Sunday, April 7, 10 p.m. | WKAR
In the face of horrific living conditions, starvation and the threat of deportation to Auschwitz, the Jewish inmates of Terezin concentration camp — artists, musicians, poets and writers — fought back … with art and music.
Led by conductor Raphael Schachter, they re-imagined a Catholic liturgical work, Verdi’s Requiem, as a condemnation of the Nazis. Ultimately, they performed for Nazi brass, singing what they dared not say.
Six decades later, conductor Murry Sidlin and a new choir take Verdi’s Requiem back to Terezin and bring the story of Raphael Schachter’s artistic uprising back to life. Bebe Neuwirth narrates Defiant Requiem, which airs on Holocaust Remembrance Day.