They first tried to produce a show titled Fight for Freedom, but gave up due to lack of funds. Finally, a pageant produced by Billy Rose and directed by Moss Hart titled We Will Never Die had two performances on March 9, 1943, in front of 40,000 spectators at Madison Square Garden. As part of the performances, "hundreds of voices were raised in prayer and song" to remind people about what was then happening to Europe's Jewish population, writes author Steven Bach. Two hundred rabbis and two hundred cantors invoked various prayers on stage. There were narrations and performances by Jewish stars, including Edward G. Robinson, Sam Levene, Paul Muni, Joan Leslie, Katina Paxinou, Sylvia Sidney, Edward Arnold, John Garfield, Paul Henreid, Jacob Ben-Ami, Blanche Yurka, J. Edward Bromberg, Akim Tamiroff, Roman Bohnen, Art Smith, Helene Thimig, Shimen Ruskin, and Leo Bulgakov, and by non-Jewish stars such as Ralph Bellamy, Frank Sinatra and Burgess Meredith.
