Was Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) A
Nazi? Why Join the Hitler Youth?
By Austin Cline
The question of Joseph Ratzinger’s
involvement with Nazi Germany and the Hitler Youth is important: there is reason to think that
Ratzinger has been less than fully candid about his past.
During much of the Nazi era, Joseph
Ratzinger lived with his family in Traunstein, Germany, a small and staunchly Catholic town
between Munich and Salzburg. During World War I there was a
prisoner-of-war camp located here where, ironically, Adolf Hitler worked
between December 1918 and March 1919. The town is located near the region of Austria which
Hitler came from.
Resistance to the Nazis was dangerous and
difficult, but not impossible. Elizabeth Lohner, a Traunstein resident whose
brother-in-law was sent to Dachau
as a conscientious objector, has been quoted as saying, “It was possible to resist,
and those people set an example for others. The Ratzingers were young and had
made a different choice.”
A few hundred yards away from the
Ratzingers' house, a family hid Hans Braxenthaler, a local resistance fighter
who shot himself rather than be captured again. The SS regularly searched local
homes for resistance members, so the Ratzingers couldn’t have not known about
resistance efforts.
Traunstein also saw more than its share of
local violence. In his biography of Joseph Ratzinger, John L. Allen, Jr. says
that anti-Semitic violence, displacement, deportation, death, and even
resistance turned the town into “an over-populated lunatic asylum of hopeless
inhabitants.”
It’s curious that one of the lessons which
Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, draws from the experiences of German
Catholics under the Nazis is that Catholics should become even more obedient to
their ecclesiastical leaders rather than more free to adopt independent courses
of action. Ratzinger believes that greater fidelity to Catholic doctrine, as
defined by the Vatican,
is necessary to counter movements like Nazism.
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Background
Neither Ratzinger nor any member of his
immediate family joined the NSDAP (Nazi Party). Ratzinger’s father was critical
of the Nazi government, and as a result the family had to move four times
before he was ten years old.
None of this is remarkable, however,
because the same happened with other German Catholic families. Although many
German Catholic leaders were willing to work with the Nazis, many individual
Catholics and Catholic priests resisted as best they could, refusing to
cooperate with a political regime they regarded as anti-Catholic at best and
the embodiment of evil at worst.
Joseph Ratzinger joined the Hitler Youth
in 1941 when, according to him and his supporters, it became compulsory for all
German boys. Millions of Germans were in a position similar to that of Joseph
Ratzinger and his family, so why spend so much time focusing on him? Because he
is no longer merely Joseph Ratzinger, or even a Catholic Cardinal — he is now
Pope Benedict XVI. None of the other Germans who joined the Hitler Youth, were
part of the military in Nazi Germany, lived near a concentration camp, and
watched Jews being rounded up for death camps has ever become pope.
The pope is supposed to be the successor
of Peter, leader of the Christian Church, and symbol of unity for all
Christendom. The past actions — or inactions — of such a person matter a great
deal if anyone is going to treat him as any sort of moral authority.
Ratzinger’s recollections of his youth in Nazi Germany makes it seem as though
all the problems, violence, and hatred existed outside his local community.
There is no recognition that resistance to the Nazis existed — or was needed —
just outside his door.
Joseph Ratzinger
Benedict
XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) is the pope emeritus
for the Roman Catholic Church.
Note: papal
knighthood is an honor conferred by pope from the Roman
Catholic Church.
K. Rupert
Murdoch is a papal knighthood knight, and the
title of his biography is “The Man Who Owns the News”.
HITLER'S LEGACY
The power of the press can be used to
deliberately lead people astray, and to make them believe whatever
propagandists want them to believe. In honor of the first man to use them I
call modern propaganda and information-management techniques "Hitler's
Legacy".
When Adolph Hitler took power in Germany he also
took over the media, and he used it to shape a modern, civilized country to his
ends. With full control of the national press his propaganda minister Paul
Josef Goebbels developed sophisticated and very effective tools of propaganda
to control public opinion in Germany, and even in other countries.
He proved that if you repeat a lie often
enough in mass media, most people will accept it as the truth.
John
J. Studzinski is a papal knighthood
knight, a director at the Human Rights Watch,
and a director at the Atlantic Council of the United States
(think tank).
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Human Rights
Watch, and the Atlantic Council of the United States
(think tank).
George Soros was a
benefactor for the Human Rights Watch,
and the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations.
Richard
R. Burt is a director at the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank), and was
the U.S. ambassador for Germany.
Adolf
Hitler was the fuhrer for Germany, and the leader
for the Nazi Party.
Nazi Party
was a political party for Germany.
Rozanne
L. Ridgway was a U.S.
ambassador for Germany,
and the co-chair for the Atlantic Council of the United States
(think tank).
Chuck Hagel
is the chair for the Atlantic Council of the United States
(think tank), and the secretary for the U.S.
Department of Defense.
Michael
P.C. Carns was a director at the Atlantic Council of the United States
(think tank), and is a director at the Freedom
Group.
Cerberus
Capital Management L.P. is the owner of the Freedom
Group.
Daniel R.
Coats was a lobbyist for Cerberus Capital
Management L.P., and a U.S.
ambassador for Germany.
Stephen
A. Feinberg is the CEO for Cerberus Capital
Management L.P., and his father is Martin
Feinberg.
Martin
Feinberg is Stephen A. Feinberg’s father, and
a Newtown (CT) resident.
Newtown
(CT) is the location of the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
2012
massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School was a mass shootings
28 killed, including gunman.
Wal-Mart
Stores Inc. is a major retailer for the Freedom
Group.
Stephen
Friedman was a director at the Wal-Mart Stores Inc.,
and is a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think
tank).
James S.
Crown is a trustee at the Aspen Institute
(think tank), and a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
Lester Crown
was a lifetime trustee at the Aspen Institute
(think tank), and is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
Francis
E. George is a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago, and a cardinal for the Roman Catholic
Church.
Benedict
XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) is the pope emeritus
for the Roman Catholic Church.
R. Eden
Martin is the president of the Commercial Club of Chicago,
and counsel at Sidley Austin LLP.
Michelle
Obama was a lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP.
Barack Obama
was an intern at Sidley Austin LLP.
Sidley
Austin LLP is the lobby firm for Bayer HealthCare.
Bayer
HealthCare is a subsidiary of Bayer AG.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Aspen Institute (think tank), and the Brookings
Institution (think tank).
George Soros
is the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open
Society.
Klaus Kleinfeld
is a trustee at the Brookings Institution
(think tank), a director at Bayer AG, and a
2008 Bilderberg conference
participant (think tank).
Bayer AG
The Bayer company then became part of IG
Farben, a German chemical company conglomerate. During World War II, the IG
Farben used slave labor in factories attached to large slave labor camps,
notably the sub-camps of the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp.[3] IG Farben
owned 42.5% of the company that manufactured Zyklon B,[4] a chemical used in
the gas chambers of Auschwitz and other extermination camps. After World War
II, the Allies broke up IG Farben and Bayer reappeared as an individual
business. The Bayer executive Fritz ter Meer, sentenced to seven years in
prison by the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, was made head of the supervisory
board of Bayer in 1956, after his release.
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