0:00:05 > 0:00:09ORCHESTRA TUNES UP
0:00:18 > 0:00:20APPLAUSE Ssh!
0:00:24 > 0:00:26MUSIC STARTS
0:00:26 > 0:00:29WOMAN SINGS
0:00:31 > 0:00:34In the Spring of 1944,
0:00:34 > 0:00:39the Nazis attend an unusual performance of Verdi's Requiem.
0:00:42 > 0:00:45The choir and their conductor
0:00:45 > 0:00:49are all prisoners in the concentration camp Terezin.
0:00:53 > 0:00:57The inmates of Terezin channel the darkest of human experience
0:00:57 > 0:01:01into an explosion of art and music,
0:01:01 > 0:01:05and they would use it to defy the Nazis.
0:01:05 > 0:01:08Doing a performance was not entertainment.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11It was a fight for life.
0:01:15 > 0:01:19It was something which made us strong.
0:01:19 > 0:01:24It is the reason why we are calling it cultural resistance.
0:01:24 > 0:01:27It has given us a resistance against our fate.
0:01:30 > 0:01:35We just tried to reach something that's bigger than we are.
0:01:35 > 0:01:39And let's hope that we are singing to God,
0:01:39 > 0:01:40and God can't help but hear us.
0:01:45 > 0:01:50Now, a new choir brings the Requiem back to Terezin...
0:01:52 > 0:01:56..and the story of this artistic uprising to life.
0:01:56 > 0:02:01Here they were, surrounded on an hourly basis by man's worst,
0:02:01 > 0:02:05and these Jewish prisoners and the creative people here
0:02:05 > 0:02:09were determined to remind everyone of man's best.
0:02:15 > 0:02:17And I brought the Verdi here
0:02:17 > 0:02:22because I want to assure these people that I've heard them.
0:02:23 > 0:02:29Now we have to tell the people of the unmarked graves...
0:02:29 > 0:02:32that we've heard them.
0:02:32 > 0:02:35SINGING
0:03:15 > 0:03:17LOW CHATTER
0:03:28 > 0:03:30In a small town in the Czech Republic,
0:03:30 > 0:03:35a warehouse is being prepared for a reawakening.
0:03:37 > 0:03:41Tomorrow, an American conductor will stage a special performance,
0:03:41 > 0:03:46a tribute to a prison chorus and to another conductor,
0:03:46 > 0:03:51Rafael Schachter, who led them in an extraordinary rebellion.
0:03:52 > 0:03:55This is the first time that the story of Schachter
0:03:55 > 0:03:59and his chorus and its connection to the ghetto concentration camp
0:03:59 > 0:04:03of Terezin has come home to the place where it was born.
0:04:04 > 0:04:06It belongs here.
0:04:06 > 0:04:11On this very ground, these people walked and they lived as prisoners.
0:04:15 > 0:04:17Within these walls,
0:04:17 > 0:04:21a camp of Jewish prisoners stood eye to eye with their Nazi captors
0:04:21 > 0:04:25and fought back with music,
0:04:25 > 0:04:29performing one of the world's most difficult choral compositions,
0:04:29 > 0:04:32Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem Mass.
0:04:33 > 0:04:37For over ten years, conductor Murry Sidlin has dreamed
0:04:37 > 0:04:39of bringing his own chorus here...
0:04:39 > 0:04:40Thank you so much.
0:04:40 > 0:04:43..to re-ignite their spirit.
0:04:43 > 0:04:46Ever since I learned what happened here,
0:04:46 > 0:04:49and the extraordinary artistic statement
0:04:49 > 0:04:55that Schachter and his chorus decided they were going to make,
0:04:55 > 0:04:59I thought that it would be the right thing
0:04:59 > 0:05:03to honour not only him but all those who sang and all those who listened,
0:05:03 > 0:05:08and to reawaken all these walls with the sounds of the Verdi,
0:05:08 > 0:05:11which have not been heard here for a long, long time.
0:05:13 > 0:05:15Thank you. You can go ahead now, please.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20OK, we need the F now. Here we go.
0:05:20 > 0:05:22SHE SINGS
0:05:40 > 0:05:44The story of this Defiant Requiem
0:05:44 > 0:05:48begins as Jewish life in Czechoslovakia comes to an end.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56Prague, 1941.
0:06:06 > 0:06:10Musician Rafael Schachter is preparing for a journey.
0:06:10 > 0:06:13Where he is going...he has no idea.
