Günter Grass without end - Open Letter to a hypocrite

Actually it is not the job of EUROPEAN ACTION to comment on every egg that the system’s clucking chickens lay. And that you, Herr Grass, belong to those chickens needs no further explanation. Your unsavory books and the Nobel Prize in Literature that you received are proof enough. Likewise, your long years as a dedicated SPD propagandist and election worker. The fact that a few years ago you admitted serving as a voluntary member of the Waffen-SS as a young man speaks less against you as against the ability of the responsible officers to make a good decision when they admitted the young Günter Grass. But well, it was war, and then just about anyone was accepted…

But now as the pampered "conscience of the German Nation" you have raised a storm in a teacup: You have written a poem about your concern that Israel makes a first strike against Iran. And the predictable outcry was immediate. The Central Council of Jews were screaming bloody murder, the Israeli ambassador in Berlin Nahshon called "Stop the thief!" and my friends were pestering me to comment on the palaver. Well, Günter Grass has written a poem - big deal! As an expert on poetry I must say, of course, that it's not a poem. It's just a prose text with arbitrary broken lines, without everything that makes a poem a poem. But we don’t want to rebuke you for that, that's normal these days, after some of the aesthetes in the 1968s decreed, "after Auschwitz" writing poetry is no longer possible.

Yes, my dear Herr Grass, "After Auschwitz" you cannot criticize Jews anymore, not even in a poem, not even when the poem is not a poem. Your concern for the safety of the world and the lives of the Iranian people is indeed laudable but you should have thought about doing that much earlier. If you, together with your comrades had won the war we would not have these problems now. And if, after losing the war, you had been more concerned with objectivity and fairness in respect of the war, today there would be at least a slight chance to describe the wretched warmongering of Zionism for what it really is. But for decades you, Herr Gras, have been licking the system’s boots, and together with your cronies in the "German" literature and media business have made sure that your own “Volk” no longer know where they stand, that they identify themselves as a criminal nation, whereas the Jews are identified as the victims of world history worthy of eternal pity.

It is simply disingenuous of you to come along now and make a display of morally indignity about Israeli war preparations. If Israel and its lobby in the background think that a nuclear strike against Iran is necessary, then they will not be deterred by a whining German writer, that at every opportunity has reaffirmed his abiding friendship for Israel and his opposition to an independent and strong German course of action. Since you are an avid supporter of the Holocaust religion, you must admit the need for the Jews to take any measures they deem necessary, so that "it" never happens again. Herr Grass - you must finish what you start. In this respect Frau Merkel is more consistent than you are when she provides submarines to the Israelis.

Finally a short comment for your upbringing: describing a statesman like Dr Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a "loud-mouth" is actually a gross impertinence. But it is also primarily incorrect in its content. "Loud-mouths" are generally seen as people who shoot off their mouth, but turn heel when things get serious. In no way does that apply to the Iranian President. Possibly you should once again watch the recent interview in ZDF [a German TV program] with Ahmadinejad. You can find a copy (in German), for example, on our website europaeische-aktion.org. If you can point out to me one sentence that is the words of a loud-mouth then I will invite you to a kebab shack for lunch - and that's saying something for me! You will find, however, the moderator of this interview, a compatriot of yours, is equally as misbehaved as you are.

Bernhard Schaub, 5 April 2012

"What Must Be Said" by Günter Grass

Crazy poem against Israel
Günter Grass shocks Germany

“What Must Be Said”

Why am I silent, concealing far too long,
that which is apparent and has been simulated
in war games, where we, the survivors,
appear, if at all, just as footnotes.

It is alleged there is a right to make the first strike,
which could annihilate the Iranian people,
who are dominated by a big mouth
and are directed to attend organized rallies,
on suspicion that within his competence lies
the construction of a nuclear bomb.

But why do I restrain myself
from naming the other country by name,
in which for years - although kept secret -
there is a growing nuclear potential,
albeit not monitored, because it is inaccessible
for inspection?

The silence of everyone regarding this fact,
to which I have subordinated my own voice,
has become a burdensome lie for me
and a coercion, which promises punishment
as soon as it is disregarded;
the verdict "anti-Semitism" is well known.

However, when my own country,
faced as it is by its very own crimes
which are unique beyond comparison,
time after time is confronted and called to account,
again as a matter of routine and very business-like
(though nimble tongues declare it to be “reparations”),
is about to supply Israel with another submarine,
one whose speciality is
is the delivery of all-destructive warheads
to a place where the existence
of a single nuclear weapon is unproven,
but where suspicion serves as proof;
because of this I say what must be said.

But why did I remain silent for so long?
Because I thought that my own origins,
blemished by a stain that can never be removed,
forbade me to confront Israel,
a country to which I am attached and want to remain so,
with this fact as an outright declaration of truth.

Why only now, in old age,
with the last of my ink, do I say:
Israel’s nuclear power endangers
an already delicate world peace?
Because it must be spoken now,
since tomorrow may be too late;
also because - burdened enough as Germans -
we may be supplying material for a crime,
which is foreseeable, and thus our complicity
will not be erased
by any of the usual excuses.

Granted: I’ve broken my silence,
because I am weary of the West’s
hypocrisy; moreover, I hope that
many others may free themselves from their silence,
and demand that those responsible for dangers faced
renounce the use of force,
and likewise insist,
that unhindered and permanent monitoring
of the Israeli nuclear potential
and of Iranian nuclear facilities
through an international authority
will be permitted by the governments of both countries.

Only in this way can help be provided,
to everybody, to Israelis and Palestinians,
indeed to all human beings, who live as enemies
next to each other in this region occupied by madness,
and ultimately, to ourselves as well.

Günter Grass