Headline

'We Will Never Die'

Publication Date
Sunday, March 21, 1943
Historical Event
"We Will Never Die"
This database includes 395 articles about this event
Tags
Deportation and Mass Murder
Public Responses in America
Anti-Nazi Protest and Activism
Article Type
Other
Newspaper
The Des Moines Register
Location
Des Moines, Iowa
Page Section and Number
3 (in section 9)
Author/Byline
--
Article Text
[Image of cantors singing in front of two giant tablets depicting the Ten Commandments in Hebrew.]
Before a Backdrop of the Ten Commandments on two huge tablets, cantors sing the Jewish memorial song in this service for the more than two million Jewish civilians Hitler has slain in Europe. The scene is the finale of a pageant, "We Will Never Die," written by Ben Hecht and staged by Billy Rose, presented to 42,000 spectators in New York's vast Madison Square Garden earlier this month. Two performances were given to accommodate the crowds, with Paul Muni and Edward G. Robinson as chief narrators. The mass service was held under auspices of the Committee for a Jewish Army. In one scene, groups of actors who represented dead hostages of conquered nations appealed to the peace table, asking to be remembered.
History Unfolded Contributor
Lael F.
Location of Research
Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com)

Learn More about this Historical Event: "We Will Never Die"

Bibliography

Citron, Atay. "Pagentry and Theatre in the Service of Jewish Nationalism in the United States, 19331646." PhD dissertation, New York University, 1989.

Hecht, Ben. A Child of the Century. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1954.

Hecht, Ben. We Will Never Die. Two unpublished versions of the script bearing Weill's annotations. Weill-Lenya Research Center: Series 20 and Yale Collection, folder 475.

Peck, Sarah E. "The Campaign for an American Response to the Holocaust 19431945," Journal of Contemporary History 15, 367400.

Penkower, Monty N. "In Dramatic Dissent: The Bergson Boys," American Jewish History 70, 281309.

Whitfield, Stephen J. "The Politics of Pageantry, 19361946." American Jewish History 84, no. 3 (1996): 221251.

Wyman, David S. and Rafael Medoff. A Race Against Death: Peter Bergson, America, and the Holocaust. New York: The New Press, 2002.

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