Sig Heil to the new pope, Benedict XVI
You all know my views on religion, so I won't go there. But check out Benny's crazy teen-years:
Ratzinger's past includes brief membership of the Hitler Youth movement and wartime service with a German army anti- aircraft unit. (...) Ratzinger was enrolled in an anti-aircraft unit that protected a BMW factory making aircraft engines. The workforce included slaves from Dachau concentration camp. Ratzinger has insisted he never took part in combat or fired a shot — adding that his gun was not even loaded — because of a badly infected finger. He was sent to Hungary, where he set up tank traps and saw Jews being herded to death camps.What a card, that Benedict. Link
posted by david burnstein at 11:56 AM
1 Comments:
The UK papers are down on Benedict, one of the tabloids even had the headline "Ratzi Nazi". Allows them to combine an ancient antipathy to Catholicism with their newer sneering at things German. But the Pope was no more of a Nazi than others of his generation. Of course, I'd love to have heard him and John Paul reminisce about what they did in the war -- probably won't be much difference between the two ideologically except Benedict authoritarianism won't be coated with Polish courage, warmth, and charm.
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