Posted on 08/15/2006 9:41:12 AM PDT by lizol
Walesa wants Grass to give up Gdansk honorary citizenship after SS admission
By: The Canadian Press at 21:42 on August 13, 2006, EST.
BERLIN (AP) - Nobel peace laureate Lech Walesa wants German novelist Guenter Grass to give up his honorary citizenship of the Polish city of Gdansk after admitting that he served during World War II in the Waffen-SS, a German newspaper reported Sunday.
Grass, 78, revealed in a weekend newspaper interview that he was called up at age 17 to a division of the combat arm of Adolf Hitler's dreaded paramilitary forces. Asked why he was making the admission now, the Nobel literature laureate said that "it weighed on me."
Grass was born in 1927 in Gdansk, then the city of Danzig. He and Walesa, the former Polish president, are both honorary citizens.
"An unpleasant situation has arisen. I don't feel good in this company," Walesa was quoted as telling the German daily Bild in a preview of an article for its Monday edition.
"I don't know if one should not consider depriving him of this title," he added. "If it had been known that he was in the SS, he would not have got the honour. The best thing would be if he would give it up himself."
Grass, 78, is regarded as a literary spokesman for the generation of Germans that grew up in the Nazi era and survived the war. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1999.
He was long been active in left-wing politics and is regarded by many as an important moral voice against xenophobia and war.
Grass has said that he managed to give himself jaundice to get out of training for several weeks, and added that it was easy to forget the pull of Nazi indoctrination on teenagers.
His revelation has drawn a mixed reaction at home. He has drawn praise for the admission, but criticism for waiting so long.
Walesa wants German novelist Guenter Grass to give up his honorary citizenship of the Polish city of Gdansk after admitting that he served during World War II in the Waffen-SS
Kurt Waldheim.. Gunter Grass.. these are not the only famous figures to reveal the strong association between National SOCIALISM and garden variety leftwacko... Hitler was classified with the right because of his racism.. he had much more in common with the left.. a state-controlled economy and restrictions on private ownership of firearms were just the beginning.. Fool Charlie Rangel recently confirmed his ignorance by referring to Hitler as a Christian.. Hitler was a socialist first.. a vegetarian wierdo.. a pagan..
You are right of course...but Hitler was racist only against those he could not manipulate.
He had a strong affection for Muslims.
"vegetarian wierdo"
Why are you meat-eating whacko?
It's my understanding that being in the Waffen SS, as opposed to being simply a member of the SS, means that the individual in question was simply a good soldier. There's really no more to hold against a former member of the Waffen SS than there is to hold against a former soldier in the regular German army...whatever you may think of that.
I'm a Vegetarian Plus.. vegetables plus plenty of meat.. yum!
All credit to Walesa!
Gunter,that you?
I agree that not all the SS Divisions were responsible for war crimes. Many of the Waffen SS units were just military units, but some Waffen SS were implicated in serious war crimes -- the Malmedy massacre for one.
The German pig-dog national socialist (nazies) were leftist dumbocrats, not right wing at all!!
Right!
German Workers' Party - Deutsche Arbeiter Partei: DAP--is the Left wing feces that the Nazis came from.
And years after WWII we still have to deal with the spectacle of extremists on both sides (mainly but not exclusively leftist) bowing and scraping to the Muslim fascists.
Guenter Grass, winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize for Literature, describes himself as a "sad optimist".
He is a an outspoken pacifist, his opinions shaped by the experiences of World War II, but he supported the military intervention in Kosovo.
Ex Nazi, present Commie, islamofascist supporting bastard...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/461846.stm
Guenter Grass, winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize for Literature, describes himself as a "sad optimist".
He is a an outspoken pacifist, his opinions shaped by the experiences of World War II, but he supported the military intervention in Kosovo.
Ex Nazi, present Commie, islamofascist supporting bastard...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/461846.stm
If that is the case, then communists, fascists and socialists are more alike than different, and our labels of being one "wing" or another are inaccurate. Communists, socialists and fascists all want to control society by force and use the excuse that it is "for the good of community" that they do it. The direct opposite of those ideologies would be freedom-loving US constitutionalists, who defend behavior -- even behavior that they don't agree with -- based on a greater love of freedom than of one's self.
all want to control society by force
He said he served in FRUNDSBURG, according to a previous thread. That division was not formed until 1943. So I assumed he was levied into the Division when it was forming. By 1943, the Waffen SS shared in the conscription. If he was called up in '39, and was drafted, he would have gone into the Army. In 1939, he would have had to volunteer for the Waffen SS. At that point there were two major Waffen SS units, the LEIBSTANDARTE SS ADOLF HITLER, which was a regiment [albeit almost a brigade in size], or the SS VERFUNGSTRUPPE, which was a division [later re-named DAS REICH]. I've seen pictures of another SS unit, from the HEIMWEHR DANZIG, fighting in Danzig in 1939. The armored car in the picture has a Totenkopf on the rear glacis.
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