Arrested and sent to the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp in 1941, the young Czech-Jewish conductor Rafael Schächter determined to sustain the courage and hope of his fellow prisoners by introducing them to great music. His most extraordinary act was to recruit 150 prisoners and teach them Verdi’s “Requiem” by rote, in a dank cellar using a single score, over multiple rehearsals, and after grueling days of forced labor.
The “Requiem” was performed on 16 occasions for the prisoners, the last and most infamous performance occurring on June 23, 1944, before high-ranking SS officers from Berlin and the International Red Cross to support the charade that Nazi prisoners were treated well and flourishing.
A multiple-award-winning documentary, “Defiant Requiem” tells the story of Schächter’s initiative using testimony provided by surviving members of his choir, cinematic dramatizations and animation techniques, while exploring the basis of the inmates’ view of Verdi’s work as a symbol of defiance and resistance against the Nazis.
Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Yiddish Book Center, 1021 West St. in Amherst. $4. 256-4900