The Simon Wiesenthal Center has welcomed Günter Grass' decision to make
his Nazi service documents available for historical research, but the papers
have led some to doubt the soundness of his recently published memoir.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish human
rights organization, welcomed Nobel Prize laureate Günter
Grass' decision to release official documents in Berlin concerning
his service in the Nazi Waffen SS. The center said it hoped
the documents would give insight into the activities of the
Waffen SS, which was closely involved in the systematic killing
of Jews.
Efraim Zuroff, director of the Wiesenthal Center, demanded
in an open letter to Grass that the 78-year-old writer provide
further details concerning the documents in addition to what
he wrote in his latest autobiographical book "Beim Häuten
der Zwiebel" ("Peeling Onions").
Wiesenthal Center requests Grass' help
"While access to the archives will certainly help facilitate
historical research, documents alone cannot give a complete
picture of a person's war service," Zuroff told reporters.
In his letter, Zuroff specifically requested that Grass
elaborate on any officers and enlisted men he could remember
from his unit and exactly where and when he served.
He called Grass' description in his recently published book
of the events in 1945 "very thin," according to
reports.
Employees of the Berlin archive holding Grass' military
service documents released them to the press last Thursday
prior to obtaining the author's permission, according to
a netzeitung.de report. On Friday, Grass formally gave the
archive permission to make the files public.
Alexander Dix, data protection commissioner for the state
of Berlin, called the premature disclosure illegal and unacceptable.
Doubts over the validity of Grass' book
Several German media organizations have suggested there
were discrepancies between Grass' latest book "Peeling
Onions," currently No. 1 on the bestseller list in Germany,
and the contents of the newly released Nazi documents.
In particular, the date of his recruitment and the precise
division he served in came under question. Light was shed
on the circumstances surrounding his injury, however, which
the writer himself had said he could only vaguely remember.
According to the archived documents, Grass was injured on
April 20, 1945. Five days after the German army surrendered
on May 8, 1945, he was taken to a prisoner-of-war camp in
Auerbach, one of the largest such camps for SS soldiers.
In mid-August, Grass sparked controversy by publicly admitting
his membership in the elite Nazi corps toward the end of
World War II.
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