Gunter Grass Admits to Serving in Hitler's Waffen SS

[Michael J. Hußmann]

Otto (ottosell at googlemail.com) wrote:

> Now his reputation is gone forever.

Why? He was a dyed-in-the-wool Nazi then, and had never denied that.
Most German kids in his generation were, especially when there was
nothing -- his parents, say -- to counteract the constant indoctrination
by teachers, the Hitlerjugend, newspapers, radio etc.. So, even when the
fact was unknown before, his volunteering for submarine service and/or
the Waffen SS is perfectly consistent with his character at the time. We
already knew that much, so why should we feel shocked now? Grass'
reputation never rested on his behaviour as a 17 year old in Nazi Germany.

- Michael


Michael J. Hußmann

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