New Pope's Nazi link worries Israeli Jews

while no great fan of the Catholic Church, I think the Israelis should get their onw house in order when it coesm to religious nutcases before worrying about Ratzinger/Benedict.

Far be it for me to defend Pope Benedict. I have concerns about the choice the Cardinals made yesterday. I hope I'm wrong, but he appears to be a rigid, divisive figure.

Nevertheless, Joseph Ratzinger's affiliation with the Hitler Youth should not be of great concern to anyone. According to the BBC Profile of the new pope, it was required of young Germans at the time to join the Hitler Youth. It means nothing more than the fact that I, as an American, attended elementary school; that was required of me, too. It does not necessarily reflect on his views or those of any other German his age, who were also compelled to join the Hitler Youth.

We might make more out of the fact that he deserted the German army before the end of the war.

worried about about Ratzinger having been in the Hitler Youth when it was compulsory is like me being worried when I meet israelis about their having been conscripted into the IDF, which certainly has a bit of blood on it's hands.

Now, as I post this, why do think I might get a few replies? Ah well.

This comment has already been made several times on DU -- the idea of "come on, he was just a kid who was forced to join the Hitler Youth".

I have a different take. Ratzinger was then at a very impressionable age. He was taken into a highly ideologized youth arm of the Nazi Party. To assume that Ratzinger was brainwashed with facist ideology is not a huge leap of faith. He may even have taken it deep to heart for all we know -- and having been hit so hard with it at so young an age, there may be parts of it still reverberating around his ultra-conservative skull. I don't blame Ratzinger for the act of joining -- that was likely not his pure choice -- but that is certainly not the same as saying that Nazi indoctrination didn't get to him and poison his outlook.

Deserted the German forces? Does anyone know when? If it was in April or May '45, then it doesn't mean much. After all, even hardened SS men couldn't wait to break action from the Soviet forces and run their precious Aryan a**es over to the western allies to surrender by that point. (Funny how those ultra-conservative warriors decided the Fatherland wasn't worth dying for at that point -- the point at which precisely the Fatherland (civilians and all) was in its hour of greatest need and taking it in the shorts repeatedly from the Red Army.)

I may have digressed in my comments, but I think these points should be made. There is no telling what remnants of his early political training may still be Ratzinger's guiding light.

Cheers

BH

He then got a dispensation because he was in the seminary.

There are things to go after him for -- this isn't so high on the list, methinks.

For more on the German Youth Resistance against Hitler:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3512353&mesg_id=3512353

You also left out some pertinent parts of his time as a Nazi:

Papa Ratzi also joined the Wehrmacht as a Nazi party member at the age of 17 in 1944, which was not "required" and stayed in the infantry as a Nazi until very shortly before the war ended. Many people don't know that you didn't have to be a member of the Nazi Party in order to serve in the German military during WWII.

After Hitler was killed, he supposedly deserted according to the official Vatican story, ended up in a Allied POW camp, who released him into the seminary.

eom