GERMANY: German author Günther Grass admits serving in Nazi Waffen-SS

Nobel prize-winning German author Guenther Grass admitted in a newspaper interview on Saturday (August 12) that he served in the Waffen-SS, the combat arm of the Nazi paramilitary group headed by SS chief Heinrich Himmler. Danzig-born Grass, 78, said he volunteered for U-Boat service toward the end of the Second World War but 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 Party (SPD), said the secret had been weighing on his mind and was one of the reasons he wrote a forthcoming book of recollections which details his war service. Grass was wounded in 1945 and sent to an American prisoner of war camp and later became a prominent peace activist. He said he had volunteered for army service as a way of breaking away from home and family. One of the most powerful organisations in Nazi Germany, the SS played a key role in the Holocaust, establishing and operating the death camps in which millions died. The Waffen-SS grew into a force of 38 combat divisions with almost one million men and it was condemned as part of a criminal organisation at the post-war Nuremberg trials. Grass has received many awards throughout his career, winning the Nobel Price for Literature in 1999. He is seen as part of the artistic movement known in German as "Vergangenheitsbewaeltigung" or "coming to terms with the past". Grass opposed the reunification of Germany in 1990, arguing that the country would be in danger of reverting to its role as a war-mongerer.

ITN Source | August 14, 2006