[henkster]

As a young man he had been an unwilling conscript who had contrived to be just a harmless “flakhelfer,” a slacker who remained in the rear and hurt no one.

I would assume there is some truth to that. If he hadn't been a slacker, it's likely his body would be rotting in the ground somewhere between the Volga and the Oder.

Yes, the Nazis were bad, and the Germans were vicariously "bad" for letting it happen. But give the post-war Germans credit for being able to face up to it. Having a degree in Germanic Languages, I can tell you that German culture since about 1955 (theater, poetry, music, books and movies) pretty much consists of lots of hand-wringing over "how could we have let that happen?" You wouldn't see what Grass wrote published in Japan or Russia.

[MrEdd]

Point.

[SatinDoll]

“...He deplored “Western hypocrisy” in not singling out the Jewish State as a nuclear danger to the innocent Ayatollahs of Iran,..” (barf_

He was a typical antisemite.