Defiant Requiem

Defiant Requiem tells the story of the Nazi concentration camp, Terezin. Led by imprisoned conductor Raphael Schachter, the inmates of Terezin fought back...with art and music. Enduring hunger, disease and slave labor, the Jewish inmates of Terezin hold onto their humanity by staging plays, composing opera and using paper and ink to record the horrors around them.

This creative rebellion reaches its peak when Schachter teaches a choir of 150 inmates one of the world's most difficult and powerful choral works, Verdi's Requiem, re-imagined as a condemnation of the Nazis. The choir would soon be granted the ultimate opportunity: to confront the Nazis face to face...and sing to them what they dare not say.

For over ten years, conductor Murry Sidlin has dreamed of bringing the Requiem back to Terezin. Now, through soaring concert footage, powerful survivor recollections, sweeping cinematic dramatizations and evocative animation, Defiant Requiem brings the incredible story of this artistic uprising to life.