Captain America is the original World War II hero and in this follow up to the story in which we learn he helped liberate the fictional death camp called "Diebenwald" we learn more about the suffering of Cap's landlady Anna Kappelbaum. In Captain America #245 we discover that she was sexually assaulted by the commandant of the camp, a fellow named Klaus Mendelhaus. She happens to see Mendelhaus and soon after is approached by Nazi hunter Aaron Heller and his daughter. They find Mendelhaus who seems to be regretful of his many crimes and Anna is unable to kill him when given the chance. Heller's daughter does shoot him down when her father dies of a heart attack.
This story written by Roger McKenzie and drawn by Carmine Infantino and Joe Rubenstein is a nifty rousing adventure, but somehow its message of folks need to forgive seems a little underdeveloped. I understand that victims like Anna need to forgive for their own sake and not for their attackers, but Mendelhaus seems a little too pat in this story, a bit too sympathetic for my tastes. He's a mass murderer and rapist and those are mighty crimes indeed.
Note: This post originally appeared at Rip Jagger's Other Dojo.
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I've always been amazed by the strength some people exhibit in forgiving someone that did personal atrocities to them or a loved one I don't think I could do that . In this case though as you say he was mass murderer so it is perhaps unrealistically sympathetic
ReplyDeleteI've lived a pretty charmed life and only had one person who I really hated, a man who harassed my daughter in the workplace. But I found that hugging that hatred was doing more harm to me than it was having any effect on him. He was a bully and karma did turn on him in the end without my help.
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