Submitted by John H Fysh, Sep 10, 2007 02:08

There is not enough evidence in Johnson's denunciation of Gunter Grass to show he was involved in any atrocities. Grass was an undeveloped teenager at the time of his enlistment in the Waffen SS. Was his Panzer unit anything more than part of the German military?

I enlisted in the RAAF as I turned eighteen with the intent to reign terror on the civilian populations of German cities. At that age we did not look at it that way through the wall of wartime propaganda.

Perhaps Grass should have revealed his membership of the Waffen SS and borne the shame but , unless there is strong evidence he was involved in atrocities, I excuse him as being as so many of us were: "just a boy", a manipulated pawn in the prevailing system.

I have read Peeling the Onion. It is a flow of words but nothing remarkable. The progress of an artistic and literary talent. I felt sorry for his women!

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