(Jewish Group) 80 years ago, Hollywood stars pleaded for Europe's Jews

[Behind the Aegis]

‘A challenge to the soul of man’: 80 years ago, Hollywood stars pleaded for Europe’s Jews


In the final scene of “We Will Never Die” at Madison Square Garden in March of 1943, cantors sing kaddish for the 2 million Jews who had already died in the Holocaust. Courtesy of Getty/Bettman Collection

Eighty years ago this month, some of the biggest-name Hollywood and Broadway actors staged a pair of sold-out pageants at Madison Square Garden to pressure the United States and its allies to halt the Nazi genocide against European Jews.

The March 9, 1943, New York City performance of “We Will Never Die” would be repeated in several cities, including Washington, D.C., where First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, 200 members of Congress, and seven Supreme Court justices attended. Roosevelt called it “one of the most impressive and moving pageants” she had ever seen.

It featured movie star Paul Muni, famous for his role in the 1932 film Scarface; actor Edward G. Robinson, known for his depictions of 1930s gangsters; and Jacob Ben Ami, a founder of the Jewish Art Theater in New York.

Backing them was a cast of hundreds, including 20 rabbis rescued from European ghettos, most wearing black gowns and white prayer shawls, and actors portraying Jewish soldiers fighting for the American military. The backdrop was an enormous display of the Ten Commandments, each tablet 40 feet high. The orchestra played Kurt Weill’s original score as well as “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

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