Rushdie defends Grass
British writer Salman Rushdie has defended German author Guenter Grass in the light of revelations the Nobel Prize-winning writer was a member of Hitler's Waffen-SS.
The Tin Drum novelist confessed he was recruited into the Waffen-SS Frundsberg Panzer Division during World War Two as he prepared to release his Peeling Onions memoirs.
However, Rushdie suffered similar controversy over his supposedly blasphemous book The Satanic Verses in 1989, and although he was shocked by Grass's confession, he feels the public and media reaction is going too far.
He says: "I feel that the outrage is a little bit manufactured. There is no suggestion as far as I can see that he was ever involved in any kind of war crimes.
"His stature comes from the fact that he is a giant in the world of literature. He remains today the great writer that he was a couple of days ago."
