Günter Grass is an outstanding figure not only in German, but throughout world literature of the twentieth century, the author of the acclaimed “Danzig Trilogy”, including the books “The Tin Drum” (1959), “Cat and Mouse” (1961) and “Dog years" (1963). In 1999, Grasse was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. The novella “Cat and Mouse,” the second part of the trilogy, caused a controversial and extremely violent reaction in German society in the sixties, as it touched on painful topics of the national past and the guilt complex. Its hero, high school student Joachim Mahlke, is obsessed with the dream of earning the Knight's Cross in the war and, upon returning home, giving a speech to the students of his native gymnasium. Mahlke's former classmate, haunted by memories and remorse, analyzes his participation in his absurd and tragic fate.