In 2005, when Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elevated to the See of St. Peter as Pope Benedict XVI — only the second non-Italian in 400 years (his predecessor was the first) — one of the first things that most people heard about him was that he was a former member of the Hitler Youth. Born in 1927, he was compulsorily enrolled at 14, and a couple of years later, in 1943, he was drafted into the German armed forces, serving until he deserted on the approach of Allied troops in 1945. Berlin fell just after his eighteenth birthday, and he...
Monitoring Antisemitism Intel
