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Book 1: The Sunflower

Simon stands exhausted on the parade ground of a concentration camp. He’s waiting in line for breakfast after having not gotten coffee because he didn’t want to push his way through the crowd and because SS officers often use that space as an opportunity to injure prisoners. Simon tries to remember something his friend Arthur told him last night about news from outside, but it was difficult to pay attention since they rarely believed good news anyway. They’re sleeping in crowded bunks in what used to be a stable with 150 other men.

Simon explains that, in the concentration camp, men from all walks of life found themselves confined to small areas. They would inevitably group together and form communities due to their circumstances. Simon describes his own community, which consisted of his old friend Arthur and a Jew named Josek. Josek was sensitive and deeply religious, while Simon struggled with despair at times.

Josek refused to accept the reality of his situation. He often spoke about his religious beliefs and thought that God would save him from the camp. Once, Josek was listening to the news as Simon, Arthur, and himself were walking back to their barracks. Josek suddenly stood up and began talking about how man was created by angels. The angel of truth opposed man’s creation because he believed that man would destroy everything on earth. However, God decided that this wasn’t true because he sent the angel down to Earth where he cried over all of its suffering until God took pity on him and created humans out of his tears (the reason why people cry).

Arthur interrupted Josek, saying that the Jews may have been made out of this earth, but the camp commandant couldn’t have been made out of the same material. Josek tells Arthur that he’s forgetting Cain. However, Arthur says that Josek is forgetting where they are and what they’re doing there. He goes on to say that Cain never tortured Abel and furthermore they knew each other—they were brothers—whereas the Germans were strangers to their victims. Simon intervenes to break up an argument between Arthur and Josek by reminding them both how many thousands of years ago it was since Cain killed Abel in a fit of anger over his brother taking some fruit from him. Simon reflects on why one person would kill another if all people are really created equal like everyone else thinks; he wonders whether or not Arthur isn’t right about his objections to Josek’s story because humans weren’t always killers or victims but instead evolved into different roles during time periods throughout history due to various factors such as culture and religion.

Simon remembers Arthur waking him up the previous night. He had told Simon that an old woman said God was “on leave.” Simon responds by saying, “Let me know when he gets back.” Then his friends laugh and he drifts back to sleep.

The next morning, Simon asks Arthur what he had said about God the night before. Arthur explains that he is preoccupied with his family and their future, although he feels that even if they do not survive, Germany will be punished for its actions. In contrast, Simon is more concerned about the present; he’s worried about hunger and exhaustion as well as how people are being treated. He questions whether there really is a place in this world order for God or if it’s just another illusion like so many other things have been recently.

Simon describes the labor camps he and other prisoners are forced to work in. They also have to be registered by German overseers, which is actually a euphemism for when they decide that some prisoners are no longer fit for work and should be killed. Simon points out how the constant anxiety of being watched causes mistrust among all the workers, even those who follow orders.