Pope Benedict XVI has spoken publicly for the first time about his involvement in the Hitler Youth during his teenage years under the Nazis at a youth rally in New York. BBC News reports that speaking during his visit to the United States, the pontiff said his youth had been "marred by a sinister regime that thought it had all the answers".
"Its influence grew, infiltrating schools and civic bodies, as well as politics and even religion, before it was fully recognised for the monster it was."
"It banished God and thus became impervious to anything true and good," he said.
Pope Benedict told a crowd of 30,000 young people on the field of St Joseph's Seminary, in the New York suburb of Yonkers, "let us thank God that so many people of your generation are able to enjoy the liberties which have arisen from the extension of democracy and respect for human rights."As a teenager, the pope was forced to join the Hitler Youth and he was conscripted into the German army towards the end of World War II, serving briefly in an anti-aircraft corps.
He deserted the German army towards the end of the war and was briefly held as a prisoner of war by the Allies in 1945.
After his release he studied theology and became a priest.
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