Madam, - What a pity to see a literary scholar of Senator David Norris's standing give such a misleading interpretation of the written word in paragraphs three and four of his letter of June 7th. The quotation he uses is from the 1996 book Salt of the Earth, which records an interview between journalist Peter Seewald and the then cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
Please allow me to quote more fully from the relevant paragraph on page 52: "As a seminarian I was registered in the Hitler Youth. As soon as I was out of the seminary, I never went back. And that was difficult because the tuition reduction, which I really needed, was tied to proof of attendance at the Hitler Youth. Thank goodness there was a very understanding mathematics teacher. He himself was a Nazi but an honest man, who said to me, 'Just go once and get the document so that we have it. . .' When he saw that I simply didn't want to, he said 'I understand, I'll take care of it', and so I was able to stay free of it".
Surely this cannot be read as indicating a "reason for joining the Hitler Youth in order to obtain study privileges", as suggested by Senator Norris? On the contrary, the passage shows a revulsion towards the whole idea.
The interview also stated that Hitler Youth membership became compulsory in 1941. Perhaps Senator Norris's source at the German embassy only considered the situation before then. - Yours, etc,
LEO CLEAR, Monkstown, Co Dublin.