Comments Elsewhere

Come on, Hugo. I’m no Catholic, and I probably have a lot more problems with Benedict than you do, but this is a bit much:

As a Christian of Jewish descent (on my father’s side), and as a professional historian, I share the same uncertainties as Jonathan Dresner. (One canard that I’m quite tired of is the notion that “everyone” joined the Hitler Youth and “went along” because they had no choice. That insults the memories of far too many righteous Germans who were part of the Resistance, from Bonhoeffer to Hans and Sophie Scholl.)

Hans Scholl was 21 when the war broke out and Sophie was 18. Ratzinger was 12 years old. I don’t know about you, but it’s pretty hard for me to blame 12-14 year olds for not facing imprisonment and death in the struggle against even the most Satanic totalitarianism. It’s pretty hard for me to blame 18-21 year olds, for that matter, but at least in that case we are talking about people who are unambiguously adults. (By the time Ratzinger was 18, the war was nearly over. He was drafted into the military; when he was, he did desert his post at the risk of summary execution.)

And, well, I don’t know how to say this exactly, so let’s just go with the quotes:

From Sophie Scholl’s biography on WikiPedia:

In 1932, Sophie started attending a secondary school for girls. At the age of twelve, she joined the Hitler Youth, like most of her classmates. Her initial enthusiasm gradually gave way to criticism. She was aware of the dissenting political views of her father, of friends, and also of some teachers. The political attitude now became an essential criterion in her choice of friends. The arrest of her brothers and friends in 1937 left a strong impression on her.

From Hans Scholl’s bio at the White Rose memorial site:

Hans enrolled in a secondary school. In late 1933, Hans joined the Hitler Youth. He was attracted by their apparently high ideals. However, disappointed by the reality of National Socialism, he sought contact with the ‘Jugendbewegung’ (Youth Movement).

From Pope Benedict XVI’s biography at WikiPedia:

When Ratzinger turned 14 in 1941, he was enrolled in the Hitler Youth, membership of which was legally required from 1938 until the end of the “Third Reich” in 1945. According to National Catholic Reporter correspondent and biographer John Allen, Ratzinger was an unenthusiastic member who refused to attend meetings. Ratzinger has mentioned that a National Socialist mathematics professor arranged reduced tuition payments for him at seminary. While this normally required documentation of attendance at Hitler Youth activities, according to Ratzinger, his professor arranged that the young seminary student did not need to attend those gatherings to receive a scholarship.

It’s worth pointing out that the Scholls each joined the Hitler Youth before it was made legally mandatory. The point here isn’t to run down the Scholls; it’s to point out that people can join terrible organizations when they are young, not knowing very much about what is going on around them, and later repent, and even bring themselves to acts of astonishing courage and love. The fact that Ratzinger was in no position to do this at the age of 14 raises no more moral questions for me than the fact in 1932 Alexander Solzhenitsyn (age 14) was not personally risking his life in the underground to stop the Great Purge and the Terror-Famine in the Ukraine.