Moral Dilemma

Heather Cochrane
242 Green Ave,
Penticton, B.C.
V2A 3W1

February 19^th, 2012

John Smith
Mayor
City Hall, 568 Main Street
Penticton, B.C.

Dear Mayor Smith,

            The information that you possess about Gunter Grass does not make me happy, and it must be quite overwhelming and a tiring burden for you to carry.  But I also feel it is quite the important matter and I am extremely glad you have taken the time to not only share this information with me, but also to ask for my opinion.

And I do have quite the opinion to share with you!  But, just to clarify a few things up first, I do not, in any way, support what the Nazis did during World War Two!  But, on that note, I feel it is important to look at not only Gunter Grass individually, but also at all the Nazi soldiers as a whole who served under Hitler’s command.

Most of the men commanding Nazi troops and the running of concentration camps were very young, and our own Gunter Grass was a mere nineteen-years-old when he became the commander of a Polish concentration camp in 1939.  It is inexcusable what the Nazis did, but to blame Gunter – who was barely more than a boy at the time – and to punish him now for crimes he committed sixty-seven years ago is also abominable.

Young German children were raised – and in a way, brainwashed – at the time and influenced by their families and their whole communities to believe that Jewish people were below them and that they were worthless.  These children and young adults didn’t know any better, as that was what they were taught and forced to think.  They didn’t know that, in other places, societies didn’t operate the same as their own.  It was unknown to them that there could even be another way of life, one where everyone was accepted, no matter their religion or ancestry.

Gunter, like many of the Nazis, was merely taking orders from the higher ranking officials during WWII.  He believed he was fighting for the betterment of his country, as that was what he learned through his childhood and young adulthood to do.  He was a young man, not yet out of his teenage years by today’s standards, who probably feared for his life if he disobeyed the Nazis.

Although I don’t condone what he did and what the Nazis did, since the war, Gunter has been a good man to our small community.  He was one of the best mayors for the thirty-six years which he served, and his donations to local charities and struggling families is admirable.  He’s given back to society, and maybe being a model citizen for nearly sixty-seven years is his way to try to make up for his sins that he committed during the six years of WWII.

I cannot believe that I am about to ask you to do this, Mayor Smith, but I feel that we should not expose Gunter’s secrets to the rest of our community and I am asking you to continue keeping this secret.

Although the deaths of millions is a black eye on Germany’s – and the world’s – history, the execution of Gunter at this late stage in his life would be a black eye on our own community.  Gunter is mere years away from death, and, maybe if his secret had been found out when he was middle aged, it has now been nearly seven decades since he committed those horrendous war crimes.  It is time to move along and prosecute current war criminals, not those who have lived out noble lives and tried to make up for their past sins.

And so, I feel that we should not reveal Gunter’s secrets, and, instead, let him live out his remaining years continuing to try to redeem himself.

Thank you, Mayor Smith, for your consideration in this matter concerning Gunter Grass and taking the time to reflect on my opinion.

            Sincerely,


            Heather Cochrane