A reader passing along a WSJ.com e-mail:

New Pope Selected
Roman Catholic cardinals selected German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, 78, to succeed the late John Paul II. He chose the papal name Benedict XVI. Cardinal Ratzinger was widely considered a favorite for the post, in part because of his closeness to the widely popular John Paul, who died earlier this month. He is something of a controversial figure, however, because of his strict defense of conservative church doctrine, at a time when the church is divided on such matters. He was also briefly a member of the Hitler Youth movement and served in the German military in World War II. He has said he was an unenthusiastic member of the Hitler Youth and that he never fired a shot in combat. He claims to have opposed Hitler’s Nazi regime in Germany, but said resistance would have been hopeless. He deserted from the military in 1944 and was sent to a prisoner of war camp.

But the WSJ news teams seems fairer:

Traunstein was also where Cardinal Ratzinger went through the harrowing years of Nazi rule and World War II. In his memoirs, Cardinal Ratzinger wrote that he was enrolled in the Nazi youth movement against his will when he was 14 in 1941, when membership was compulsory. He said he was soon let out because of his studies for the priesthood.
Two years later he was drafted into a Nazi antiaircraft unit as a helper, a common task for teenage boys too young to be soldiers. A year later he was released, only to be sent to the Austrian-Hungarian border to construct tank barriers.
He deserted the Germany army in May 1945 and returned to Traunstein — a risky move, since deserters were shot on the spot if caught, or publicly hanged as examples to others. When he arrived home, U.S. soldiers took him prisoner and held him in a prisoner-of-war camp for several weeks. Upon his release, he re-entered the seminary.