Verdi’s Requiem and Defiance | Juliek’s Violin: Part 2

Jeffrey Jamner describes how Jewish prisoners in the Nazi concentration camp in Terezin found hope through music and a form of defiance through the performances of Verdi’s Requiem.

Verdi’s Requiem was performed by Jewish prisoners at a concentration camp in Terrezin. Despite the squalor, the forced labor, disease, and hunger, these prisoners found community, strength, and even hope from the hours spent rehearsing and performing this beautiful music. We have learned from surviving members of Rafel Schaechter’s chorus in Terrezin that performing this music was an act of resistance and of defiance, their way of showing that despite the atrocities committed against them, the Nazis could not strip away their essential humanity.