341:. Desertions were widespread during the last weeks of the war, although deserters were subject to death if caught. However, diminished morale and equally diminished risk of prosecution from a preoccupied and disorganized German military contributed to the growing wave of soldiers looking toward self-preservation. He left the city of Traunstein and headed for his nearby village. "I used a little-known back road hoping to get through unmolested. But, as I walked out of a railroad underpass, two soldiers were standing at their posts, and for a moment the situation was extremely exciting for me. Thank God that they, too, had had their fill of war and did not want to become murderers." They used the excuse of his arm being in a sling to let him go home.
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149:, as membership was legally required as of 25 March 1939. Following the seminary closure he continued required attendance with the Hitler Youth to avoid financial penalties in the Gymnasium tuition fees. The financial penalty (which theoretically required documentation of attendance at Hitler Youth activities) was overlooked when a sympathetic mathematics professor allowed him not to attend any meetings. In Ratzinger's book
99:, a Ratzinger biographer, reports a revelation made by Cardinal Ratzinger at a conference in the Vatican on 28 November 1996: "Ratzinger had a cousin with Down's Syndrome who in 1941 was 14 years old. This cousin was just a few months younger than Ratzinger and was taken away by the Nazi authorities for "therapy". Not long afterwards, the family received word that he was dead, presumably one of the 'undesirables'
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153:, Ratzinger says the following "... Thank goodness, there was a very understanding mathematics teacher. He himself was a Nazi but an honest man, who said to me, 'Just go once and get the document so that we have it' ... When he saw that I simply didn't want to, he said, 'I understand, I'll take care of it', and so I was able to stay free of it."
144:
In 1939, aged 12, he enrolled in a minor seminary in
Traunstein. This period lasted until the seminary was closed for military use in 1942, and the students were all sent home. Ratzinger returned to the Gymnasium in Traunstein. During this period in the seminary, following his 14th birthday in 1941,
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When the
Americans arrived in the village, "I was identified as a soldier, had to put back on the uniform I had already abandoned, had to raise my hands and join the steadily growing throng of war prisoners whom they were lining up on our meadow. It especially cut my good mother's heart to see her
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to protect the jet fighter base and to attack Allied bombers as they massed to begin their runs towards Munich. At
Gilching, Ratzinger served in a telephone communications post. On 10 September 1944, his class was released from the Corps. Returning home, Ratzinger had already received a new draft
126:
According to his cousin, Erika Kopper, Ratzinger had no desire from childhood to be anything other than a priest. At the age of 15, she says, he announced that he was going to be a bishop, whereupon she playfully remarked: "And why not Pope?". An even earlier incident occurred in 1932, when
135:. The future pope, then five years old, was part of a group of children who presented the cardinal with flowers, and later that day Ratzinger announced he wanted to be a cardinal, too. "It wasn't so much the car, since we weren't technically minded", Georg Ratzinger told a reporter from
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His elder brother, Georg (15 January 1924 – 1 July 2020) also became a priest. Their sister Maria, born in 1921, managed Joseph's household until her death in 1991, fulfilling a promise she made to their parents to take care of her brothers. She never married. Their great uncle,
170:("Papal hopeful is a former Hitler Youth"), asserting, "t was possible to resist, and those people set an example for others. The Ratzingers were young and had made a different choice." Lohner's brother-in-law was a conscientious objector who spent two years at
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775:, 14 October 2005. "Anti-Nazi Prelate Beatified. The conference took place under the auspices of the Pontifical Council for Health Care. At the present date (January 2006) there is no reference to this Conference at the Vatican's
337:, the city near which his family lived. After basic infantry training, he served at various posts around the city with his unit. They were never sent to the front. In late April or early May, shortly before Germany's surrender, he
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members were given shelter at the
Ratzinger family house, and they began to make enquiries about the presence there of a young man of military age. Joseph Ratzinger Sr. made clear to these SS men his ire against
50:, Bavaria and baptised on the same day. He was the third and youngest child of Joseph Ratzinger Sr. (1877–1959), a police officer, and his wife, Maria (née Peintner) (1884–1963), whose family were from
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91:, said: "Our father was a bitter enemy of Nazism because he believed it was in conflict with our faith". The family encountered the Nazi regime's
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On 20 November 1944, his unit was released from service. Joseph
Ratzinger again returned home. After three weeks passed, he was drafted into the
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84:, these relocations were directly related to Joseph Ratzinger Sr.'s continued resistance to Nazism, which resulted in demotions and transfers.
