Pope Bendict recently visited Auschwitz and he made some statements which I regard as plain wrong.
He said he came there,
"as a son of the German people, a son of that people over which a ring of criminals rose to power by false promises of future greatness and the recovery of the nation’s honor, prominence and prosperity, but also through terror and intimidation."
As a German, who’s parents were young grown ups during that time, I recall their stories and tales about various people, and I got to know some of these too. These people supported Hitler and his deeds without being part of "a ring of criminals". They were probably not the majority, but they were those normal Germans who were not deceived, but supported the brutality of the regime out of their free personal will and mind.
The industialized genozide, the historic destinct character of the Shoa, was not just the rampage of a few people. To put the blame on a small criminal group is convinient. But it misses the historic facts.
The pope also failed to mention the agreeing silence at that time of most of his church’s functionaries. He did not mention the 2000 year long history of christian motivated antisemitism. And being in Poland to recall the six million Polish death through World War II without reminding that half of these were Jews and were not killed for their nationality but because of their religious heritage also misses a point.
Some of some these were victims of their Polish neighbors, like in Jedwabne during the war and even after the war in Kielce. The current radical right Polish government and the associated cathofashist Radio Maryja prove, that this sentiment is not extinguished, but very much alive.
That he should have mentioned too.