil conditions that forced the moment.

Szifra had been so hardened by her circumstances, I don't believe she could find any forgiveness for the people who were using her. There was no room in her heart for forgiveness towards them, and I cant say that I blame her. Perhaps if she had been given time, instead of being murdered, she would have come to forgive in the future.

Szifra may have scorned Kipling's "forgiveness," but she personified his "if you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you..."

She did what she had to do to save her family and she didn't care if she was judged - by morally righteous victims - or by others unaffected by her terrible choices.