DEFIANT REQUIEM: VOICES OF RESISTANCE

This documentary tells the story of the concentration camp "Terezin" in the Czech Republic, where a large number of Jewish artists, musicians, poets and writers were incarcerated under the Nazis. In the face of horrific living conditions, starvation, and the threat of deportation to Auschwitz, the inmates of Terezin stood up to their Nazi oppressors and did the unthinkable: they fought back with art and music. Led by a determined conductor named Raphael Schachter, the Jews of Terezin re-imagined a Catholic liturgical work - Verdi's "Requiem" - as a condemnation of the Nazis, rehearsing tirelessly night after night, learning the Latin by rote. Ultimately, they would perform in front of members of the Red Cross and the architect of the concentration camp system, Adolf Eichmann, singing what they could not say. Six decades later, conductor Murry Sidlin and a new choir bring Verdi's Requiem to Terezin once again, and the story of Raphael Schachter back to life.