He is most immediately remembered outside the Catholic Church for his surprise resignation, the resignation of the first pope since 1415, and his subsequent life as the world’s first “pope emeritus” in centuries.
Benedict was born Joseph Ratzinger on April 16, 1927, in Bavaria. He had come of age in Germany after World War I at the same time that the Nazi regime was gaining power.
Roman Catholic families were persecuted and punished by the Nazi Party for their opposition to state policies that shaped their desire to obey the church.
Ratzinger was inspired to join the priesthood as a child when he was tasked with giving flowers to Archbishop Michael von Faulhaber of Munich. Seeing the priest’s crimson robes and demeanor, the five-year-old Ratzinger declared that he would become a cardinal.
“It was the cardinal’s way of looking, his pads, and his associated skirts that made such an impression on him,” Benedict once recalled in an interview with the New York Times.
At the age of 14, Ratzinger was assigned by law to be a member of the Hitler Youth along with other German children in his age group. Ratzinger was outraged by the organization and became outraged after his brother, who had Down syndrome, was kidnapped and killed by the government as part of the Aktion T4 campaign.
Despite attending seminary, Ratzinger was drafted into the anti-aircraft corps in 1943 and then into the regular army during World War II. He left the German military in April 1945.
Benedict said he chose to leave the military after witnessing the horrors of war, including Jews in Hungary being sent to death camps, according to a 1993 interview with Time Magazine.