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[The following takes place during the last days of the Second World War in Europe.]

The results of this quasi-judicial murder campaign frequently were displayed for all to see.

[…]

In the east it was no different. For example, in Stargard in Pomerania on 17/18 February, shortly before the town was conquered by the Soviet Army, the last ever edition of the Stargarder Tageblatt announced in a banner headline, which could serve as an epitaph for the Third Reich, ‘On Adolf-Hitler-Square the hanged are swinging in the wind’.

Over 60 years later (in the interview in which he revealed his membership, as a 17-year-old, in the Waffen-SS) Günter Grass recalled: ‘The first dead that I saw were not Russians, but Germans. They were hanging from the trees, many of them were my age.”


Source:

Bessel, Richard. “Murder and Mayhem.” Germany 1945: From War to Peace. New York, NY, HarperCollins, 2009. 61. Print.

Original Source(s) Listed:

Quoted in Hans-Martin Stimpel, Widersinn 1945. Augstellung, Einsatz und Untergang eines militärischen Verbandes (Göttingen, 1998), p. 68.

‘Warum ich nach sechzig Jahren mein Schweigen breche. Eine deutsche Jugend: Günter Grass spricht zum ersten Mal über sein Erinnerungsbuch und seine Mitgliedschaft in der Waffen-SS’, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 12 Aug. 2006, no. 186, p. 33.


Further Reading:

Günter Wilhelm Grass

Waffen-SS

[**The following takes place during the last days of the Second World War in Europe.**] >The results of this quasi-judicial murder campaign frequently were displayed for all to see. >[…] >In the east it was no different. For example, in Stargard in Pomerania on 17/18 February, shortly before the town was conquered by the Soviet Army, the last ever edition of the *Stargarder Tageblatt* announced in a banner headline, which could serve as an epitaph for the Third Reich, ‘On Adolf-Hitler-Square the hanged are swinging in the wind’. >Over 60 years later (in the interview in which he revealed his membership, as a 17-year-old, in the Waffen-SS) [Günter Grass](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/G%C3%BCnter_Grass_auf_dem_Blauen_Sofa.jpg) recalled: ‘The first dead that I saw were not Russians, but Germans. They were hanging from the trees, many of them were my age.” _________________________ **Source:** Bessel, Richard. “Murder and Mayhem.” *Germany 1945: From War to Peace*. New York, NY, HarperCollins, 2009. 61. Print. **Original Source(s) Listed:** Quoted in Hans-Martin Stimpel, *Widersinn 1945. Augstellung, Einsatz und Untergang eines militärischen Verbandes* (Göttingen, 1998), p. 68. ‘Warum ich nach sechzig Jahren mein Schweigen breche. Eine deutsche Jugend: Günter Grass spricht zum ersten Mal über sein Erinnerungsbuch und seine Mitgliedschaft in der Waffen-SS’, *Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung*, 12 Aug. 2006, no. 186, p. 33. ________________________ **Further Reading:** [Günter Wilhelm Grass](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BCnter_Grass) [Waffen-SS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waffen-SS)

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