BERLIN — In May 1945, thousands of German prisoners of war trudged down the highway toward the Bavarian town of Bad Aibling (search). Among them — tired but grateful to be alive — was 18-year-old Joseph Ratzinger (search), who just days before had risked death by deserting the German army. "In three days of marching, we hiked down the empty highway, in a column that gradually became endless," the new pope recalled years later in his memoirs. "The American soldiers photographed us, the young ones, most of all, in order to take home souvenirs of the defeated army and its...