RE: Grass and the SS

RE: Grass and the SS (Full Version)

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meatcleaver -> RE: Grass and the SS (8/16/2006 3:29:36 PM)
I listened to some prominant German on the BBC World Service today and he said the problem isn't Grass's past but his concealing his past while berating other Germans for their past. He acknowledged that a 17 year old Grass would have had little opportunity to have committed any war crimes in his time in the SS and that he would have been expected and pressured to have fought for his country, right or wrong. However, he should have been honest about his past instead of preaching to everyone else about their past and because of that, he has no credibility.

Dtesmoac -> RE: Grass and the SS (8/16/2006 7:32:56 PM)
Why is hidding a past you are ashamed of something that looses you credibility? If the words he wrote and one a nobel prize for were relevent & inspirational when he wrote them why should that change just because more is known about his past? We tell children that they will learn from their mistakes and do not normally add this only applies until a certain age! I'd never heard of him before but this strikes me again as people who prbably also have hidden skeletons focussing on the failings rather than the contribution some one has made. Once he past was hidden why would / should he have to reveal it if he had redeemed himself?

meatcleaver -> RE: Grass and the SS (8/17/2006 1:47:19 AM)
Dtesmoac, Grass has apparently been very good and criticizing other people for their past and that is his problem. The point is not that he has been in the SS but he has had 60 years of presenting himself as 'holier than thou'. He said he had revealed his past because it weighed heavy on his conscience.

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