The head of Germany�s main Jewish organization on Tuesday criticized novelist Guenter Grass for waiting decades to reveal that he had served during World War II in the Waffen-SS, the Nazis� dreaded paramilitary force. “His long years of silence over his own SS past reduce his earlier statements to absurdities,” Knobloch was quoted as saying by the Netzeitung online newspaper.

Previously, it was only known that he worked as an assistant to anti-aircraft gunners � a common duty for teenagers at the time � and that he was wounded before being captured by U.S. troops.

He said that under the sway of Nazi indoctrination he did not view the Waffen-SS as something repulsive, but as an elite force.

“The fact that this late admission comes so shortly before the publication of his new book raises the suspicion that this is a PR measure,” she was quoted as saying.

A Forsa poll for Stern magazine showed 87 percent of those surveyed did not agree that Grass should give back his 1999 Nobel Prize for literature, as some critics have demanded. Eight percent said yes and 5 percent did not know in the survey of 1,005 people taken Monday. No margin of error was given.

“The decisions are absolute and it has never happened that a prize has been revoked,” Sohlman said.

JFN