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Pope Recalls Being German POW
Fox News & AP ^ | April 19, 2005

Posted on 04/19/2005 1:38:13 PM PDT by yoely

BERLIN — In May 1945, thousands of German prisoners of war trudged down the highway toward the Bavarian town of Bad Aibling (search). Among them — tired but grateful to be alive — was 18-year-old Joseph Ratzinger (search), who just days before had risked death by deserting the German army.

"In three days of marching, we hiked down the empty highway, in a column that gradually became endless," the new pope recalled years later in his memoirs.

"The American soldiers photographed us, the young ones, most of all, in order to take home souvenirs of the defeated army and its desolate personnel."

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News
KEYWORDS: benedict; benedictxvi; gloriaolivae; pope; ratzinger
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To: PAR35
First, the burden of Proof is on you not me. You say I am not telling the truth, and all you provide is a name. Furthermore I was not referring to Nathan. I used the wrong word just as you did with "coy".
121 posted on 04/20/2005 11:37:52 AM PDT by Sprite518
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To: yoely

I'm still mad that a newsjerk on Larry King's show said that Ratzinger joined the Hitler Youth because of "youthful excess" and because "everyone else was doing it". That so infuriates me!!!!! And Moron King said nothing!


122 posted on 04/20/2005 11:40:53 AM PDT by my_pointy_head_is_sharp
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To: ohioWfan

Oh great now here is Mr. Objective responding again! LOL!


123 posted on 04/20/2005 11:44:31 AM PDT by Sprite518
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To: Sprite518
Oh, you forgot to mention that I'm also stupid.

(Want to know my IQ? ...........I didn't think so....... :o)

124 posted on 04/20/2005 12:11:41 PM PDT by ohioWfan ("If My people, which are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray.....")
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To: Sprite518
You say I am not telling the truth, and all you provide is a name.

OK, I was right the first time. You have sucessfully defended yourself as ignorant. Anyone who has read anything about the Nazi era knows who von Stauffenberg was. Here's a link to what the Wiesenthal Center says about him. http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/text/x31/xm3116.html (If you don't know, Simon Wiesenthal devoted his life to tracking down Nazi war criminals). Von Stauffenberg was the officer who hand carried a bomb into Hitler's headquarters and placed it at Hitler's feet in June 1944. He, along with other heros in the German Army (including Rommel), was executed.

125 posted on 04/20/2005 12:24:19 PM PDT by PAR35
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To: ohioWfan
My first inclination was apparently right. An ignorant bigot rather than a pro-Nazi racist. (He doesn't even know what von Stauffenberg did!). I would guess a sophomore in high school.
126 posted on 04/20/2005 12:27:04 PM PDT by PAR35
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To: ohioWfan

I think you are too emotional (like a lib I might add) when it comes to religion, and you do not think. Just because someone has a different point of view does not mean they hate.

It reminds me of the Libs that say if you are against illegal immigration, then you are against immigration. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am pro "legal" immigration, and not "illegal".


127 posted on 04/20/2005 12:32:47 PM PDT by Sprite518
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To: yoely

Amazing post. All he went through during the war years with Hitler must have had an enormous influence on him...his and his brother's decision to become priests didn't pop up out of thin air. It's a miracle that he became Pope. Talk about the world turned upside down! Of course, the MSM is livid, but he'll survive being a target for CNN, et al.and make them look like the fools they are.


128 posted on 04/20/2005 12:34:47 PM PDT by hershey
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To: PAR35
Read Post 119 genius. LOL! I think you need to read a response first before you post, and I am still waiting for a response from it.
129 posted on 04/20/2005 12:39:02 PM PDT by Sprite518
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To: Sprite518

I don't think the Church is too concerned with the MSM or the "Seculist".

There's no baggage there. You're playing their game. Be not afraid.


130 posted on 04/20/2005 1:17:39 PM PDT by wordsofearnest (St. Louis bring back Torre.)
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To: Sprite518
I would not call any German in WWII a hero. Sorry that is just not in the vocabulary.

The German army committed a lot of war crimes during WWII.

Maybe hate was a bit too strong. Still, you seem overly agitated about Ratzinger and have connected your agitation to the fact that he's German. Why don't you wait and see what kind of pope he is instead of falling for the MSM's vitriol. Don't you see that you are playing right into their hands?

131 posted on 04/20/2005 1:22:34 PM PDT by raybbr
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To: raybbr
I think the guy will be a terrific Pope. I like the positions he takes. However, you know the DemRats in the MSM can be....
132 posted on 04/20/2005 1:32:39 PM PDT by Sprite518
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To: Sprite518
I hope you are aware that your post made absolutely no sense whatsoever.

I am not even close to being too emotional (other than perhaps that I am laughing at you at the same time I am feeling pity for you)........and your comments about 'religion' are absolutely nonsensical. I said nothing about hate during this entire 'dialogue.'

And what in heaven's name was that stuff about immigration? I am tempted to ask if you are typing from some kind of institution. There wasn't a single rational word in your entire post.

133 posted on 04/20/2005 5:29:02 PM PDT by ohioWfan ("If My people, which are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray.....")
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To: PAR35
Well, he's ignorant alright..........and I'll agree with the bigot as well.

As for the age, 15, maybe 16........

And if he's not a child, he certainly thinks like one, and behaves like one.

Sad, really...... He should be outside playing, rather than sitting at a computer pretending to be an adult.

134 posted on 04/20/2005 5:32:37 PM PDT by ohioWfan ("If My people, which are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray.....")
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To: Sprite518
So I am just saying it could be a bad P.R. move?

A bad PR move by WHOM? It's the MSM that stirred this pot; then Cardinal Ratzinger explained what happened in a biography written years ago.

So exactly whose "PR move" is this? What the heck are you trying to say -- that the Vatican is behind these "Nazi" stories?

135 posted on 04/20/2005 5:37:39 PM PDT by browardchad
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To: Sprite518
I would say its a quite a stretch to call Von Stauffenberg a hero.

Then you don't know what a hero is.

If you are implying that Von Stauffenberg was try to end the Holocaust, then why did he not go after Goering or Himmler too?

Read up on the July plot. The other nazis were the responsibility of the plotters in Berlin and elsewhere. The Berlin portion of the operation was well underway, but fell apart when Hitler wasn't killed.

but I am a lot of it probably had to do with the treatment of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad and of course losing the war

More of a reaction to the landings in France than the situation in the East.

Oh please you have to come up with a better one than that.

Other heros? Hanna Reitsch. At the other end of the spectrum, the enlisted man who was ordered to murder a prisoner and who refused. (He was arrested, but released without punishment.) Since you limit it to military, we won't talk about the German women who staged a sit down strike in Berlin to free their husbands from Gestapo custody (they were successful).

Since you don't consider those who died fighting the Nazis to be heros, lets stick to those who proved their courage in more conventional ways. Skorzeny and Galland would make that list.

136 posted on 04/20/2005 7:01:13 PM PDT by PAR35
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