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Three days of celebrations began Thursday in Gdansk, Poland, to mark the 80th birthday of German novelist Guenter Grass, but all is not forgiven in Grass's hometown. His admission earlier this year that, as a teenager, he had served in the Waffen-SS, the combat arm of Adolf Hitler's notorious paramilitary organization, has cast a pall over the celebrations. German writer and Nobel Prize laureate Guenter Grass, shown in September 2005, sent letters of explanation to the mayor of Gdansk, his birth city, and former Polish president Lech Walesa after the revelation that he had served in the SS. (Kai-Uwe Knoth-File/Associated...

Gdansk councillors will not strip Grass of city honors 31.08.2006 The Gdansk city council has decided not to strip German writer Guenter Grass of his honorary Gdansk citizenship after hearing his letter explaining his membership in the notorious Waffen SS at the end of World War II. But local councilors of the ruling Law and Justice, who were for such a move, want to invite the writer to attend the nearest city council meeting. They argue Grass should personally explain to the people of Gdansk why he had hidden the truth for such a long time. They prepared an appeal...

Gdansk residents declare understanding for Grass 21.08.2006 The mayor of Gdansk has said that the wartime service of Guenther Grass in a Waffen SS unit cannot overshadow the writer’s merits. Pawel Adamowicz has repeatedly declared that the city authorities do not intend to strip the Nobel prize laureate of his honorary Gdansk citizenship, though the issue is still to be officially decided on by the City Council. Speaking for Polish Radio, mayor Adamowicz quoted a just conducted opinion poll on the matter among the city’s residents. 72% of respondents voiced the opinion that the council members should not motion for...

Nobel laureate's memoirs sell out after SS confession By Lee Glendinning and agencies The publishers have brought forward the release date and German bookshops are struggling to keep up supplies. Such is the demand for Gunter Grass's autobiography, which has stunned Germany with revelations that the Nobel-prize winning novelist once served in Hitler's Waffen SS as a teenager. Grass, 78 - regarded by many as Germany's moral arbiter - recounted the secret shame that has weighed upon him for decades following his involvement in the elite military force, in a pre-publication interview with a German newspaper last weekend. His admissions...

Poland's Walesa says Grass owes Poles explanation By Natalia Reiter REUTERS 8:58 a.m. August 18, 2006 WARSAW – Polish Solidarity hero Lech Walesa urged German author Guenter Grass on Friday to prove that a confession about his membership in Hitler's SS was not just a marketing ploy to promote his new novel. The former Polish president also said he would give up his honorary citizenship of Poland's city of Gdansk, if Grass, also a holder of the same title, failed to explain why he decided to confess when his autobiography 'Peeling Onions' came out. 'If Grass will not address his...

Jewish leader criticizes Grass 2 hours, 11 minutes ago BERLIN - The head of Germany's main Jewish organization has criticized writer Guenter Grass for waiting decades to reveal that he had served during World War II in the Waffen-SS, the Nazis' dreaded military force. Charlotte Knobloch, president of the Central Council of Jews, said Tuesday that the admission negated Grass' longtime criticisms of German politics and society for not adequately dealing with the Nazi past. "His long years of silence over his own SS past reduce his earlier statements to absurdities," Knobloch was quoted as saying by the Netzeitung online...

Nobel Prize-winning German writer Guenter Grass, author of the great anti-Nazi novel The Tin Drum, has admitted serving in the Waffen-SS. He told a German newspaper he had been recruited at the age of 17 into an SS tank division and served in Dresden. Previously it was only known he had served as a soldier and was wounded and taken prisoner by US forces. Speaking before the publication of his war memoirs, he said his silence over the years had "weighed" upon him. "My silence over all these years is one of the reasons I wrote this book [Peeling Onions],"...

Nobel prize winner Grass admits serving in Nazi SS Fri Aug 11, 2006 8:37 PM BST BERLIN (Reuters) - Nobel prize-winning German author Guenter Grass has admitted for the first time that he served in the Waffen-SS, Adolf Hitler's elite Nazi troops. In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Grass, 78, said he volunteered for submarine service towards the end of World War Two. He was called up instead to serve in the Waffen-SS in the eastern city of Dresden. The author, best known for his first novel "The Tin Drum" and an active supporter of Germany's Social Democratic...

The moral decline of a superpower Gunter Grass TMSI Thursday, April 10, 2003 Preemptive war BEHLENDORF, Germany A war long sought and planned is now under way. All deliberations and warnings of the United Nations notwithstanding, an overpowering military apparatus has attacked preemptively in violation of international law. No objections were heeded. The Security Council was disdained and scorned as irrelevant. As the bombs fall and the battle for Baghdad continues, the law of might prevails. Based on this injustice, the mighty have the power to buy and reward those who might be willing and to disdain and even punish...

BONN, December 30 (IslamOnline) - Renowned German writer Guenter Grass, attacked U.S. president George W. Bush, saying he is a threat to world peace, adding that his actions are based on a disturbed familial atmosphere. In an interview Sunday, December 29, with the German Welt am Sonntag, Grass, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1999, said that in the current political situation, the dangerous mix of financial, political and family-related interests have made Bush a truly dangerous politician. Grass, who is a personal friend of German chancellor Schroeder, also said that Bush's personality strikes a resemblance between the...