Nobel prize winner to lose honorable citizen title

Grass says he will hold on to his title and reveal more details of his shocking plead unless the council of Gdańsk decides otherwise. The title was given to Grass in recognition of his contribution to the reconciliation between the Polish and German nations and therefore, as Grass said in an interview for a German television ARD, he sees no reason to deny the positive past, regardless of his confession. He also highlighted that despite his having volunteered to Waffen SS, he had never committed any crime and had always felt the need to describe it in a broader context. The famous writer's critics accuse him of turning the plead into an advertising campaign as Grass writes in details about the revealed facts in his new book "Beim Hauten der Zwiebel" ("While peeling an onion" - own translation). In the interview he also admitted that he told the truth now because he wanted to avoid the news being spread by anybody else. (Rzeczpospolita, p.A6, Dziennik, p.4, Gazeta Wyborcza, pp.1,8,17) J.L.