When the Nazis knock on your front door,
Do you bravely open it? Swallow the dread?
When you do not know what they will do for
Their Fuhrer, their cause, and you may end up dead?
After his camp internment by Hitler, many
Sought his release by initiating global campaigns,
And many leaders and states began a scrutiny
Of the intellectual’s fate. With growing disdain,
Hitler’s henchmen, ministers Goebbels and Goring,
Fought over his fate, as he now ‘knew too much to be freed.’
To award him the Peace Prize would, well, be alarming…
Sent to a clinic, he just worsened. He was offered a trade:
Give up the prize and go free! He said ‘No.’ In a real ‘fray,’
It was decided to award the Peace prize to this dissident
Fighting for simple rights. So it went to this saint – as meant.
June Edvenson 