0:06:15 > 0:06:19Hitler's Nazi empire has swallowed up the city,
0:06:19 > 0:06:22one of Europe's most vibrant cultural capitals.
0:06:24 > 0:06:28The Nazis crush the city's creative community,
0:06:28 > 0:06:32and Schachter and his fellow Jewish artists find themselves shut out,
0:06:32 > 0:06:34branded as outsiders.
0:06:36 > 0:06:39It started that we had to wear the star.
0:06:39 > 0:06:43If you were found without it, you would be punished by being deported.
0:06:43 > 0:06:45My father was kicked out of his office
0:06:45 > 0:06:48within days of the German invasion,
0:06:48 > 0:06:52without pension or any compensation to support his family,
0:06:52 > 0:06:57and all financial assets were frozen. Inaccessible to Jews.
0:07:00 > 0:07:05At 29 years old, Rafael Schachter has established himself in Prague
0:07:05 > 0:07:07as a talented pianist and conductor.
0:07:09 > 0:07:13But under the Nazis, Jews are banned from the arts,
0:07:13 > 0:07:18ejected from schools, and confined to their homes by an evening curfew.
0:07:20 > 0:07:22Robbed of his art and his income,
0:07:22 > 0:07:26Schachter struggles to make a living as a piano teacher.
0:07:27 > 0:07:31He was my music teacher since I was about eight years old.
0:07:32 > 0:07:38Well, he was supposed to teach me to play piano.
0:07:38 > 0:07:40He couldn't make me a musician,
0:07:40 > 0:07:44but he introduced me to the world of music.
0:07:50 > 0:07:55The city's famed theatres and concert halls fall silent.
0:07:56 > 0:07:59And in November of 1941,
0:07:59 > 0:08:04the Nazis lower the curtain on Jewish life in Prague.
0:08:05 > 0:08:11You started filtering news that they are making lists of Jewish families
0:08:11 > 0:08:13and they'd be sent somewhere.
0:08:13 > 0:08:18There was my mother, my brother, sister and myself.
0:08:18 > 0:08:22And we all got a transport number.
0:08:22 > 0:08:26S-204, 205,
0:08:26 > 0:08:31206 and me, 716.
0:08:34 > 0:08:38And I thought that was like a hand of fate touched me.
0:08:39 > 0:08:41That's bad news.
0:08:42 > 0:08:45The Nazis force all Jewish families to pack up their lives,
0:08:45 > 0:08:49and limit them to 50kg of luggage.
0:08:50 > 0:08:54110 lb selected from a lifetime.
0:08:56 > 0:08:59Rafael Schachter takes the things that give his life meaning -
0:08:59 > 0:09:03the tools of his trade, piano scores,
0:09:03 > 0:09:06including Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem Mass.
0:09:13 > 0:09:16At 5am on a November morning,
0:09:16 > 0:09:19Schachter and hundreds of Czech Jews
0:09:19 > 0:09:21board the first train into the unknown.
0:09:21 > 0:09:22board the first train into the unknown.
0:09:26 > 0:09:29When we came to the station,
0:09:29 > 0:09:34we have been surrounded by the SS with rifles
0:09:34 > 0:09:38and from that moment, we have been the prisoners.
0:09:42 > 0:09:47We came to the station and there were already a lot of people
0:09:47 > 0:09:51and old ones and children crying, and pushed into a train.
0:09:51 > 0:09:55And off we went. Had no idea where we were going.
0:09:59 > 0:10:02The train carries them just 40 miles west of Prague
0:10:02 > 0:10:05to an old garrison town
0:10:05 > 0:10:11transformed into a new Jewish prison camp, Theresienstadt.
0:10:11 > 0:10:13Terezin.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18The town is selected by the man charged with rounding up
0:10:18 > 0:10:24Europe's Jews, Nazi Lieutenant Colonel Adolf Eichmann.
0:10:27 > 0:10:30With only a half square mile in area
0:10:30 > 0:10:32and confined by a high wall,
0:10:32 > 0:10:34the old fortress would serve as
0:10:34 > 0:10:38a ready-made holding pen for the Czech Jews.
0:10:42 > 0:10:46Even the town's 18th-century foundation is eerily prophetic,
0:10:46 > 0:10:50built in the shape of a six-pointed star.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56Thousands of families are herded into the new Jewish ghetto.
0:10:58 > 0:11:01The train stopped at a small place called Bolshevize,
0:11:01 > 0:11:05and from there we walked endless, endless, endless
0:11:05 > 0:11:10country roads, two by two, with all our luggage.
