Joseph Ratzinger
Joseph Ratzinger – Pope Benedict XVI
Joseph Ratzinger, who was elected as Pope Benedict XVI in 2005, was conscripted into the Hitler Youth following his 14th birthday in 1941.
In 1943, while still in seminary, he was drafted into the German anti-aircraft corps as Luftwaffenhelfer, and later trained in the Wehrmacht.
As the Allied front drew closer to his post in 1945, he deserted back to his family’s home in Traunstein, Bavaria, just as American troops were establishing their headquarters there.
As a German soldier, he was detained in a POW camp but was released a few months later in the summer of 1945. He re-entered the seminary and was eventually ordained as a priest in 1951.
In 1941, Ratzinger, 14, and his brother, Georg, were enrolled in the Hitler Youth when it became mandatory for all boys. Soon after, he records in his book, "The Salt of the Earth," he was let out because of his intention to study for the priesthood.
In 1943, like many teenage boys, he was drafted as a helper for an anti-aircraft brigade, which defended a BMW plant outside Munich. Later, he dug anti-tank trenches.
When he turned 18, on April 16, 1945, he was put through basic training, alongside men in their 30s and 40s, drafted as the Third Reich went through its death agony. He was stationed near his hometown — he doesn't say where — but did not see combat with the approaching U.S. troops.