Heer German Nobel Prize Winner Unmasked as Waffen SS Vet

[slava1stclass]

To all:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/08/11...s.ap/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/08/13...reut/index.html

Regards,

slava1stclass

[Ed_Haynes]

So sad.

[Chris Boonzaier]

a 17 year old who saw 3 weeks of combat at the end of the war... and they try and rip him apart :-(

He used to claim he was a Flak helper........

WAIT !!! Isnt there another famous German last year who was saying HE was a Flak helper in 44-45 as well !?!?!?!!?

[jcsanche]

Hi

At 17 years old, he was drafted by the Waffen SS. In my opinion he was another victim of that terrible war.

Juan

Edited August 14, 2006 by jcsanche

[Paul C]

First off, if he was in the Waffen SS and served "honorable" then what is the shame. Second of all, I am surprised the said he was "drafted" into the SS. I thought you has to volunteer.

[Tom Y]

First off, if he was in the Waffen SS and served "honorable" then what is the shame. Second of all, I am surprised the said he was "drafted" into the SS. I thought you has to volunteer.

By 1945 the SS was drafting practically any warm body and hanging those who refused. A friend tells how as a child she saw several of the local 13 year old boys hanging from trees in the park, executed by the SS for "cowardice".

[Kev in Deva]

By 1945 the SS was drafting practically any warm body and hanging those who refused. A friend tells how as a child she saw several of the local 13 year old boys hanging from trees in the park, executed by the SS for "cowardice".

Hallo Tom,

this guy while not being a dyed in the wool fanatic, was sent for, took a train to the recruiting depot, ok maybe he didnt have a choice, what seems to have annoyed people was the way he lied about his service an left it so late to admit what he did.

"Grass had for decades demanded that Germans come to terms with their Nazi past by coming clean on it. He won the Nobel prize for literature in 1999.

""After 60 years, this confession comes a bit too late," Joachim Fest, a leading historian, told Der Spiegel magazine. "I can't understand how someone who for decades set himself up as a moral authority, a rather smug one, could pull this off."

Kevin in Deva

[VtwinVince]

Some people regard Paul Tibbets as a "war hero". It's pretty subjective, isn't it?

[Naxos]

G?nter Grass POW Record

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm..._POW_record.jpg

[Avitas]

a 17 year old who saw 3 weeks of combat at the end of the war... and they try and rip him apart :-(

He used to claim he was a Flak helper........

WAIT !!! Isnt there another famous German last year who was saying HE was a Flak helper in 44-45 as well !?!?!?!!?

Freakin' funny!

Anyways, I agree with VtwinVince about Tibbetts and the bomb in Hiroshima, it is a highly subjective area and it is hard to judge somone on what they did during a time of extreme war. I think that it doesn't matter if he "volunteered" or was "drafted" into the Waffen-SS, it wasn't black or white either way. A highly contestable subject in any event, but I wouldn't take anthing away from this Nobel prize winner as he has obviously been a productive member of society since 1945.

Cheers,

Pat

[peter monahan]

I believe the "other German" has the same story: he was drafted in and threatened that his family would suffer if he didn't go. Even so, after a few weeks he deserted. War criminal? I don't think so.

God knows I did a few things I'm still not proud of when I was 17 but was lucky enough that I lived in a place where/when all my personal choices were easy ones: get drunk or not, respect the girl or not, as opposed to kill people or not, and so on. And maybe what I've done since makes up for it. What he's done certainly does, in my mind.

The real tragedy is that the man felt he had to lie for 60 years. And again, did he create the atmosphere in which millions of basically decent people were made to feel guilty for the sins of the monstrous minority? No. We're a weird bunch, we humans!

Peter