What did Pope Benedict XVI do in World War II?

Answer 1

Following his 14th birthday in 1941, he was enrolled in the "Hitler Youth", as it was against the law not to enroll since 1939...he was unenthusiastic and refused to attend meetings! At age 16 he was drafted into the German anti-aircraft corps, but a subsequent illness precluded him from the usual rigours of military duty. After some time, he abandoned his post and returned home absent without leave. At the end of the war he was taken prisoner of war by the American forces for several weeks before being released.

He and his brother Georg entered the priesthood after the war in the summer of 1945.Neither he nor his brother had any voluntary involvement World War II!

Answer 2

Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli was elected to the papacy on March 2nd 1939 taking the name of Pius XII. He ruled until his death in 1958 and so was not only the pope during the entire Second World War but also through its aftermath and the beginning of the Cold War.
Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII was the pope during World War II.

Answer 3

Pope Pius XII was the Pope during the Second World War. All of the Popes since then have lived through it, John XXIII, Paul VI, and John Paul I were all Italian. John Paul II lived through the worst of it in Poland, and Benedict XVI, who lived in Germany at that time, was even drafted for a brief period in his youth, into Hitler's youth corps.

Answer 4

He was drafted into the German anti-aircraft corps as Luftwaffenhelfer (air force child soldier) in 1943 at the age of 16. He then trained in the German infantry. 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 a headquarters in the Ratzinger household. As a German soldier, he was interned in a prisoner of war camp, but released a few months later at the end of the war in May 1945.

Answer 5

He wasn't Pope then...he was born in 1920. It was Pope Pius XII who was the Pope during World War 2.

Google it.

Answer 6

Pope Pius XII was pope throughout World War 2.