Gunter Grass - social critic, novelist, Nobel Prize Winner (1999-Literature) ex- Waffen SS recruit

Gunter Grass has stated that he was drafted into the Waffen SS at the age of 17 (in 1944).

There is some doubt as to whether the Waffen SS actually drafted recruits and Grass is planning an autobiographic that may cast some additional light on this (Grass was captured by the 3rd infantry division and told them he was a member of a Panzer division).

The interesting thing here is to what extent, if any, Grass is a hypocrite given his social criticism (from a left wing position). Grass criticized all rightist policies in W. Germany (including the annexation of E. Germany). He avoided all criticism of the Soviet Union, E. Germany and the Stassi except as he compared them to the West (they were less bad in his opinion.

One of the amusing things Grass did was criticise former President Reagan for visiting the Bitburg cemetary and for implying that many German's served the Reich unwillingly.

Grass's current claim of being drafted into the Waffen SS seems to be ironic in this regard as is all his anti Western social criticism.

Assuming Grass is correct in this it is also a slam dunk piece of hypocrisy. We'll have to wait and see (we may never know) whether Grass's "I was drafted into the Waffen SS" is true.

As an interesting by-the-way, Salman Rushdie is defending Grass (who is evidently a friend of his see:

http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,1852419,00.html
)