Gunter Grass and the 10th SS (Frundsburg) Panzer
2006-08-13
Posted by: badanov
From the Land of Moral Equivilence we have a report, which we read from Rantburg, that a leftist German writer, Gunter Grass, admitted in his memoirs that he volunteered and served with the 10th SS ( Frundsburg ) Panzer Division in WWII.
Gunter Grass's novel the Tin Drum was the center of some controversy about nine years ago in Oklahoma City when local religionists pressured the police and the county district attorney, to raid every Blockbuster store and all Oklahoma County Libraries to seize copies of the book and the video on the ground that it was child porn.
The premise was completely absurd. There was a scene in the movie in which the young main charactrer had sex with an older girl, making it, technically, child porn.
So, off the shelves it went by police action.
It was a national embarassment for Oklahoma City and it still is.
We commented and had letters published repeated satirizing and criticising law enforcement for even being a part of this inane crusade, our personal premise being, Keep Your Ass Out of the Library, and hands off the books and videos.
Eventually, OKC officials lost in a lawsuit brought by the ACLU and an industry trade group, and the tapes and books were returned, and the ACLU became richer and the image of Oklahoma as a fundamentalist jerkwater was permenantly burnished into the national memory. As far as we know The Tin Drum now rests comfortable on library shelves gathering dust as it was before this controversy.
In yesterday's Rantburg post, we pointed out that the Waffen SS were generally not a part of the concentration camp system, the lion's share of that criminal act done by members of the 3rd SS ( Totenkopf ) Panzer Division.
But one fella came out and tried to lump all SS members, Waffen as well as others into the same bucket, but we were having none of it.
Our reply:
I didn't say we should take long windy walks, candlelit suppers and morning backrubs with the SS.
I'm just saying the Waffen SS is a different force than the SS which guarded the camps.
Grass is trying to lump the two together and it ain't that way.
This is a little like seeing an old girlfriend from years back. You just can believe you had anything to do with that.
Maybe it would have been better if the local yahoos had been allowed to keep the Tin Drum material.
Dunno...
Our view is that the Waffen SS deployed, shot at enemies, were fired upon by enemies in the field of combat. You may not like their ideology ( we don't ) but they are, for better or worse, part of the brotherhood of men and women who have served in a forward zone and engaged in legal and honorable military action.
We fail to see why, as our media like to do, the actions of a small group ( 3rd SS ( Totenkopf ) Panzer Division ) should besmirch the action of an enemy in combat. It's just that kind of propaganda that lumps our soldiers and Marines together with illegal comnbatants. We are just not having it.
And as we said, we are not taking long warm showers in the wee hours with the SS. We just want a little historical perspective and accuracy, please.
If you have something to add, Fire Away!
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