Are the questions about Benedict XVI’s past with the Nazi Youths cleared and answered?
I think that Benedict XVI’s youth was a very important phase in his life which helped him become more vigilant toward anti-Semitism. It is something that marked his childhood. Just like John Paul II, those two men lived during World War II, they experienced it. This influenced them in adopting strong positions against anti-Semitism, not stances coming from a theoretic perspective, but rather stances coming from the experience they lived in the past. It should be also clear that Benedict XVI was for a long time an influential person in the Vatican and his positions against Nazism and anti-Semitism have not only appeared since his election as Pope last April. In Germany during the early years of Hitler’s power, anyone who was born at the same time as Benedict XVI, went through the Nazi Youth and endured the same Nazi propaganda. Furthermore, the people who started this polemic against Benedict XVI, would have just done the same if they were the same age during the same times. What does t
