Posted on 05/10/2009 10:56:29 AM PDT by presidio9
THE Pope will be given unprecedented security when he arrives in Israel tomorrow because of fears that his brief enrolment in the Hitler Youth as a boy of 14 could trigger an assassination attempt by Jewish zealots.
The Israeli government has ordered Shin Bet, the domestic security service, to take command of the visit. Four Audi armoured cars have been imported from Germany and security chiefs have banned the use of the familiar glass-sided “Popemobile” except for a short journey in Nazareth.
In Jordan yesterday, on the first stage of his middle eastern tour, the pontiff held a meeting with Muslim leaders to express “deep respect” for Islam. He offended Muslims in a speech in 2006 in which he quoted a Medieval scholar who linked Islam to violence.
In Israel Benedict XVI’s German nationality, his service in Hitler’s army, his support for the proposed beatification of Pius XII – known in Israel as the “Nazi pope” – and his decision to revoke the excommunication of Richard Williamson, the British bishop and Holocaust denier, have all sparked anger. The Pope was forced to apologise for mishandling the Williamson affair.
General Giora Eiland, the former head of Israel’s national security council, reflected the views of many Israelis. “It would have been better if the visit wasn’t taking place,” he said. “The Pope’s service in the Wehrmacht is a stain.”
The Vatican insists that Joseph Ratzinger joined the Hitler Youth only because it was compulsory and did not attend its meetings. He was drafted into an antiaircraft corps in 1943 and trained in the infantry, but deserted in the last months of the war.
“The fact that he was a member of the Hitler Youth and later served in the German army
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
The Pope’s own cousin was murdered by the regime for having Down’s Syndrome! Yet he was forced to join the Hitler Youth.
It obviously didn't disqualify the senior Senator from West Virginia.
But comparing the HJ to the KKK is not very sensible, unless you want to talk about a (mythical) nation in which KKK membership is mandatory for all school-age children, and in which the government can intervene to pull a child out of Catholic school for failing to join the KKK.
Petronski, you crack a book. I am trying to talk sense. If you saw your whole family sent to the chambers, it probably wouldn’t matter a whole lot how someone became a part of the Regime. It would only matter that they were. People are people. The fact a guy did well in the church won’t negate the past.
Membership in the HJ was compulsory once the Nazis consolidated their power. The problem was that if the kids didn't join they were expelled from school. Joseph Ratzinger's headmaster filled out the paperwork for him and sent it in, telling him that he would cover for him and he wouldn't have to attend meetings.
The headmaster did this largely because Ratzinger's father was rather too publicly opposed to the Nazis and suffered a good deal of persecution on account of it (the family had to move to a different town because of threats against the father).
And he also had a cousin who was mentally disabled and was taken away for "medical treatment" by the Nazi regime - shortly thereafter his parents were told he had died of some disease, actually he was one of the victims of a systematic program of murdering the mentally and physically "defective".
It's absurd for these newspapers to bang the drum about supposed Nazi sympathies on the part of the Pope.
It has its roots in the traditional British anti-Catholicism, which in turn has its roots in politics, not religion. Read almost anything by Charles Kingsley & you'll see what I mean.
If the condemnation is just as severe for all, whether an active SA member breaking glass on Kristallnacht, or just a 14 year old whose family was already in trouble for being anti-Nazi and whose headmaster tried to help him out, then you're in the same boat as the people who expand the definition of "rape" until it's meaningless.
I have Jewish friends who even condemn German Jews "because they stayed". The mother of my best friend growing up nearly disowned her because she married a young man from a German Jewish family.
As I said, crack a book.
You are a bigot.
But a lot of anti-Semitism in that time was simply reflexive and largely political, not personal. If a hungry Jewish guy showed up at Luther's door, I'm pretty sure he would have taken him in and given him a meal.
But by the time of World War II the Catholic Church was strongly anti-Nazi. If you read contemporary sources, you'll find that everyone from Golda Meir to the New York Times was agreed on this point.
The change in attitude stems largely from a play written in the 60s, Der Stellvertreter ("The Deputy"). It is only after that time that the idea that "the Pope didn't do enough" became "the Pope was a Nazi sympathizer" and then became "the Pope was a Nazi".
Interestingly enough, Stasi records that recently became public show that the play was funded by East Germany as part of a Communist effort to discredit the church.
Okay, you are a laughing-out-loud bigot.
He would have been as horrified as you and I at the Nazis, they were antithetical to everything he believed.
I can’t argue with a blind spot. Good evening.
And you don’t even know why.
Amazing.
No one is asking you to argue with your blindspot, or anyone else’s.
All I said was that you should crack a book.
How DARE you refer to the germination of yet another anti-Catholic lie!?!
Do you have a problem with that?
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