Günter Grass - Peeling the Onion (2006)

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It was the newsreels. I was a pushover for the prettified black-and-white truth they served up.

Günter Grass

When pestered with questions, memory is like an onion that wishes to be peeled so we can read what is laid bare letter by letter. It is seldom unambiguous and often in mirror writing or otherwise disguised.

Günter Grass

Memory likes to play hide-and-seek, to crawl away. It tends to hold forth, to dress up, often needlessly. Memory contradicts itself; pedant that it is, it will have its way.

Günter Grass

The onion has many skins. A multitude of skins. Peeled, it renews itself; chopped, it brings tears; only during peeling it speaks the truth.

Günter Grass

I was silent. Because so many others have kept silent, the temptation is great … to shift the blame onto the collective guilt, or to talk about oneself only figuratively in the third person: He was, saw, did, said, he kept silent.

Günter Grass

The brief inscription meant for me reads: 'I kept silent'.

Günter Grass