0:11:11 > 0:11:14The railroad station was two miles away.
0:11:14 > 0:11:20We had to carry the allowed 110 lb of luggage...
0:11:22 > 0:11:27..and we walked the two miles to enter through one of the gates
0:11:27 > 0:11:29into the total unknown.
0:11:46 > 0:11:49We were ordered, "Raus," "fast, fast,"
0:11:49 > 0:11:52because the Germans always had us to do everything on the double.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55And no matter how fast we did it, it was never fast enough.
0:11:55 > 0:11:59And when we all went through the gates
0:11:59 > 0:12:01I knew that life will never be the same.
0:12:12 > 0:12:16The Nazi guards strip all new arrivals of cash and valuables
0:12:16 > 0:12:19and any semblance of normal life.
0:12:20 > 0:12:23Children are seized from their parents,
0:12:23 > 0:12:27husbands and wives separated into bunks for men and women.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32The dusty barracks of the fortress are soon
0:12:32 > 0:12:36stuffed from the floors to the attics with Jewish prisoners.
0:12:38 > 0:12:42Rafael Schachter carves out a space for himself
0:12:42 > 0:12:44in the rafters of an old house.
0:12:46 > 0:12:48Everything was organised.
0:12:48 > 0:12:54There was organisation for every part of life in Terezin -
0:12:54 > 0:12:58how to build the three-storey bunks,
0:12:58 > 0:13:03your living space was measured out exactly 1.6 metres.
0:13:03 > 0:13:09At first, we lived in a huge hall,
0:13:09 > 0:13:12where there were, I think, about 400 people in one room.
0:13:12 > 0:13:16My mother was in a different barracks and so was my sister,
0:13:16 > 0:13:18so we could not visit them.
0:13:18 > 0:13:23For several weeks, my mother and I had no idea where my father was,
0:13:23 > 0:13:26and he had no idea where we were.
0:13:27 > 0:13:31The day after his arrival, Rafael Schachter is assigned to
0:13:31 > 0:13:32a construction detail...
0:13:34 > 0:13:37..forced to work up to 100 hours a week.
0:13:38 > 0:13:43Other inmates work in factories, sewing uniforms for German soldiers.
0:13:45 > 0:13:48Jewish artists are drafted to produce Nazi propaganda.
0:13:52 > 0:13:55But at night, with stolen supplies,
0:13:55 > 0:14:00they risk their lives to secretly record the horrors around them.
0:14:21 > 0:14:24The moment you open your eyes, the struggle began.
0:14:24 > 0:14:28Of course, the struggle for the day-by-day trivial needs -
0:14:28 > 0:14:30wash yourself, reach the latrines.
0:14:30 > 0:14:35We had been converted from regular people to inmates.
0:14:42 > 0:14:46The German slogan at the camp is "work will make you free"...
0:14:52 > 0:14:55..but refusal to work means a brutal incarceration
0:14:55 > 0:14:58in the nearby small fortress,
0:14:58 > 0:15:02where inmates are tortured and executed.
0:15:05 > 0:15:07For everyone else in Terezin,
0:15:07 > 0:15:11the constant hunger is a torture all of its own.
0:15:11 > 0:15:13Of course there was no food.
0:15:13 > 0:15:17There wasn't more than maybe a cupful, like this,
0:15:17 > 0:15:20and some of it was just some kind of watery bits, or whatever,
0:15:20 > 0:15:26but the food that we swallowed, it was never quite enough.
0:15:45 > 0:15:51Who of us worked in the kitchen, we could have a little bit more food
0:15:51 > 0:15:55than just one potato and one ladle of soup,
0:15:55 > 0:15:58but I remember when we were giving it out,
0:15:58 > 0:16:02the old people were standing in the line for hours
0:16:02 > 0:16:07and if it was soup, they came with the little dish,
0:16:07 > 0:16:10and would say, "Please, from the bottom,"
0:16:10 > 0:16:16so that there will be something - a piece of potato maybe
0:16:16 > 0:16:19or a string of something -
0:16:19 > 0:16:23so for them, it was real suffering.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29Surrounded by misery, Rafael Schachter realises
0:16:29 > 0:16:33that what will set them free isn't work, but music.
0:16:37 > 0:16:40He discovers an old piano in a barracks basement
0:16:40 > 0:16:43and resolves to take a risk of his own.
0:16:45 > 0:16:49His first recruit is a 21-year-old camp cook
0:16:49 > 0:16:53who shares his attic living space, Edgar Krasa.
