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Dean Henderson's avatar

Thanks for the restacks Fel, Graeme, SovereignJ, Tracy, Bishop Frances, Will, MXTM & Real Politik in Romania!

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Roger Sterling's avatar

This entire piece appears to be flawed - fueled by the need for a specific narrative. For example, to claim that JP2 was a Nazi chemical salesman is demonstrably false. Karol Wojtyła, who later became Pope John Paul II, was never a chemical salesman for IG Farben or involved in any way with the Nazi industrial complex.

Karol Wojtyła During the 1940s

In 1938, he moved to Kraków to study Polish literature at Jagiellonian University.

In 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, and the university was shut down.

Between 1940 and 1944, he worked in a quarry and later in the Solvay chemical plant in Kraków to avoid deportation to Germany for forced labor. However, this was a manual labor job, not a sales or corporate position.

In 1942, he entered an underground seminary run by Cardinal Adam Sapieha while still working at the plant.

He was ordained as a priest in 1946.

About IG Farben

IG Farben was a major German chemical company that played a crucial role in the Nazi war effort, including producing Zyklon B, the chemical used in gas chambers. While IG Farben had many subsidiaries and controlled large parts of the chemical industry in occupied Europe, there is no evidence that Wojtyła had any connection to the company.

Thus, the claim that Karol Wojtyła was a chemical salesman for IG Farben is a misrepresentation of his wartime experience. He was a manual laborer at a chemical plant, working to survive under Nazi occupation—not part of any Nazi-affiliated corporation.

Again, such a glaring error makes the whole piece suspect.

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