Joseph Alois Ratzinger aka Pope Benedict XVI

[seekwhence]

Hello
While attending the MAX Show I was speaking with a vendor who said he knew of a collector who has a photo album from one of the Luftwaffe Flak Gunners who served with Joseph Alois Ratzinger (aka Pope Benedict XVI). In this album are purported to be photos that show the future cardinal and pope. Unfortunately, the vendor did not remember who has the album or how he can be contacted. I was wondering if anyone in the forum has heard this story and if so, how I might contact the owner. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

Dave (seekwhence)

[Massimo F.]

From Wikipedia:
"Following his 14th birthday in 1941, Ratzinger was conscripted in the Hitler Youth, as membership was required for all 14-year old German boys after December 1939,[7] but was an unenthusiastic member and refused to attend meetings.[8] His father was a bitter enemy of Nazism, believing it conflicted with the Catholic faith, according to biographer John L. Allen, Jr. In 1941, one of Ratzinger's cousins, a 14-year-old boy with Down syndrome, was taken away by the Nazi regime to a care center and killed there in secrecy during the Aktion T4 euthanasia campaign of Nazi eugenics.[9] In 1943 while still in seminary, he was drafted at age 16 into the German anti-aircraft corps. Ratzinger then trained in the German infantry, but a subsequent illness precluded him from the usual rigours of military duty. As the Allied front drew closer to his post in 1945, he deserted back to his family's home in Traunstein after his unit had ceased to exist, just as American troops established their headquarters in the Ratzinger household. As a German soldier, he was put in a POW camp, but was released a few months later at the end of the war in the summer of 1945. He reentered the seminary, along with his brother Georg, in November of that year.

Following repatriation in 1945, the two brothers entered Saint Michael Seminary in Traunstein, later studying at the Ducal Georgianum (Herzogliches Georgianum) of the Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich. They were both ordained in Freising on 29 June 1951 by Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber of Munich"

[Peter R.]

Be careful what you ask for - if you did find any authentic photos of the young Holyness in a Nazi uniform, Opus Dei wouldn't be far behind to give you the last rites ;-)

[HPL2008]

Be careful what you ask for - if you did find any authentic photos of the young Holyness in a Nazi uniform, Opus Dei wouldn't be far behind to give you the last rites ;-)

Actually, one is pretty well known:

http://pix.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/..._fmbg_0_11.jpg

[Mr-X]

From Wikipedia:
"... he was drafted at age 16 into the German anti-aircraft corps. "

Can anybody tell me if you could be drafted into becoming a 'Flakhelfer'?
I always thought it was a voluntary occupation.

[Mr-X]

I've just done a little research and answered my own question.

Also from Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luftwaffenhelfer
"The Luftwaffenhelfer program was the implementation of the "Kriegshilfseinsatz der Jugend bei der Luftwaffe" ("Deployment of the youth to support the war effort with the air force") order issued on January 22nd, 1943. The order called for drafting whole school classes with male students born in 1926 and 1927 into a military corps, supervised by Hitler Youth and Luftwaffe personnel. The draft was later extended to include the 1928 and 1929 births."

The Pope was born in 1927 and there for drafted to served as a Luftwaffenhelfer