0:16:55 > 0:17:00He assessed immediately that a prison mentality may sink in,
0:17:00 > 0:17:03so he encouraged us,
0:17:03 > 0:17:06after the assigned work was done,
0:17:06 > 0:17:09to come to the basement and sing,
0:17:09 > 0:17:12starting out with Czech popular songs.
0:17:16 > 0:17:18At night, after long days at work,
0:17:18 > 0:17:22Schachter begins holding secret musical gatherings.
0:17:22 > 0:17:26THEY SING
0:17:42 > 0:17:47He taps deep into Czech pride, rallying his fellow inmates
0:17:47 > 0:17:51with a performance of Smetana's comic opera, The Bartered Bride.
0:17:52 > 0:17:56You forget where you are, you forget the surroundings.
0:17:56 > 0:17:59It was like as if I was in a concert hall in Prague,
0:17:59 > 0:18:02and it didn't matter where it was.
0:18:04 > 0:18:11This hour-and-a-half or so shortened the time we had for brooding
0:18:11 > 0:18:14about our new lifestyle, and it did more.
0:18:14 > 0:18:19The next day at work, we already occupied our mind
0:18:19 > 0:18:23looking forward to the evening to sing again.
0:18:23 > 0:18:26THEY SING
0:18:32 > 0:18:34To carry these songs which we all knew,
0:18:34 > 0:18:37you carried it with you in your mind
0:18:37 > 0:18:40and it was a part of the mechanism to help you to cope.
0:18:40 > 0:18:41THEY SING
0:18:48 > 0:18:52Rafael Schachter has opened a refuge for his fellow inmates
0:18:52 > 0:18:54with music.
0:18:54 > 0:18:57They have no idea how important it will become.
0:18:57 > 0:18:59THEY SING
0:19:02 > 0:19:05THUNDER RUMBLES
0:19:11 > 0:19:15OK. Let's get settled, please, so we can begin. Ssh.
0:19:16 > 0:19:18Also, be up when the piano plays.
0:19:18 > 0:19:20OK? We talked about that. Thank you.
0:19:20 > 0:19:24Good. OK. Let's begin from the beginning, please.
0:19:30 > 0:19:33TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS
0:19:44 > 0:19:47Can we have the train whistle a little louder
0:19:47 > 0:19:49and a little sooner, please?
0:20:02 > 0:20:03'We all have a powerful emotional storehouse,
0:20:03 > 0:20:07'We all have a powerful emotional storehouse,
0:20:07 > 0:20:11'and we don't necessarily have the language
0:20:11 > 0:20:14'to get at the power of our feelings.
0:20:14 > 0:20:16'When common language can no longer get even close'
0:20:16 > 0:20:21'When common language can no longer get even close'
0:20:21 > 0:20:24to what it is we're feeling, that's when art begins.
0:20:24 > 0:20:26THEY SING
0:20:47 > 0:20:51Inside the walls of Terezin, Schachter and his fellow inmates
0:20:51 > 0:20:55unleash a flood of artistic creation.
0:20:55 > 0:20:58THEY SING
0:20:58 > 0:21:02Musicians stage concerts of imprisoned Jewish composers
0:21:02 > 0:21:04Viktor Ullmann and Gideon Klein.
0:21:05 > 0:21:10Pavel Haas and Hans Kraza write all-new musical compositions.
0:21:12 > 0:21:15Playwrights mount new productions,
0:21:15 > 0:21:19creating sets and costumes with whatever materials they can find.
0:21:20 > 0:21:24Terezin erupts into a thriving cultural centre,
0:21:24 > 0:21:24an academy of prisoners.
0:21:25 > 0:21:26an academy of prisoners.
0:21:28 > 0:21:31The arrival of those artists who were willing to devote their talent
0:21:31 > 0:21:35to their and the inmates' benefit made all the difference.
0:21:36 > 0:21:39To give us that flicker of hope
0:21:39 > 0:21:44in the hopeless black monotony of the camp day after day.
0:21:58 > 0:22:04All we lived with from the start in Terezin
0:22:04 > 0:22:09was the notion that in another two months, the war will be over,
0:22:09 > 0:22:11they close this gate and we go home.
0:22:11 > 0:22:13So, in the meantime,
0:22:13 > 0:22:18of course there was such a surge of energy for the arts,
0:22:18 > 0:22:20which is quite normal.
0:22:20 > 0:22:24If people are robbed of freedom, they want to be creative.
0:22:24 > 0:22:26And they were.
