The Truth about Pope Benedict 16 and the Nazi's (he wasn't one) [View All]

[Xithras]

Pope Benedict the 16th was never a Nazi.

Yes, you heard that right. Despite the disinformation spreading through the media, this, and other boards on the Internet, Ratzinger was never a Nazi.

Joseph Ratzinger's father was a German policeman and anti-Nazi before WWII. Convinced of the evilness of Naziism and because of conflicts with Nazi officials, Ratzingers father moved the family into hiding several times to avoid Gestapo interest in his out-spokenness. That outspokenness was hammered home when the Nazi's killed Ratzingers mentally disabled first-cousin, labelling him as an "undesireable".

In 1941, when Ratzinger was 14 years old, the leadership of the local Hitler Youth branch discovered that the Ratzingers weren't obeying the compulsory membership laws and forced he and his brother to join the organization. It's important to point out here that HY membership did NOT entail joining the Nazi party or taking an oath allegience, because in Nazi Germany only adults of voting age could join political parties. While in the Hitler Youth, Ratzinger sang songs, went camping, hiked around a lot, learned to shoot, and listened to the same long lectures about German and Nazi superiority that every other German had to put up with. He was let out after only a few months when he announced his intentions to join the seminary.

In 1943 the German government removed and conscripted all of the older boys in his seminary, and the now 16 year old Ratzinger was sent to serve as an assistant on an anti-aircraft gun guarding a BMW factory. His job was to fill sandbags, polish searchlights, clean equipment, and do whatever other gruntwork the gunners requested to keep the gun operating. He never fired a shot himself. After a short stint at the antiaircraft gun, Ratzinger was forcibly sent to the Austria-Hungary border where he was made to manually dig trenches used in the contruction of tank traps. Again, there was no weapons, shooting, or Nazi promotion involved. He was a KID, and people pointing guns at him demanded that he polish their guns and dig their holes. Like most kids when their lives are threatened, he complied.

In April 1945 he was conscripted into the Wehrmacht, or the regular German Army upon turning 18. The Wehrmacht had a long history going back to the 1800's and Wehrmacht soldiers were no more all-Nazi than modern US Army members are all-Republicans. As a draftee, Ratzinger went through standard basic training before being reassigned to a station near his hometown. After spending one action-free month sitting in his station, he dropped his gun and walked home.

Ratzinger may be an irritatingly fundamentalist theologian and the last thing that many of us wanted to see in charge of the Catholic Church, but these "Ratzinger was a Nazi" threads really have to stop. He never joined the Nazi party, never expressed any support for their ideals, and only performed perfunctory service for the German government as required by law. He's no different than our own Vietnam vets in that regard.