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"We Will Never Die" 1943 Hollywood Performance to Raise Awareness About The Holocaust:
Entire performance in the youtube above.
Rabbis and cantors invoked various prayers on stage. There were narrations and performances by Jewish stars, including Edward G. Robinson, Sam Levene, Paul Muni, Joan Leslie, Katina Paxinou, Sylvia Sidney, Edward Arnold, John Garfield, Paul Henreid, Jacob Ben-Ami, Blanche Yurka, J. Edward Bromberg, Akim Tamiroff, Roman Bohnen, Art Smith, Helene Thimig, Shimen Ruskin, Leo Bulgakov and John Garfield, and by non-Jewish stars such as Ralph Bellamy, Frank Sinatra and Burgess Meredith.
We Will Never Die, a musical stage performance with a large cast and orchestra, raised awareness among Americans about the murder of European Jews. The pageant, written by Hollywood screenwriter Ben Hecht and sponsored by the Committee for a Jewish Army, was performed in many American cities during the spring and summer of 1943.
In late November 1942, newspapers throughout the United States reported that Nazi Germany and its collaborators had already killed two million European Jews as part of its mass murder campaign. Many Americans found it difficult to believe the information; a January 1943 poll showed that only 48% believed it to be true.
Oscar-winning Hollywood screenwriter Ben Hecht, who was Jewish, believed the information and was horrified by it. His February 1943 article in The American Mercury magazine, “The Extermination of the Jews,” recounted Nazi terror from the victims’ point of view. The piece was soon excerpted in Reader’s Digest for a wider audience and retitled “Remember Us.”
After writing these magazine pieces, Hecht decided to author a dramatic pageant to further raise awareness of the plight of European Jews. He called the show We Will Never Die. To produce the show, Hecht teamed up with Peter Bergson, the militant Zionist leader of the “Committee for a Jewish Army.” Bergson’s committee, which campaigned for the formation of a Jewish Army fighting under Allied command, had already been planning a rally at Madison Square Garden in early March, to be called “Action—Not Pity.” After agreeing to work together, Bergson opted to stage Hecht’s performance instead.
In late November 1942, newspapers throughout the United States reported that Nazi Germany and its collaborators had already killed two million European Jews as part of its mass murder campaign. Many Americans found it difficult to believe the information; a January 1943 poll showed that only 48% believed it to be true.
Oscar-winning Hollywood screenwriter Ben Hecht, who was Jewish, believed the information and was horrified by it. His February 1943 article in The American Mercury magazine, “The Extermination of the Jews,” recounted Nazi terror from the victims’ point of view. The piece was soon excerpted in Reader’s Digest for a wider audience and retitled “Remember Us.”
After writing these magazine pieces, Hecht decided to author a dramatic pageant to further raise awareness of the plight of European Jews. He called the show We Will Never Die. To produce the show, Hecht teamed up with Peter Bergson, the militant Zionist leader of the “Committee for a Jewish Army.” Bergson’s committee, which campaigned for the formation of a Jewish Army fighting under Allied command, had already been planning a rally at Madison Square Garden in early March, to be called “Action—Not Pity.” After agreeing to work together, Bergson opted to stage Hecht’s performance instead.
more at:
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-we-will-never-die-pageant
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