0:22:45 > 0:22:46RIPPLE OF APPLAUSE
0:22:47 > 0:22:48RIPPLE OF APPLAUSE
0:22:51 > 0:22:55The artists of Terezin strive to find humour through satire
0:22:55 > 0:22:57of life under the Nazis...
0:22:59 > 0:23:02..sometimes dangerously pushing the limit.
0:23:06 > 0:23:08One play, The Last Cyclist,
0:23:08 > 0:23:10mocks the tyranny of the Third Reich,
0:23:10 > 0:23:15depicting an evil society bent on killing not Jews,
0:23:15 > 0:23:17but people who ride bicycles.
0:23:17 > 0:23:20Well, there was the Jewish management
0:23:20 > 0:23:23who always came to the dress rehearsal,
0:23:23 > 0:23:26and they came to see The Last Cyclist
0:23:26 > 0:23:30and they said, "Uh-uh, no way, we can't have that.
0:23:30 > 0:23:33"Sorry, that will be so much trouble.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36"We don't want to create any more trouble than we have.
0:23:36 > 0:23:38"No, it will not be performed."
0:23:40 > 0:23:43The inmates of Terezin push through ceaseless hunger
0:23:43 > 0:23:46to feed a deeper artistic longing.
0:23:51 > 0:23:54For spiritual needs, they turn to their faith.
0:23:57 > 0:23:58Rabbis interned at the camp
0:23:58 > 0:24:02transform a hidden room into a secret synagogue.
0:24:04 > 0:24:06The rabbis were happy.
0:24:06 > 0:24:10Oh, they never had so many people come voluntarily to their sermon.
0:24:11 > 0:24:16Everybody wanted to go, because it reminded you
0:24:16 > 0:24:20of your life at home, when you were attending concerts
0:24:20 > 0:24:23and other cultural activities,
0:24:23 > 0:24:28and it took time away from thinking about your current life.
0:24:32 > 0:24:37Scholars from every discipline give lectures to packed audiences
0:24:37 > 0:24:41about science, religion, psychology.
0:24:43 > 0:24:46In a sense, it was like going to college.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49I mean, I was that age, basically. As I came here, I was 18.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52And we went to art history lectures,
0:24:52 > 0:24:55I remember going to physics lectures.
0:24:55 > 0:25:00These were all experiences I didn't have before, so...
0:25:01 > 0:25:05You can't call it normalcy but it was something very different.
0:25:06 > 0:25:11There were announcements, there were programmes,
0:25:11 > 0:25:17so every night, you could actually be part of that life.
0:25:17 > 0:25:20The artistic life in Terezin.
0:25:20 > 0:25:25Throughout German-occupied Europe, Jews are herded into ghettos,
0:25:25 > 0:25:28forbidden to gather, play musical instruments
0:25:28 > 0:25:30or venture out at night.
0:25:30 > 0:25:33But inside the walls of Terezin,
0:25:33 > 0:25:36the inmates find a strange artistic freedom.
0:25:36 > 0:25:38MUSIC PLAYED ON PIANO
0:25:41 > 0:25:47The Germans knew full well that we are destined for death,
0:25:47 > 0:25:50and the smile will be wiped off our faces,
0:25:50 > 0:25:54so they thought, "Let them play music, let them play theatre,
0:25:54 > 0:25:56"let them dance."
0:25:56 > 0:25:59So we were dancing under the gallows.
0:26:03 > 0:26:06SHE SINGS
0:26:30 > 0:26:33Trains arrive every few days,
0:26:33 > 0:26:38delivering thousands of new inmates to the overcrowded ghetto.
0:26:42 > 0:26:44In the small fortress,
0:26:44 > 0:26:47Jews and political prisoners are brutally beaten,
0:26:47 > 0:26:51tortured to death or executed.
0:26:51 > 0:26:51600 inmates are crammed into a single room
0:26:51 > 0:26:55600 inmates are crammed into a single room
0:26:55 > 0:27:00with two toilets, little food and the relentless spread of disease.
0:27:06 > 0:27:09Every other or third day, another thousand arrived.
0:27:11 > 0:27:13They came - whole families.
0:27:14 > 0:27:17To live in crowded conditions like that,
0:27:17 > 0:27:19it's very hard.
0:27:20 > 0:27:23There were fleas all the time, there were fleas and bedbugs,
0:27:23 > 0:27:28and we were hungry all the time, of course. There was never enough food.
