The poem “What Must Be Said,” written in 2012 by the late Nobel laureate Günter Grass, may be frivolous and cliché-laden, but it is no less revealing of the growing fatigue of German society with the paralyzing memory of the Holocaust. Not only did Grass define Israel as “a threat to world peace”; he also noted that he had remained silent for so long simply because he believed that his own origins, “tarnished by a stain that can never be removed,” denied him the right to speak the truth.
随着以色列的政策越来越难以服众，德国改变国家政策、摆脱大屠杀罪恶的意愿也变得越来越强烈。2012年，已故的诺贝尔奖得主君特·格拉斯写了一首叫做《什么必须说》的诗，这首诗读起来也许相当无聊，毫无新意，但它充分揭示了德国社会对于大屠杀记忆的日益疲劳。格拉斯不但将以色列定义为“世界和平的威胁”；他还指出他之所以长期保持沉默，完全是因为他认为他 “带着无法洗清的污点” 的出身让他无权讲出真相。