THIS DAY IN HISTORY-FEBURARY 16, 2019
On this date in 1943, the following 3/4-page ad appeared in the New York Times:
FOR SALE TO HUMANITY
70,000 JEWS
GUARANTEED HUMAN BEINGS AT $50 APIECE
“Roumania is tired of killing Jews,” said the text, written and signed
by Ben Hecht. “It has killed one hundred thousand of them in two
years. Roumania will now give Jews away practically for nothing.”
The ad was placed by the Committee for a Jewish Army of Stateless and
Palestinian Jews (CJA), a pressure group founded by Peter Bergson
(Hillel Kook), showman Billy Rose, and Hecht, among others, and was in
response to an offer that had been made to the Allies by upper-echelon
members of the Romanian government to assist in the transfer of some
70,000 Jews from their fascist state to Palestine or elsewhere.
CJA was denounced by mainstream Jewish organizations as alarmist,
unethical, and overly militant, but the campaign did prompt the
American Jewish Congress, with the backing of AFL-CIO unions, to
create a public protest at Madison Square Garden on March 1, demanding
American action to rescue the Jews.
Eight days later, also at Madison Square Garden, the CJA presented a pageant, “We Will Never Die,” with
a script by Ben Hecht, a score by Kurt Weil, direction by Moss Hart, and performers that included Paul Muni and Edward G. Robinson. The pageant was performed all over the U.S. and was viewed by Eleanor
Roosevelt, Supreme Court justices, and many other people of influence.
Still, no rescue plan was forthcoming from the State Department.
“The corpse of a people lies on the steps of civilization. Behold it.
Here it is! And no voice is heard to cry halt to the slaughter, no
government speaks to bid the murder of human millions end.” —Ben
Hecht, “We Will Never Die”
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