German bookshops are struggling to keep up with demand for Guenter Grass's autobiography after the Nobel prize-winning author's shock confession that he had served in Adolf Hitler's Waffen SS.
"It is astonishing," said Bianca Kroemer, spokeswoman for Berlin's Dussmann bookshop, on Thursday. "By the end of the first day a quarter of our stock had gone - that's due to the SS story."
Shops have already begun ordering more copies of "Peeling Onions". The book was due for sale from September 1 but publication was hurriedly brought forward to Wednesday after the storm of controversy over Grass's confession.
Publisher Steidl has delivered 130,000 books out of a print run of 150,000 and is printing a further 100,000 copies, said a spokeswoman. Translations may also be released early.
Famous for his first novel "The Tin Drum" published in 1959, Grass told a newspaper on Saturday he had volunteered for submarine duty at 15 but was rejected, and he was called up to the dreaded Waffen SS towards the end of World War Two.
Grass has established himself as a national moral compass in the past half century by challenging Germans to face up to their history. His admission shocked admirers in Germany and abroad.
However, it has done wonders for sales. A steady stream of people stopped to browse through the 479-page hardback at bookstores where it was on display. "I am a Grass fan but the debate has definitely drawn my attention to the book and raises issues I want to read about," said Christine Burger.
FEAR AND SHAME: Grass, 78, had previously said he was drafted to help anti-aircraft gun teams during the final months of the war. "Peeling Onions" contains graphic descriptions of the fighting and the fear he experienced. "I see myself crawling under a tank, as I had been taught... Beset by fear, I wet myself," he writes.
"Bodies lay scattered, alone and piled up, dead, alive, contorted, skewered by branches, dusted by grenade splinters." The Waffen SS was a highly-trained Nazi combat unit, initially comprising volunteers, which participated in the Holocaust. By the end of the war, however, most members were drafted and many were under 18.
Grass also describes his guilt at his war record.
"For decades I refused to admit the word and the (SS) double letters. What I accepted with the stupid pride of youth, I was silent about after the war out of a growing shame." In an interview to be shown on German broadcaster ARD on Thursday, Grass said he had no reason for waiting so long to tell his story.
"I was not aware of any guilt; I was drafted in and played no part in any crime, but I always had the need to tell people about it in a broader context," he said.
The Steidl spokeswoman denied Grass had acted to pre-empt the release of information from the archives of the East German secret police, as some newspapers have reported. Grass also said he had no intention of relinquishing his honorary citizenship of the Polish port of Gdansk, where he was born, despite a call by Poland's ruling party.
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