0:27:36 > 0:27:41By September 1942, the town built for 6,000 people
0:27:41 > 0:27:44is bursting with nearly 60,000 Jewish inmates
0:27:44 > 0:27:48from as far away as the Netherlands and Denmark.
0:27:48 > 0:27:53In Germany, the Nazis sell retirement packages to elderly Jews,
0:27:53 > 0:27:56promising posh suites at a lakeside resort
0:27:56 > 0:27:59before putting them on the trains to Terezin.
0:28:01 > 0:28:03They came from Germany under the notion
0:28:03 > 0:28:06that they are going to a spa.
0:28:06 > 0:28:10That they would be looked after, they will live in a hotel.
0:28:11 > 0:28:14They brought in suitcases with evening dresses
0:28:14 > 0:28:19and long gloves, and hats with feathers, and all that,
0:28:19 > 0:28:22and of course these people were dying 200 a day.
0:28:22 > 0:28:24SHE SINGS
0:28:31 > 0:28:31Typhus ravages the crowded ghetto.
0:28:31 > 0:28:33Typhus ravages the crowded ghetto.
0:28:33 > 0:28:39In a single year, nearly half the population will die.
0:28:39 > 0:28:41Bodies pile up in such numbers
0:28:41 > 0:28:45the Nazis order the prisoners to build a crematorium,
0:28:45 > 0:28:47where, against Jewish religious law,
0:28:47 > 0:28:50they're forced to incinerate their dead.
0:28:50 > 0:28:53Old people were dying like flies.
0:28:53 > 0:28:58And you saw the transports of corpses all the time.
0:28:58 > 0:29:03Death was a concept which we learned to live with.
0:29:03 > 0:29:06Death was omnipresent, it was everywhere.
0:29:06 > 0:29:08SHE SINGS
0:29:29 > 0:29:31By September 1942,
0:29:31 > 0:29:36Hitler's Final Solution is killing Jews by the millions.
0:29:36 > 0:29:40Across eastern Europe, whole towns - men, women and children -
0:29:40 > 0:29:45are herded into fields and massacred with machine guns.
0:29:45 > 0:29:47In German-occupied Poland,
0:29:47 > 0:29:51the extermination camp Auschwitz is killing so many people
0:29:51 > 0:29:53they order the construction of two more gas chambers
0:29:53 > 0:29:56and 46 additional ovens.
0:29:58 > 0:30:01The inmates of Terezin have no idea of the horrors
0:30:01 > 0:30:03outside their town's walls.
0:30:03 > 0:30:05But in January 1943,
0:30:05 > 0:30:10a new fear grips the ghetto - transports to the east.
0:30:10 > 0:30:14It was like a Damocles' sword hanging over us.
0:30:14 > 0:30:16It was the only fear.
0:30:16 > 0:30:19Transport to the east was the word.
0:30:19 > 0:30:21Nobody knew where to and when,
0:30:21 > 0:30:24and nobody knew when his turn will come.
0:30:26 > 0:30:32The strange thing is that we did not know where the transports went.
0:30:32 > 0:30:39The word "Auschwitz", we didn't know, we didn't hear. That was unknown.
0:30:43 > 0:30:47In a sadistic twist, choosing whose names are on the list
0:30:47 > 0:30:51is delegated by the Nazis to the camp's Jewish leaders,
0:30:51 > 0:30:54the Council of Elders.
0:30:55 > 0:30:57It was a lousy responsibility
0:30:57 > 0:31:01for the officials of the Jewish community
0:31:01 > 0:31:05that they had to pick people they didn't know,
0:31:05 > 0:31:08just put together 1,000 people and ship them out.
0:31:08 > 0:31:14They probably must have known where these transports went,
0:31:14 > 0:31:18but it was their life on the line.
0:31:18 > 0:31:20And it never filtered through.
0:31:20 > 0:31:22Never.
0:31:22 > 0:31:25TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS
0:31:26 > 0:31:30Before long, so many trains are leaving Terezin
0:31:30 > 0:31:34the Nazis order the inmates to lay tracks right into the ghetto,
0:31:34 > 0:31:37building their own railroad to the abyss.
0:31:40 > 0:31:46For six days, 1,000 names a day are drawn from a terrible lottery...
0:31:48 > 0:31:52..inmates loaded into cattle cars and sent east
0:31:52 > 0:31:55to a fate no-one dares to imagine.
0:31:56 > 0:31:59We didn't know that there are extermination camps.
0:31:59 > 0:32:04That there are camps which are much, much worse than Terezin was.
