Günter Grass

German novelist and 1999 Nobel laureate; Mailer publicly defended him in 2007 after Grass revealed his teenage Waffen-SS service, and appeared with him at the New York Public Library.

Günter Grass was a German novelist and the 1999 Nobel laureate in Literature. In 2007 Mailer publicly defended Grass after the latter’s belated revelation that he had served in the Waffen-SS as a teenager, appearing with him at the New York Public Library on 28 July 2007 (see 07.33, 07.35).