Anti Fascism

The Pope and the Nazis

It’s obvious to me that the new Pope— despite his enforced membership in the Hitler Youth and his service in the Wehrmacht– was by no means a zealous supporter of the Third Reich, and quite possibly detested it.

Still it’s worth keeping in mind– always– that there were a brave few Germans who didn’t just go along (enthusiastically or otherwise) with the Nazi madness, but who grasped its true nature and actively resisted it at the cost of their lives.

Even Traudl Junge, Hitler’s secretary, recognized this, albeit many years later. As she said at the end of the excellent movie “Downfall“:

I realized that she [Sophie Scholl] was the same age as me, and I realized that she was executed the same year I started working for Hitler. At that moment, I really sensed it was no excuse to be young and that it might have been possible to find out what was going on.