2006-07-06 02:39:53 · 9 answers · asked by Listener 1 in News & Events ➔ Other - News & Events
That is correct. Most if not all boys of his age in Germany were. It's not like you had a choice in the matter.
2006-07-06 02:43:04 · answer #1 · answered by Sir J 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, as a child Pope Bebedict grew up in a Nazi regime. He, like all children his age, was forced to join the Hitler youth Corps. In his late teens, he fled his homeland and immediately denounced the evils of Naziism.
2006-07-06 09:44:01 · answer #2 · answered by baq2calli 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You heard right, although it wasn't a choice. From wikipedia:
Following his fourteenth birthday in 1941, Ratzinger joined the Hitler Youth as membership was legally required after December 1936.[2] According to one of Ratzinger's biographers, the National Catholic Reporter correspondent John Allen, he was an unenthusiastic member who refused to attend meetings. His father was a bitter enemy of Nazism, because he believed it was in conflict with their faith. In 1941 one of Ratzinger's cousins with Down syndrome was killed by the Nazi regime. In 1943, when he was 16, Ratzinger was drafted with many of his classmates into the Luftwaffenhelfer (Air Force Auxiliary) programme. After his class was released from the Corps in September 1944, Ratzinger was put to work setting up anti-tank defences in the Hungarian border area of Austria in preparation for the expected Red Army offensive. He was eventually drafted into the German army at Munich to receive basic infantry training in the nearby town of Traunstein. His unit served at various posts around the city and was never sent to the front. Ratzinger was briefly interned in an Allied prisoner-of-war camp near Ulm and was repatriated on June 19, 1945. The family was reunited when his brother, Georg, returned after being repatriated from a prisoner-of-war camp in Italy.
2006-07-06 09:45:06 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
A 14-year-old Ratzinger was conscripted in 1941 to join the Hitlersjunge, which was now a paramilitary organization (ie, "child soldiers"), and a far cry from the boy scouts portrayed in Leni Riefenstahl's "Triunf des Willtes"
The choice given conscripts is to fight, or die. This experience had a profound influence on Ratzinger and is reflected in his emphasis on love, peace and diplomacy.
2006-07-07 10:28:45 · answer #4 · answered by Veritatum17 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yea I think he was as well. But he was just a child when he was one and you can't really make decisions for yourself when you are only a child. I think it was probably before Hitler became super evil. Before the war Germans loved him and they wanted their children to love him as well. He promised so much to Germany and they loved him for that. I'm not sure if I'm 100% correct. but i think i am
2006-07-06 09:47:24 · answer #5 · answered by Ashley Y 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
so what, during that times all must join the movement or you gonna sent to concentration camp.
2006-07-06 09:43:40 · answer #6 · answered by lepactodeloupes 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That is true and he has never tried to hide it, just downplayed it by saying everyone was forced into it.
You decide.
2006-07-06 09:43:20 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ONE THAT KNEW THAT. MAYBE YOU SHOULDN'T TELL ANYONE, THE CATHOLICS MIGHT GET REAL UPSET IF THEY FOUND THAT OUT. OH WELL I'M SURE THEY'D JUST PRAY TO MOTHER MARY THEN THEY'D BE OK AGAIN.
2006-07-06 09:44:31 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
He is German......
When he was young, there was no choice---join or die. So, he joined.....
2006-07-06 09:45:23 · answer #9 · answered by Michelle A 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