Guenter Grass: A Final Farewell From Adolf Hitler

Remember the sad, sad story of left-wing, anti-American German poet and Nobel prize winner Guenter Grass, who - somewhat belatedly at the age of 80 - admitted his membership in the Division Frundsberg of the Waffen-SS in 1944?

Grass never spoke about his relation to Adolf Hitler - though he apparently was close to him in Berlin during the testing last days of WWII, as we can prove now. Medienkritik's history department is to be credited for the unearthing of this sensational photo:

"Guenter, I know you won't disappoint me"
An emotional meeting of two German titans in the last days of WWII:
Fuehrer Adolf Hitler and future Nobel prize winner Guenter Grass
in April 1945.
(Original photo optimized by Alexander)

Well, Guenter, now we know the root causes of your anti-capitalist, anti-American views post 1945...

Update: Stephen Brown and Jacob Laksin at Frontpagemagazin.com argue that anti-Americanism is the connecting link between the SS enthusiasm of the young Grass and his left-wing positions in later years:

At first blush, Grass’s conversion from SS man and Hitler admirer to leftist icon and relentless foe of capitalism, German bourgeois society and especially America, may seem incongruous. But as German commentator Jens Jessen, writing in the newspaper Die Zeit, notes, there is a common thread underlying his political weltanschauung. Jessen writes that in his work "Grass points out with verve the anti-bourgeois attitude of the Nazis" and the fascination of the Nazi 'Volksgemeinschaft' (people's community), in which there are no ‘class differences and religious darkness.’” At 78 years of age, Jessen darkly comments, the Nobel laureate still appears like someone “who could again immediately fall into another ideology if only it were anti-bourgeoisie enough and promised an end to the class society.” (...) Paul Hollander once wrote that “[f]or Grass, as for many other critics, the rejection of the United States and the rejection of his own society became intertwined; he detested West German society primarily because it was becoming Americanized, that is, materialistic, greedy, and polluted physically as well as spiritually.”
(Hat tip Stefan Herre)

Comments

[clarsonimus]

That picture is fake! Hitler's mustache is gone.

[Thoughtexperiments]

I have never read a single book by Mr. Moral Certitude. But his stuff makes a great paperweight.

[Phil]

Now, you have to understand that. Grass had to make some adverstisement for his new book. And I must say: He knows how to do that.

But at least he will have to give away his honour citizenship of Danzig. Otherwise Lech Walesa will give back his one. ;)

[Don Miguel]

Is this what Dan Rather calls "fake but accurate?"

[Pat]

Guenter was not, of course, ever in a “real” Waffen SS Division, that is to say a first-class volunteer Division such as Das Reich, Totenkopf, Viking, Der Fuhrer, or The Leibstandarte. By 1942, the Waffen SS had to start to rely purely on conscripts, not volunteers. At that point, the old SS Divisions from the former Verfugungstruppe went into decline. Those SS Divisions created in 1942, such as the Frundsberg (into which Guenter was conscripted), was never more effective than a very average, conscripted Wehrmacht Division. By 1944, when Guenter joined Frundsberg, it was no longer a unit of Division size and was a pathetic shambles, not unlike the comic opera armed forces of the ridiculous Bundeswehr, who currently dress-up in the uniforms of the great Wehrmacht, minus the swastika. That Guenter was in the Wehrmacht is interesting, that he was a so-called Waffen SS trooper, given the circumstances, is not of great matter. But then, the average “educated” German would not know the Sicherheitsdienst from the Japanese Imperial Marine Corps. Why should the average German care about the SS, of which they have not the slightest understanding or knowledge? Too bad. They could keep the children in line by telling them that bad kids are taken away by SS-Obergruppenfuhrer Heydrich. Really good stuff!

[Doug]

Nice work, Alexander. Removing scratches in poor lighting never looked so good.

[garydausz]

@Pat
I don't quite understand the intention of your comments. It doesn't matter actually what kind of SS division he served in, it doesn't even matter if there had ever been atrocities committed by that unit or if he voluntereed or had been drafted to these units. What matters is that Mr. Grass has lied, has hidden the facts and, what's worst and all so exemplary for the whole hypoctrtical left here in germany, has been known for criticising and denouncing every politician who had just the slightests trace of a nazi-german past.

[Thoughtexperiments]

Christopher Hitchens' eloquent take on Günter Grass:

"The first judgment is that you kept quiet about your past until you could win the Nobel Prize for literature.

The second judgment is that you are not as important to German or to literary history as you think you are.

The third judgment is that you will be remembered neither as a war criminal nor as an anti-Nazi hero, but more as a bit of a bloody fool."

http://www.slate.com/id/2148094

[PlutosDad]

All those left wing "progressives" were for eugenics from the late 1800s until after Germany lost WWII and pictures of the natural outcome of their theories were made public. Then suddenly they were against it and never spoke a single word about it again.

[George M]

I made a post the last time that Grass opened up his big mouth to diss the USA. I think it would be worthwhile to repeat it.

I had a college buddy who was 11 years older than me. He served with the Army in Berlin during the days that the wall went up: 1961 to 1963. He distinctly recalls Grass hanging out at the American Library in Berlin, trolling for GI's.

My friend can not recall whether Grass was trying to sexually solicit Americans. Open gay behavior was strictly taboo in those days and my friend had know knowledge if Grass's intention was sex. But one thing was clear: Grass enjoyed talking with Americans and had a fascination with the U.S.

Somewhere in the 60s, Grass made "eine Umwandlung." Just like Kafa's main character in the novel with the same name, Grass has turned into a fetid old insect.

[Alexander]

Doug:

Nice work, Alexander. Removing scratches in poor lighting never looked so good

Thanks, think I should apply for a job at Reuters?

[Doug]

Thanks, think I should apply for a job at Reuters?

My bad, I thought you had one.