0:32:06 > 0:32:13But nevertheless, we have felt something unknown,
0:32:13 > 0:32:17and in our situation, being the prisoners,
0:32:17 > 0:32:23to know something unknown, that's a dreadful feeling.
0:32:25 > 0:32:28As fear falls over the ghetto,
0:32:28 > 0:32:31Rafael Schachter turns to one of the few possessions
0:32:31 > 0:32:33he brought from Prague -
0:32:33 > 0:32:37the score to Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem Mass.
0:32:37 > 0:32:40With one of the most powerful choral works in the world,
0:32:40 > 0:32:41With one of the most powerful choral works in the world,
0:32:41 > 0:32:44he could hone his art into a weapon.
0:32:44 > 0:32:49In his mind, he transformed it from the Mass for the dead
0:32:49 > 0:32:51into Mass for the dead Nazis.
0:32:55 > 0:32:59And he wanted to tell them about the day of wrath coming,
0:32:59 > 0:33:05and the supreme judge sitting in judgment, and no sinner will escape.
0:33:06 > 0:33:09And he couldn't tell them in German,
0:33:09 > 0:33:12so he thought if he can sing it in Latin, he may get away with it.
0:33:12 > 0:33:13so he thought if he can sing it in Latin, he may get away with it.
0:33:15 > 0:33:19Verdi's Latin text describes wrathful vengeance
0:33:19 > 0:33:20and holy judgment.
0:33:20 > 0:33:21and holy judgment.
0:33:24 > 0:33:26Schachter's plan to use the fiery Catholic Mass
0:33:26 > 0:33:30to denounce the Germans provokes outrage across the ghetto.
0:33:32 > 0:33:37The Council of Jewish Elders started to get vibrations from rabbis
0:33:37 > 0:33:39and Zionists. "Are you kidding?
0:33:39 > 0:33:42"Doing Verdi Requiem, a big Catholic work like that?
0:33:42 > 0:33:46"You've got to be kidding." So they call in Schachter, and say,
0:33:46 > 0:33:48"Are you trying to apologise for being Jewish?
0:33:48 > 0:33:50"This is the way it's going to be perceived.
0:33:50 > 0:33:52"People are starting to rumble, starting to get noisy.
0:33:52 > 0:33:54"And you know how they're going to settle this?
0:33:54 > 0:33:56"First thing, they'll shoot you.
0:33:56 > 0:33:58"They'll deport the whole chorus.
0:33:58 > 0:34:01"And they'll stop, they'll stop all the night-time activity.
0:34:01 > 0:34:04"And it'll all be your fault."
0:34:04 > 0:34:07A storm he created in the ghetto.
0:34:07 > 0:34:11Everybody was really opposed to it
0:34:11 > 0:34:16because as a Jew with Jewish singers
0:34:16 > 0:34:19in a Jewish ghetto, why would you pick a Catholic Mass
0:34:19 > 0:34:23when there are works by Handel on Jewish themes
0:34:23 > 0:34:26that cannot be played anywhere in occupied Europe?
0:34:26 > 0:34:28This is the place, the only place.
0:34:28 > 0:34:34I don't know what he answered them, but he persisted.
0:34:34 > 0:34:36WOMAN SINGS
0:34:40 > 0:34:44By the time we were allowed to enter
0:34:44 > 0:34:49the special group of the people who were chosen for the Verdi Requiem,
0:34:49 > 0:34:53we had nothing but gratitude for Rafi in our hearts.
0:34:53 > 0:34:56We aimed to please him.
0:34:56 > 0:34:58THEY SING
0:35:01 > 0:35:06And if anyone would have come in, a few Nazis with a few guns,
0:35:06 > 0:35:08and would have said,
0:35:08 > 0:35:11"Stop immediately and get out of this building
0:35:11 > 0:35:13"or I'll shoot you all,"
0:35:13 > 0:35:17there wouldn't have been one that would have left the building.
0:35:22 > 0:35:25In the basement of a concentration camp barracks,
0:35:25 > 0:35:28Rafael Schachter begins the mission of his life -
0:35:28 > 0:35:32piecing together one of the world's most demanding compositions
0:35:32 > 0:35:35with an amateur chorus of prisoners learning each note -
0:35:35 > 0:35:38in Latin - by rote.
0:35:43 > 0:35:46I had never in my life heard a requiem.
0:35:46 > 0:35:52I did not have any idea about the gorgeous, gorgeous beautiful music.
0:35:56 > 0:36:00I also didn't know more than two Latin words.
