The letter was received by the Jewish Documentation Center on Feb. 21, 1977

[Handwritten]Re: The Sunflower

Dear Mr Wiesenthal,

In order that humanity can survive, we have to accept and act according to certain moral laws. The most important moral law is that a man is responsible for his deeds. If we free him from this responsibility then the world would end up in chaos.

Every murderer, every thief could plead innocence by blaming circumstances or situations which made him commit his crime.

Therefore, the SS officer who confessed to you is guilty for the crimes which he committed and has to bear the full consequences.

You as a representative of your people (in his eyes) had no right to forgive him. You did show him compassion by listening silently to his confessions thus easing his conscience in the hour of his death. You even went further – by seeking out his mother and by not letting her know that her “good” son, as she believed it behaved like a beast and not like a human being.

You had two “mitzvot” and I admire you for it.

We cannot accept the doctrine that if you are hit on one cheek offer the other cheek. This doctrine would perpetuate eternal slavery.

Sincerely yours,

[handwritten signature]

Julius Chajes

P.S.

I was born in Lwów on Dec. 21, 1910 on ul. Jagiellońska 24. My father, Dr. Josef Chajes, was head of the gynecological dept. of the Jewish hospital on Sw. Anny. My father was a second cousin to Dr.Perez Zwi Chajes of Vienna.