SPIEGEL Exclusive: Grass Admitted SS Role in 1945

Nobel Prize-winning German author Günter Grass unleashed a firestorm of criticism following his admission on Friday to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper that he had a been a member of the SS. But previously unknown documents that emerged this week and were obtained by SPIEGEL show that the writer, best known for his novel "The Tin Drum," had already admitted to American military officials in 1945 that he had been a member of Hitler's elite troops.

One of the papers is a discharge form from the US Army's third division, which had held Grass as a prisoner of war after taking him into custody in the city of Marienbad, which is located in today's Czech Republic. The paper, which includes Grass's signature, lists the author as a marksman for the 10^th SS Tank division "Frundsberg." According to the document, Grass, prisoner number 31G6078785, was released on April 24, 1946, with wages for the work he did in the prison camp of $107.20.

Grass was held in a number of prisons, including one in southern Germany that had been erected by the Americans at the former military airport at Bad Aibling. According to information on the form provided by Grass, he worked there as a member of a labor commando that was responsible for washing dishes in the US Air Force unit's canteen.

The second document, also an American form, includes the date Nov. 10, 1944, with the addendum: "Waffen SS." It's likely the date refers to the date on which Grass was drafted. He was 17 at the time. The recently discovered documents are currently being held in Berlin at the Wehrmachtauskunftsstelle, the agency responsible for managing original documents of the former German Wehrmacht, the country's Nazi-era military.

It is believed that there are no further documents describing Grass's role in the Waffen SS because the troops destroyed a large share of files on the force's personnel at the end of the war.