Mar 10, 2020 - Sale 2533

Sale 2533 - Lot 131

Price Realized: $ 2,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
(JUDAICA.) Program for "We Will Never Die, a Dramatic Pageant." Numerous illustrations and advertisements. [80] pages. 4to, original wrappers with cover illustration by Arthur Szyk; minor foxing and wear; signed by set designer S. Syrjala and stage manager Don Hirsch on interior pages. With one-page additional cast list laid in. Chicago, 19 May 1943

Additional Details

"We Will Never Die" was a dramatic pageant staged to bring national attention to the ongoing Holocaust, here described as "two million Jews slaughtered." It was written by Ben Hecht, and produced by Billy Rose. It opened at New York's Madison Square Garden on 9 March 1943 to a crowd of 40,000, and this Chicago Stadium performance was the first by the touring production. Jacob Ben-Ami and John Garfield are credited as the principal cast members, and an insert sheet credits Burgess Meredith (on loan from the Air Transport Command) as narrator. Numerous essays explain the horrors then being inflicted in Europe, and even many of the advertisements contain thoughtful messages of support.