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Letters They Wouldn't Publish

November 2, 2004

Letters to the Editor
The New York Sun
letters@nysun.com

Dear editor:

Gary Shapiro (Oct.26) reports that the artistic achievements of Hollywood director and playwright Moss Hart were honored on the 100th anniversary of his birth, with the issuing of a commemorative postage stamp bearing his likeness. But in addition to his cultural contributions, Hart deserves to be remembered for his crucial but long-forgotten role in alerting America about the Holocaust.

In early 1943, Hart volunteered to direct a Ben Hecht-authored dramatic pageant called “We Will Never Die.” Billy Rose was the producer, Kurt Weill composed an original score, and the cast included such stars as Edward G. Robinson, Paul Muni, Sylvia Sydney, Stella Adler and Luther Adler. Set against a backdrop of two forty-foot-high tablets of the Ten Commandments, “We Will Never Die” surveyed Jewish contributions to civilization throughout history, described the Nazi slaughter of the Jews, appealed for Allied intervention against the genocide, and culminated in an emotional recitation of “Kaddish,” the traditional Jewish prayer for the dead, by a group of elderly rabbis.

The performances of “We Will Never Die” were sponsored by the Bergson Group, a maverick political action committee led by Peter Bergson (Hillel Kook), a Zionist emissary from Jerusalem.

“We Will Never Die” opened at Madison Square Garden in March 1943, with two shows that were attended by more than 40,000 people. The event received substantial media coverage, thus carrying its message to audiences well beyond those who actually attended the pageant.

The Bergson group then staged the pageant in Washington, D.C.’s Constitution Hall, before an audience that included First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, six justices of the Supreme Court, more than two hundred Members of Congress, and numerous members of the international diplomatic corps. Mrs. Roosevelt was so moved by the performance that she devoted part of her next syndicated column to the pageant and the plight of Europe's Jews.

After Washington, it was staged in Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, and the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. More than 100,000 Americans attended performances of “We Will Never Die,” and many others read the news coverage or the First Lady’s newspaper column. For many, it was the first time they heard about the the mass murder of Europe’s Jews or gave it serious attention.

Shattering the silence surrounding the Holocaust was the first crucial step in trying to bring about U.S. intervention to save Jewish refugees. For that, too, Hart deserves to be remembered and honored.

Sincerely,