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Drudge has two additional stories that expand on the Yahoo story above. The first, from Yahoo India:

Rivlin said that "with all due respect to the Holy See, we cannot ignore the burden he bears, as a young German who joined the Hitler Youth and as a person who joined Hitler's army, which was an instrument in the extermination".

Pope Benedict, born Joseph Ratzinger, joined the Hitler Youth when enrolment was compulsory, and was drafted into the German forces, deserting towards the end of the conflict.

And this, from Reuters India:

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The official Vatican spokesman said on Tuesday that German-born Pope Benedict was never a member of the Hitler Youth, contradicting quotes from the pope himself that have been aired again during his visit to Israel.

Rev. Federico Lombardi said the pope, whose speech at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial on Monday was criticized in Israel as too abstract, was a member of anti-aircraft units that many youths were drafted into in the last two years of World War Two.

But noting many media reports during his Middle East tour had mentioned membership in the Nazi Party's youth wing, Lombardi told reporters in Jerusalem: "The pope was never in the Hitler Youth, never, never, never."

In "Salt of the Earth," a 1996 book of autobiographical and religious reflections based on interviews with German journalist Peter Seewald, the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said, however, that he was automatically enrolled into the Hitler Youth.

He was forcwed to serve, I believe placed at an anti aircraft battery as a child. He escaped and returned to his anti-Hitler family. References to “being a member of the Hitler youth” without further explanation are more than misleading.

The Pope is being attacked for delivering what teh article calls a “message of peace” on the further ground that the Pope “sounded like a historian”.

These are not deserving of attack where I come from.

Membership in Hitlerjugen was mandatory after 1935--no exceptions! All other youth groups (boy and girl scouts) in Germany were outlawed...
Furthermore, Hitler Youth meetings began usually with a pledge to the Fuhrer and Fatherland with a song (usually the Hors Wessels) sung in praise to the movement. Therefore, young Ratzinger would have raised his hand in the Nazi salute despite all denials to this fact because, had he not, he and his parents would have gotten a visit from the Gestapo. I am not claiming that he was an enthusiastic member, but denial of his participation in Hitlerjugen by the Roman Catholic church is beginning to become as silly as Bill Clinton denials about "having sex with that woman, Miss Lewinski"!.

I have a very dear friend who grew up near Heidelberg during the war. He too was enrolled in the Hitler youth, although he never knew it until after the war. It was done automatically by his school.

He also tells a story that troubles him to this day. On the occasion of Hitler's birthday the teacher instructed the children (then 7 years old) to put close their eyes, put their heads down on the desk and pray to God for some chocolate (then very scarce in Germany). After a few moments she instructed them to open their eyes and see what God had given them. Of course there was nothing. She then instructed them to repeat the process and pray to the Fuhrer for some Chocolate and when they opened their eyes she had produced enough for each child to have a piece.

For Benedict XVI to have risen above this sort of thing makes him becoming Pope even more impressive.