> They claim Ratzinger > was "coerced" into joining the Hitler Youth at 14 (yet the pictures of him > show him goose-stepping with a pronounced shit-eating grin.) They also > touted as a "positive" that Ratzinger was a "deserter" from the Wermacht > (he was a shell passer for an anti-craft battery).
The anti-aircraft battery picture in the TIMES described it as being of when Ratzo was in the paramilitaries, not the Wehrmacht. He did join the latter (after being drafted) and then deserted (though who wouldn't, as the Nazi war machine fell apart?). The "shit-eating grin" while goose-stepping could be the enthusiasm of youth (in an organization not so different from the Boy Scouts). I wouldn't rule out the role of coercion in getting him into the HY. After all, in a country that's losing a war, loyalty is all-important -- and one way to prove loyalty is to have one's son join an organization such as the HY. All sorts of economic and other punishments could be avoided (and privileges received) by having one's child do so. Whatever the facts, it's a mistake to put too much weight on what the creep did while young. People make all sorts of "youthful indiscretions." More important was the lessons he learned. Supposedly, he decided that the only way to respond to Nazi authoritarianism was via religious authoritarianism. That kind of extreme either/or logic suggests a deranged mind. -- Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://myweb.lmu.edu/jdevine Reuters April 19, 2005/L.A. TIMES The following are key facts and events in the life of the new pope, Benedict XVI. • Born Joseph Ratzinger in Marktl am Inn, Bavaria, Germany, on April 16, 1927. His father was a police chief. • Spent most of his childhood in Traunstein, where he went to secondary school. • Ratzinger was a member of the Hitler Youth, albeit briefly, like most German children at the time. • In a 1999 article in the National Catholic Reporter, John Allen said Ratzinger served as an assistant on an anti-aircraft battery guarding a BMW plant in 1943. • Ratzinger was sent to Austria's border with Hungary to erect tank traps, said Allen, and after being shipped back to Bavaria, he deserted. • When World War Two ended, he was an American prisoner of war. etc.
