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| Famous Nazi Hunter Simon Wiesenthal. |
Why might someone admire O’Hare’s relentless pursuit of a war criminal like Campbell? Why does Campbell regard O’Hare with such disdain (aside from the fact that O’Hare has singled out Campbell for harrassment)?
Trailer for I Have Not Forgotten You: The Life and Legacy of Simon Wiesenthal (2009):
Had we been alive during the time of this famous war, and felt the terror and sadness first hand, we might have wanted the complete destruction of all Nazis. Not only would we have wanted the destruction of all Nazis, but we would applaud the ones who sought them out. I feel that since we learned of the story from Campbell's perspective we almost immediately become biased. We know that he wasn't really a Nazi as much as he appeared to be one. We knew he wasn't really a bad person although millions considered him to be a war criminal.
ReplyDeleteCampbell doesn't like O'Hare because he changed his life forever. I feel like if any of us had our own O'Hare, we would dislike him just as much.
I cannot admire O'Hare's pursuit of Campbell. It is not because of anything Campbell did or did not do but because of O'Hare's immoral reasons for chasing him. However, people like Mr. Wiesenthal do have a justified reason to be angry and want justice. He was the one who had to endure a concentration camp and watch helplessly as all of his family members died. His pursuit of Nazi’s comes from a different place than O’Hare’s does: Wiesenthal wants a justified revenge while O’Hare is seeking glory for his wounded pride. People like Wiesenthal are the ones who made sure that brutal, murderous people were tried for their crimes long after the war was over—he was their accountability. Campbell’s distain for O’Hare comes from his own attitude toward him. O’Hare admits how bad his life has become and what a glorious feeling it will bring him to kill a purely evil man. His downfall lay in the fact that he is not pursuing him for all the atrocious things Campbell has done but because he was the one who had captured him in the first place but failed to kill him then. If O’Hare would not have been the one to capture Campbell all those years ago, then O’Hare would not have been waiting in his apartment to kill him. He would not have had that personal connection with Campbell that had destroyed his pride and self worth.
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