German "Tin Drum" Author Gunter Grass Dies At 87, And The Victors-Writing-The-History Vermin At Amerika's Newspaper of Record Remeber Him For One Reason And One Reason Only...

Mon. 13 April MMXV

"Günter Grass, Writer Who Pried Open Germany's Past But Hid His Own, Dies At 87"

From the article :

"Mr. Grass was hardly the only member of his generation who obscured the facts of his wartime life. But because he was a pre-eminent public intellectual who had pushed Germans to confront the ugly aspects of their history, his confession that he had falsified his own biography shocked readers and led some to view his life’s work in a different light."

I remember when the first revelations of Grass's involvement with the SS came out in 2006: it was amazing to me to see how apocalyptic the writers at the New York Times became  over the subject. I had barely even heard of Gunter Grass at that point ; of course I was familiar with "The Tin Drum," as it was constantly on the marquees of small alternative movie houses all over Europe, though I wasn't fully aware of the significance of Grass's work at the time. (I dindu nuffin yo hona, day was no interwebs at da time).

More from the NYT Grass obit :

"An intense antinationalist, Mr. Grass viewed his country with emotions that could flare into fear and hatred. Some critics said that the purposely small and weak Oskar symbolized what Mr. Grass wanted for Germany."

"Oskar" is the protagonist in the Tin Drum, a tortured youngster who personifies Germany's self-loathing, which is exactly what the civilization-haters empowered by the vermin at the New York Times want.