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of 1938. When
Hungary was occupied by the Red Army Ratzinger was put to work setting up anti-tank defences in preparation for the expected
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and was released on 19 June 1945. He and another young man began to walk the 120 km (75 mi) home but got a lift to
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boy and the rest of the defeated army standing there, exposed to an uncertain fate..." Ratzinger was briefly interned in a
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Ludwigsfeld, north of Munich, as part of a detachment responsible for guarding a
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concerns the period from his birth in 1927 through the completion of his education and ordination in 1951.
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in a milk truck. The family was reunited when his brother, Georg, returned after being released from a
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Marktl am Inn, the house where the future
Benedict XVI was born. The building still stands today.
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In 1943, when he was 16, Joseph
Ratzinger was drafted with many of his classmates into the
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Following repatriation in 1945, both
Ratzinger brothers entered a Catholic seminary in
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22 April 2005. "A boy's dreams lead from a village to the Vatican" (reprinted from
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described the older Ratzinger as "an anti-Nazi whose attempts to rein in Hitler's
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After Joseph Ratzinger was elected pontiff in 2005, following the death of Pope
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of the Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich. According to an interview with
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at Munich and assigned to the infantry barracks in the center of
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789:"Cousin recalls boy who dreamed of church life" (21 April 2005)
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Born Joseph Alois Ratzinger, 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022
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forced the family to move several times." According to the
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Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
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17 April 2005 ("Papal hopeful is a former Hitler Youth")
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Cardinal Ratzinger: the Vatican's enforcer of the faith
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Cardinal Ratzinger: the Vatican's enforcer of the faith
54:. His father served in both the Bavarian State Police (
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From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration
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Michael Cardinal von Faulhaber, Archbishop of Munich
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289:aircraft engine plant. Next they were sent to
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522:"New Pope Defied Nazis As Teen During WWII"
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60:) and the German national Regular Police (
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301:. From Innsbruck their unit went to
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651:. Ignatius Press. p. 39.
626:. Ignatius Press. p. 37.
598:. Ignatius Press. p. 36.
381:Priestly formation (1946–1951)
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1142:Introduction to Christianity
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507:. John L. Allen, 2000. p. 15
495:. John L. Allen, 2000. p. 14
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520:(23 April 2005).
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216:Nazi Germany
165:
158:John Paul II
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147:Hitler Youth
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76:Brown Shirts
71:Sunday Times
69:
55:
41:
28:
26:
1297:(2019 film)
1041:God Is Love
1028:Encyclicals
902:Resignation
331:German army
326:offensive.
52:South Tyrol
1325:Categories
1278:Alma Mater
1248:Ceremonial
881:Early life
467:References
371:Traunstein
365:camp near
335:Traunstein
201:Allegiance
162:Traunstein
101:eliminated
66:Traunstein
1189:Holy Week
1048:Spe salvi
1009:Ecumenism
888:(brother)
874:Biography
807:Biography
703:cite book
527:USA Today
518:USA Today
320:Anschluss
312:Hungarian
299:Innsbruck
265:1943–1945
238:Wehrmacht
218:(to 1945)
167:The Times
133:limousine
113:Reichstag
973:Theology
966:Theology
461:Freising
437:than to
387:Freising
339:deserted
324:Red Army
303:Gilching
226:Service/
1208:Travels
1014:Judaism
777:website
578:The Age
316:Austria
822:
688:
655:
630:
602:
451:Munich
295:Munich
228:branch
213:
172:Dachau
68:. The
1134:Books
1019:Islam
720:Notes
355:angel
89:Georg
820:ISBN
733:(UK)
709:link
686:ISBN
653:ISBN
628:ISBN
600:ISBN
560:2010
535:2010
417:and
27:The
449:of
375:POW
367:Ulm
363:POW
287:BMW
1327::
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701:{{
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586:^
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