Get your facts right, people

[karohemd]

Having been a member of the Hitler Youth and being a Nazi are two very different things.
The first was compulsory from 1936, the latter was a choice (to join the party).
I thought you would have learned by now to disassociate Germans with Nazis but sadly, this doesn't seem to be the case...

As little as I like Ratzinger's views, he wasn't and isn't a Nazi.

Comments

[jholloway.livejournal.com]

The good things he did for his country have been somewhat swept under the carpet.

Yeah, my favorite thing Hitler did for Germany was declaring war on the US and the USSR. Nothing says fun like declaring on war on two countries that are collectively like ten times your size. Oops!

I think that "implemented social security programs" doesn't really put enough in the credit column to overbalance "sent millions to their deaths," "invaded neighbors," and "turned German cities into piles of flaming wreckage."

[ua-meruti.livejournal.com]

Hmm.. nothing like having your point somewhat missed.

[jholloway.livejournal.com]

Well, enlighten me then: when you said:
Doesn't help that the term Hitler is now synonymous with Nazism (which isn't the same as Fascism) and all the evil things that the Nazis did. The good things he did for his country have been somewhat swept under the carpet.

you meant something other than trying to suggest that Hitler was a) not the central architect of Nazi policy or b) Hitler did some good stuff for the Germans (for instance, addressing unemployment)?

[ua-meruti.livejournal.com]

actually, (b) is what I was trying to suggest. My point was that because of the (undeniably great) evil things he was ultimately responsible for, the few good things he did for his country are ignored and thus anything with the label "Hitler" attached is automatically branded with the same thing. Thus we get cases such as this Pope where he's probably frightfully nice chap, but the 'papers attempt to attach some sort of controversy to him because he was a member of the Hitler Youth.. he and nearly every law abiding German citizen of his age.

Apologies for not making that very clear, and also apologies for my somewhat pissy response.

[jholloway.livejournal.com]

All I'm saying is that you have to look at the totality of the person's behavior. Hitler implemented a few social programs, loved animals, massacred minorities, and plunged the western hemisphere into six years of bloody war. Overall assessment: bad guy.

Was the Hitler Youth a good thing? I kind of doubt it. Is it a big deal that BPMXVI was in the Hitler Youth? Not really. It's a bigger deal that he's a swine. Is having been in the Hitler Youth something to be ashamed of? Yeah, a little bit.