17
Sep
10

Herta Mueller In Shock

By shigekuni 14 Comments
Categories: Herta Müller

[updated the post. you can find the full text here now]

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14 Responses to “Herta Mueller In Shock”

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  1. 1 Clarissa
    September 17, 2010 at 4:14 pm

    I’m surprised that this should have come as a shock. He was probably recruited in the URSS. Think of all the revelations of these last years, Günther Grass, the leftwing conscience of the RDA, a member of the Waffen SS (even if he says he was forcibly recruited I don’t believe him, the Wehrmacht perhaps, not the Waffen SS), Christa Wolf, that ‘free spirit of the DDR’, a Stasi informer and so on.
    I truly believe that Herta Müller did not know the truth about Pastior/Stein and that must be doubly painful.

    Reply
  2. 2 eli
    September 17, 2010 at 5:31 pm

    First of all this can never be a one-size-fits-all case!! Therefore I won’t comment on the other “revelation” examples.

    As far as Pastior is concerned; I find it strangely angled to judge someone who might have given in to a so-called temptation diabolically forced on him, when living under conditions as described in Mueller’s book.

    It might be much more suitable to ask: What did actually come from him? What information was of any use to whom?
    Or even more: Who wouldn’t have signed in, in his situation?

    But let me go even further: There is a book called “Stella” on the market. It is about a Jewish woman who verifiably denounced many Berlin Jews. She was a so-called “catcher”.

    Why did she do it? She was stupid enough to believe some Nazi operatives that she – and her two parents – would be spared. She was deadly wrong, because even though she was actually spared but was socially dead, her parentss both went to the gas chambers. She eventuially committed suicide.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stella_K%C3%BCbler

    Now who is to blame??
    All I can say is: Whoever is never forced to make such choices has had a good life.

    Reply
  3. 3 eli
    September 17, 2010 at 5:34 pm

    (forgot to check “notify me”)

    Reply
  4. 4 shigekuni
    September 17, 2010 at 10:05 pm

    Grass said he was a “glühender” Nazi as a boy, so force wasn’t involved there.

    As for Pastior: the insidious thing is that the Securitate is Müller’s major trauma, it runs through all her books, it’s why she left. She said repeatedly that she couldn’t be friends with someone who worked for them, and she had grown very close to Pastior so this must have been a terrible blow.

    I’ll be buying tomorrow’s FAZ and report on the details.

    Reply
  5. 5 eli
    September 17, 2010 at 10:22 pm

    Can’t you read, Mercy?? I specifically EXCLUDED the other cases which are each very different. So why are you referring to one of them? (And by the way, even under different circumstances you could never make me state more than a sentence about Grass)

    And I don’t need proof for the personal blow of a person taking a prize out of the hands of Erika, if you know what I mean. They are all hypocrites, each and everyone, some more others less.

    Reply
  6. 6 shigekuni
    September 17, 2010 at 10:30 pm

    I replied to Clarissa, sorry.

    Reply
  7. 7 eli
    September 17, 2010 at 11:00 pm

    Oh thanks for nothing then. :/

    Reply
  8. 8 shigekuni
    September 17, 2010 at 11:04 pm

    No, the point is your questions are valid, but apparently the FAZ has an exclusive on this story (I scoured the web for more…) and I have not more information than the link in my post contains. Sorry.

    Reply
  10. 10 Clarissa
    September 18, 2010 at 6:53 pm

    Forgot to tick the ‘notify me’ – sorry. Only just read your answer – re. grass, he may have been a glühender Nazi’, he himself maintains he was ‘forcibly recruted’ into the Waffen SS. That is where I have my misgivings – ‘forcibly recruited’ into the Wehrmacht, yes, into the Waffen SS, no!

    Reply
  11. 11 shigekuni
    September 19, 2010 at 3:18 am

    Forcibly recruited? I reared portions of “Beim Häuten der Zwiebel” today. In the book (see especially pp. 125ff. in the paperback edition) he maintains that, although it was a surprise, it was not a shock. Au contraire, his younger self viewed the Waffen-SS “als Eliteeinheit”. He adds: “die doppelte Rune am Uniformkragen war mir nicht anstößig.”

    I’ve written up a piece on the pastior/mueller case and will put it up 2morrow.

    Reply
  13. 13 eli
    September 20, 2010 at 1:40 pm

    See what I meant? Just mentioning Grass brought up a completely different discussion.

    Well done, folks.

    Reply

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