Authors Grass, Mailer Discuss Nazi Ties, America at Library

"Why did you stay silent on this matter for so very long?"

At a sold-out event at the New York Public Library, novelist Andrew O'Hagan was asking Nobel Prize-winning author Günter Grass about the disclosure that he had joined the Waffen-SS, the Nazi-affiliated German military force, which he made public in his 2006 book "Peeling the Onion" (Harcourt).

Mr. Grass replied that he told journalists about it in the 1960s, but there was no reaction.

But Mr. O'Hagan further pressed the novelist, whose works include "The Tin Drum," saying one might possibly understand a teenager's choices, but that it was more difficult to comprehend how, in the ensuing decades, when the author became "the chief moral voice" of his nation, he had remained silent about his Nazi record.

Author Norman Mailer, appearing on the same panel, appeared sympathetic to Mr. Grass and said that if he had been in Mr. Grass's shoes, he, too, would have ended up in the Waffen-SS.

Mr. Mailer was more critical of the Iraq war, President Reagan ("the second-worst president"), and television ("the work of the devil"). He said he provisionally supported Senator Clinton for president, saying she was nicer than people think, though he was not fond of her personally.

Later in the interview, Mr. Grass said that, unlike in the 1960s, there was no more inspiration coming from America.