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Thanks, €, for starting this thread. I admire your honesty for sharing your parents' story. I'm sure that as a 13 or 14 year old, joining Hitler Youth didn't have the stigma that it might for a adult or for a non-Aryan. But what disgusts me about Ratzinger's story is where he went from there. A seminarian guarding Jewish slaves in the 20th century at gunpoint (did the Jews know that his gun wasn't loaded?) is despicable.
I'm heartened that there are so many people on the board who have the ability to have an honest soul-searching when faced with these types of issues. On a purely hypothetical level, I'm sure I can too.
However, as a descendant of the Eastern European Jews that were the target of the Nazis, the Polish, the Russians and the Catholic Church, I have a more visceral reaction to the ascendancy of a guy like Ratzinger.
**** Ratzinger. **** Benedict XVI. **** the Pope.
(I know that my words will be auto-censored, but it felt really good to type them.)
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