The Tin Drum, The view of New York Sun

The extract from An Open Letter to Günter Grass (The New York Sun, August 17, 2006):

Let me first recall a memorable scene in 1970: Willy Brandt falling on his knees at the memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto. It was the most moving and powerful image of German repentance of the whole postwar era. You were there at his side, representing German culture, as the German chancellor went to sign his historic treaty with Poland and made his spontaneous gesture of atonement for the Holocaust.

Afterward, you wrote to thank Brandt effusively for the privilege of "being allowed to be moved." What strikes me now is the artificiality, not only of the language but also the emotion. For how could a man living a lie respond adequately on such an occasion?

You were his friend and ally; you campaigned for him. What would this great German statesman, an émigré who risked his life for the anti-Nazi resistance, have said if he had known about your past and your deceit? Would he have tolerated your presence? He is dead, but we know how a great Polish leader, Lech Walesa, feels about you. He says that Gdansk, your native Danzig, would never have given you the freedom of the city if the Poles had known about your past. Do you not see the damage you have done to Germany's good name?

The extract from An Open Letter Open Letter to Günter Grass (The New York Sun, August 18, 2006):

What makes most Germans feel betrayed is not the fact that you were a member of the Waffen SS, a criminal organization, but that you made the fateful decision not to share with anybody the most important single fact about yourself.

Not with your fellow writers in the Gruppe 47, most of whom were, like you, war veterans, who gave you your first breaks; not with the publishers and the book trade that marketed you as the voice of a new, untainted but angry young generation, and above all not with the reading public, which has remained true to you since you broke onto the literary scene in 1959 with your first novel, "The Tin Drum."

The references of New York Sun articles:

Grass: I Found 'Right Formula' To Disclose Past - August 23, 2006
...: I Found 'Right Formula' To Disclose Past By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA - Associated Press August 23, 2006 WARSAW, Poland - German novelist Günter Grass said in a letter to the mayor of his hometown of Gdansk that only in his old age has he found the "right formula" to talk about ...


Crocodile Tears - August 23, 2006
... Crocodile Tears Books By CATHERINE HICKLEY - Bloomberg News August 23, 2006 Günter Grass kept silent for 61 years about his service in the Waffen-SS, the combat unit of the elite Nazi paramilitary force that ran ...

Despite Waffen-SS History, Grass Is a ?Hero' to Author Irving - August 18, 2006
... Waffen-SS History, Grass Is a 'Hero' to Author Irving By HILLEL ITALIE - Associated Press August 18, 2006 NEW YORK - Nobel laureate Günter Grass, who has been strongly criticized for his long-belated confession that he served in the notorious Waffen-SS during World War II, is ...


Jewish Group Slams Writer for Hiding Service in Hitler's SS - August 16, 2006
... in Hitler's SS By Associated Press August 16, 2006 BERLIN-The head of Germany's main Jewish organization has criticized writer Günter Grass for waiting decades to disclose that he had served during World War II in the Waffen-SS, the Nazis' dreaded military force. The ...

Poland's Walesa Criticizes Writer for Fighting With Hitler - August 15, 2006
... Walesa Criticizes Writer for Fighting With Hitler By DAVID McHUGH - Associated Press August 15, 2006 BERLIN - Nobel laureate Günter Grass's surprise disclosure that he served in the Waffen-SS as a teenager met with sympathy from some fellow German writers but also drew ...