Posted on 04/05/2012 4:54:17 PM PDT by Nachum
Former SS member and German Nobel literature laureate Guenter Grass labeled Israel a threat to world peace in a poem published Wednesday that drew sharp rebukes at home and from Israel.
Not only does the AP leaves the SS factoid out of the headline; they don't mention it until the near bottom of their article.........talk about burying the lede. The AP didn't mention the fact that Guenter Grass was a member of "the Waffen-SS, the combat arm of the Nazis' paramilitary organization" until the very end of the article (as were the comments in defense of the tiny Jewish state).
"What must also be said is that Israel is the world's only nation whose right to exist is publicly questioned," the Israeli Embassy in Germany said in a statement. "We want to live in peace with our neighbors in the region."
"Guenter Grass is turning the situation upside-down by defending a brutal regime that not only disregards but openly violates international agreements for many years," said Deidre Berger, director of the American Jewish Committee in Berlin.
"Iran is the threat for world peace — and Israel the only democracy in the entire region, and at the same time the world's only whose right to exist is openly questioned," said Charlotte Knobloch, a former leader of Germany's Jewish community.
Efraim Zuroff, who leads the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, called Grass' poem "outrageous," adding it appeared to be a sign of Israel "becoming the whipping boy for the frustrations of those who are sick of hearing about the Holocaust."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is a staunch ally of Israel, and her spokesman reacted coolly to Grass' remarks.
"There is artistic freedom in Germany, and there thankfully also is the freedom of the government not to have to comment on every
(Excerpt) Read more at atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com ...
Full title: Once a Nazi, Always a Nazi: Former SS Member and Nobel winner Grass: 'Israel a threat to world peace'
Nobel gave their peace prize to Nazis and Palestinian terrorists. Ha ha!
A Nazi was also Secretary General of the UN.
And Obama. I see a trend.
An unindicted co-conspirator in the Nazi regime.
Good grief! It seems like these people never die, and never fade away either. - My dad was a WWII combat veteran; passed away about 10 yrs. ago, would be 91 if he were living today. - Of course, a lot of the Nazi’s have died by now, but seems like a lot have been left. Soros, for one, comes to mind.
Grass was drafted into the Waffen SS when he was 17. That hardly makes him a Nazi.
Here’s what he has said:
Grass said in the interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: “It had to come out, finally. The thing went as follows: I had volunteered, not for the Waffen-SS but for the submarines, which was just as crazy of me. But they were not taking anyone any more. Whereas the Waffen-SS took whatever they could get in the last months of the war, 1944/45. That went for conscripts but also for older men, who often came from the Air Force - they were called ‘Hermann Göring donations.’ The fewer intact airfields there were, the more ground personnel were stuck in army units or in units of the Waffen-SS. It was the same with the navy. And for me, I am sure I am remembering correctly, the Waffen-SS was at first not something scary, but rather an elite unit that was always sent to trouble spots, and which, according to rumour, had the most casualties.”
He said he volunteered mainly to “get away. From constrictions, from the family. I wanted to put an end to all that, and so I volunteered. And that’s also something odd: I enlisted at the age of 15, and promptly forgot the details of the process. And it was the same for many of my birth year: We were in the work service and suddenly, a year later, the conscription order lay on the table. And that must be when I first realized: it is the Waffen-SS.” Asked whether he had feelings of guilt, Grass answered: “At the time? No. Later on, this guilt feeling burdened me as a disgrace.” It wasn’t until he heard the testimony of Hitler Youth leader Baldur von Schirach in the Nuremberg trials that he “believed that the crimes had actually taken place.”
Later, he thought that “what I did in my writing was enough.” The 1950s did not seem to be the right time to confess. “We were under Adenauer, ghastly, with all those lies, with all that Catholic fug. The society of that day was fed by a kind of stuffiness that never existed under the Nazis.”
http://www.signandsight.com/features/899.html
He’s an excellent author...I have Cat and Mouse and The Flounder on the bookshelf.
Soros is better categorized as a kapo than a Nazi.
Three days ago I had a fellow worker ask why I had a “#ucking Jew flag on my truck?
He woke up about 5 minutes later.
He couldn’t remember anything that happened that day!!
LOL
This is sort of like once a Soviet Commie always a Soviet Commie...
He was drafted in November, 1944, and was sent to the Eastern Front as an assistant tank gunner in February, 1945, where he saw heavy action. He was wounded two months later and sent to the rear just a few days before his division was surrounded by the Russians and decimated. US troops under Patton liberated Marienbad on May 6 and Grass was captured and sent to a POW camp.
You wrote:
“but I’ll bet he was in the Hitler Youth group.”
You do realize that it was the law that all youths had to be in the Hitler Youth, right? He had no choice.
“Don’t trust this guy, he’s a Nazi...”
There’s no evidence he was a Nazi. Being drafted into the Waffen SS didn’t make you a Nazi.
He volunteered for subs (at age 15). He was first conscripted into the labor corps. Then he was drafted into the Waffen ss. Check his autobiography. He’s clear on that point.
“It happened as it did to many of my age. We were in the labour service and all at once, a year later, the call-up notice lay on the table. And only when I got to Dresden did I learn it was the Waffen SS.” http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4785851.stm
Also, if you read what I posted you would see that you are misreading what is there. He never said he volunteered for the SS. He’s talking about two different things. I could see why you would be confused.
Note: this topic is from 4/05/2012. Thanks Nachum.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.