December 1, 1942
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Letter between Pope Pius XII, who served as Pope during World War II, and a German Jesuit reveals Pius knew of the atrocities committed by the Nazis during the Holocaust —James Gordon, Dailymail.com and Wires, September 18, 2023 |
You knew and what did you do?
The Jesuit priest wrote to you.
The SS was running death factories,
6,000 Poles and Jews killed every day.
You knew about Auschwitz and Dachau.
Did you pray on your lapis lazuli rosary
for the teenaged girl who saw her parents murdered?
Face down on her wooden bunk,
after the tan suits shaved her head and pubic hair.
Your supplicants say you worked
behind the scenes to help Jews
and stayed mute to prevent worsening
the situation for Catholics in Nazi-occupied Europe.
Your detractors say you lacked courage,
despite pleas from Allied powers fighting Germany.
Pius, Pius you knew, you knew.
The yellowed typewritten letter says it all.
Pius what did you fail to do?
Susan Cossette lives and writes in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Author of Peggy Sue Messed Up, she is a recipient of the University of Connecticut’s Wallace Stevens Poetry Prize. A two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Rust and Moth, The New Verse News, ONE ART, As it Ought to Be, Anti-Heroin Chic, The Amethyst Review, Crow & Cross Keys, Loch Raven Review, and in the anthologies Fast Fallen Women (Woodhall Press), Tuesdays at Curley’s (Yuganta Press), and After the Equinox.
