HITLER YOUTH AND THE VATICAN

Hitler Youth and the Vatican
By Marc Ash
t r u t h o u t Perspective

Thursday 28 April 2005

Pope Benedict XVI as young Joseph Ratzinger. Circa 1940. (Photo: KNA / AP)

In the final stages of World War II, US and British soldiers reported that the German military was using child soldiers. Boys as young as 14 faced advancing allied forces, often fighting to the death. Death, however, was not always the fate that awaited the young Germans, some were captured. The American and English soldiers who questioned the young prisoners noted two things almost categorically: most of the child soldiers were or had been Hitler Youth, and those who had held membership in the Fuhrer's youth corps were impossible to reason with. Passionate ideological mind-sets were reportedly common among these boys.

Recent worldwide press attention to the boyhood membership of now-Pope Benedict XVI in the Hitler Youth Movement has re-focused the attention of world on the origins of the catastrophic conflict that engulfed mankind in the mid-twentieth century. The debate has been focused in particular on what constituted a good German at that time.

In fairness to the new Pope, there is no evidence that any member of the Ratzinger family supported or sympathized with the Nazis. There are even some accounts that put the Ratzinger family in opposition to the Nazis. That would have, by any account of the day, been risky, as the Nazis were willing to mete out their vengeance against Catholics who opposed them as quickly as against any other opposition. Catholics who resisted faced persecution and even execution. As for entry into the Hitler Youth movement itself, as Cardinal Ratzinger has pointed out many times over the years, young German boys were in fact conscripted, and attendance was compulsory. History supports this all.

Two things, however, bear note. First, Cardinal Ratzinger's own recollection of induction into the Hitler Youth Movement. He said, "I was too young, but later was enrolled into it from the seminary." And second, it should be noted that, in Germany today, finding a former Nazi is not easy. Yes, there is a troubling cadre of new-right neo-Nazis. Gone, however, are the wild-eyed throngs of average Germans who were swayed, gone as though they had never existed.

Fear and Loathing of Communism

One theory promulgated by Adolph Hitler that has resonated with many Americans throughout the decades is the fear and loathing of Communism. It seems the red menace is as good a social motivator in America today as it was at the Nuremberg rally in 1934. Shame. Beware the left, and all that. At any rate, according to a recent New York Times article by Richard Bernstein, Daniel J. Wakin and Mark Landler, Joseph Ratzinger developed a deep and abiding disdain for the student radicalism in the late 1960s at Tübingen University. The Times authors point to a fear that students' tactics smacked of Nazi tactics, and that, they conclude, Ratzinger could not abide. But Ratzinger's words belie a greater fear of Marxism. He wrote, "Marxist revolution kindled the whole university with its fervor, shaking it to its very foundations." Some years later, he chided a left-leaning colleague over dinner, saying with some satisfaction, "Your Marxist revolution has come to nothing."

Events in Russia during the first half of the twentieth century sent shock waves through all of Europe. As the kettle boiled over in Moscow there was little time to differentiate between Marxism and Stalinism. The difference was profound but ultimately the far-left proved a catalyst for the far-right and the center became a killing-field. Stalin had used the far-left to launch his own personal Stalinist dictatorship and the rest is, as they say, history. While Stalin pretended to support the goals of the Communists to gain power, Hitler used fear of the Communists to do the same. It is also worthy of noting that as the far-right attempted to gain power in the US in recent Presidential elections the far-left, specifically Ralph Nader once again opened the door.

Joseph Ratzinger might have argued that the far left's capacity to empower the far right was reason enough to reject the new thinking emerging at Tübingen University in the late 1960s. But as his journey now has led him to be arguably the most influential man in the world, his early demonization of the students at Tübingen becomes suspect by its convenience.

Why Does All This Matter?

The Vatican contends today, as it has always contended, that they 'don't do politics.' History disagrees, particularly with regard to the Vatican's relationship with the Nazis. Serious allegations have swirled for years about the Vatican's complicity with the Nazis during and after the war. Those charges have resulted in several investigations and at least one lawsuit, but no more. The Vatican has refused repeated requests to open its archives from the period. Until they do so, the question remains open, as well it should.

Some facts from that period are not in dispute and do shed light. Pope Pius XII has long been criticized for his silence as the Nazi concentration camps did their awful work, but understanding Pius XII's relationship with the Nazis provides substantial insight into why he did not speak out. The 1933 Concordat signed by the Vatican with the Nazis ensured, if nothing else, that they would do no harm to one another. The Reich Concordat was an agreement signed between the Vatican and the National Socialist government of Germany. The person primarily responsible for the negotiation and signing of this document was the Cardinal Secretary of State, Eugenio Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII, with the agreement of Pius XI. Why the Vatican saw fit to elevate Pacelli to Pope as Germany was massing its armies is a question that remains relevant today.

Among Joseph Ratzinger's better-published positions is "a sense that Catholicism is in competition with Islam." Is that very different from the Vatican's attitudes toward European Jews during the early part of the twentieth century? Lo and behold, armies march again, and once more, the Vatican and German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger are at the center of the action. As the US pursues what the Islamic world views as a latter-day Christian crusade, it appears Ratzinger made the decision to intercede in the US presidential election process on behalf of the war's architect, George W. Bush. In a June 2004 letter to US bishops, Ratzinger made clear that John Kerry was a sinner for his positions on "life" issues, as would be any one who voted for him. The result was a historic swing of traditionally Democratic voters away from the Catholic John Kerry and into the win column for Republican George W. Bush.

While Pope John Paul II had openly opposed the US war on Iraq, Ratzinger had ensured it would continue for four more years. Either death by war is more acceptable to the Vatican than death by abortion or Islam is a bigger concern than they are letting on. Or both.

By all accounts, the American and English soldiers in the trenches were right: the Hitler Youth were/are ideologically driven.

Source: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/042805Y.shtml