Auschwitz: It's all about the German Catholics

I ran across a really interesting analysis of the Pope's recent speech at Auschwitz on the blog Is That Legal. (Shorter version of the speech: German people good, small band of Nazis bad. They misled us. Besides, they were trying to wipe out Christianity, so we are all victims.)

I, like the blogger, was amazed that the Catholic church would choose a former member of Hitler Youth to head it. One would expect from a future pope exemplary bravery, not sheepish compliance. I mean, the pope is supposed to be a leader, God's representative on earth. (Maybe God likes genocide, and that's why there is so much of it?)

Just because he didn't man the ovens at Treblinka, doesn't make his participation in Hitler's Grand Experiment acceptable. There were many Germans who fought the evil that was Nazism, and many of them died doing so. That Ratzinger felt it was more important to get a Hitler Youth funded scholarship to go to seminary, rather than fight the greatest evil of the twentieth century, says a lot about this character.

Or, perhaps, like Cheney and the chickenhawk neocons, he just had other priorities.

And, from another website, a commenter had this to say:

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then I came to Auschwitz
and I spoke about how mean
they were to Catholics.

Which pretty much sums up this Pope's actions.