[Lee_Atwater]

Many did manage not to be enrolled in the Youth.

It is easy for us in 2005 to evaluate the decisions of young Germans in the 1940's. His country was under attack...he may have been compelled to defend his homeland, regardless of the leadership at the time.
I'm sure many avoided service in the critical months of 44-45. And many of them ended up hung from lamp posts on the orders of Generalfeldmarschall Schoerner.

[pa mom]

I agree. Who knows what we would have done. I'd probably be saying "yes, sir, Herr Hitler, sir." One never knows where strength will come from. I do think two facts mitigate his past: One, he took vows afterwards, which necessarily required soul searching and atonement for his actions, whether voluntary or not and Two: JPII called him a friend.