The Nazi Pope

From Times of London:

Pope Benedict XVI upset the Jewish community in Poland yesterday by not stopping to pay tribute to the victims of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising against the Nazis.

I felt a little guilty when I first thought of Herr Ratzinger as our Nazi Pope. Sure, he belonged to the Hitler Youth League (seriously!), but a lot of Germans at the time were forced to go along. My stepfather was drafted as a physician in the Luftwaffe during WWII.

But forgodssake IF you belonged to the Hitler Youth League (seriously!), and IF you are the head of a religious organization which, within your lifetime, ignored the slaughter of Jews within miles of the Vatican, wouldn't you order your motorcade to slow down by Jewish graves for a Photo Op?

I mean, EVEN if you really don't give care?

5/29 UPDATE from Andrew Sullivan on Auschwitz speech:

I was unimpressed by his speech. It was a function of resilient denial - denial that the German people had en masse backed Nazism long after its true nature had become known; and denial of the criminal silence and acquiescence of the Vatican hierarchy during that period of time.