0:36:00 > 0:36:06And Rafi made very sure that he would exactly translate into Czech
0:36:06 > 0:36:12the meaning of the words, and Rafi told us,
0:36:12 > 0:36:15"The most important thing is how you feel when you sing this."
0:36:19 > 0:36:22From the beginning, Schachter makes it clear
0:36:22 > 0:36:26that this Requiem is not just another performance.
0:36:27 > 0:36:31It was to be a statement, the biggest - perhaps the last -
0:36:31 > 0:36:33they would make together.
0:36:33 > 0:36:35It has to be perfect.
0:36:36 > 0:36:41He was a very nice guy to be with socially,
0:36:41 > 0:36:46but when it came to rehearsals, he was merciless.
0:36:47 > 0:36:50You couldn't move, you couldn't turn your head,
0:36:50 > 0:36:55you couldn't do anything except have your eyes
0:36:55 > 0:36:58directed into his eyes.
0:37:05 > 0:37:09It's one of THE most demanding choral works,
0:37:09 > 0:37:12demanding not only musically but emotionally,
0:37:12 > 0:37:14and there has to be a precision.
0:37:14 > 0:37:17There has to be an understanding of the text.
0:37:21 > 0:37:25And if you read the text as though you were a prisoner,
0:37:25 > 0:37:28then it has a different meaning altogether.
0:37:32 > 0:37:35That this is defiance!
0:37:35 > 0:37:37And suddenly the Libera Me,
0:37:37 > 0:37:42which literally means "Deliver me, oh Lord"
0:37:42 > 0:37:45becomes "Liberate me, oh Lord".
0:37:57 > 0:38:00The Libera Me was "liberate us from here".
0:38:00 > 0:38:01The Libera Me was "liberate us from here".
0:38:04 > 0:38:12That was like a prayer that overcame hunger and occasional pains.
0:38:12 > 0:38:14You were there in that cellar
0:38:14 > 0:38:16and you were a different person.
0:38:16 > 0:38:21THEY SING
0:38:31 > 0:38:36I'm not so sure whether I was hard of hearing
0:38:36 > 0:38:40but I think that my stomach stopped growling when I was singing.
0:38:41 > 0:38:45I think when you are more a soul than a person,
0:38:45 > 0:38:48I don't think that the soul has to be nourished by
0:38:48 > 0:38:50anything but by heavenly music.
0:38:50 > 0:38:53The soul doesn't need anything else.
0:38:53 > 0:38:55THEY SING
0:39:31 > 0:39:34OK, we have plenty of room up here
0:39:34 > 0:39:36and there is space back there.
0:39:36 > 0:39:37and there is space back there.
0:39:43 > 0:39:45Just be careful of this little pool here.
0:39:45 > 0:39:49Today, Rafael Schacter's rehearsal space fills up once again
0:39:49 > 0:39:54as Murry brings in his chorus before this afternoon's performance.
0:39:54 > 0:39:57OK. Let me have your attention. Ssh.
0:39:58 > 0:40:01This is, to me, a very religious moment.
0:40:02 > 0:40:06After many, many hours per day of slave labour,
0:40:06 > 0:40:11these people were compelled to come to this cold, dank, airless place
0:40:11 > 0:40:14and rehearse the Verdi Requiem.
0:40:16 > 0:40:19But one of the most important things we can do
0:40:19 > 0:40:26is to once again sing this music to these walls
0:40:26 > 0:40:29which heard it and absorbed it years ago
0:40:29 > 0:40:31and have not heard it since.
0:40:31 > 0:40:34All of this is to say to not only the survivors
0:40:34 > 0:40:36but those who didn't survive,
0:40:36 > 0:40:36that they have been heard... and we so honour them.
0:40:37 > 0:40:41that they have been heard... and we so honour them.
0:40:43 > 0:40:45So let's see if we can sing through this now.
0:40:45 > 0:40:47Give us the B flat again, please.
0:40:47 > 0:40:49MUSIC: "Libera Me" by Giuseppe Verdi
0:40:49 > 0:40:57# Requiem
0:40:58 > 0:41:14# Requiem aeternam
0:41:16 > 0:41:23# Dona eis
0:41:23 > 0:41:26# Dona eis
0:41:26 > 0:41:33# Dona eis, Domine
0:41:33 > 0:41:35# Dona eis
0:41:35 > 0:41:36# Dona eis
0:41:38 > 0:41:40# Dona eis
0:41:40 > 0:41:43# Dona eis
0:41:43 > 0:41:46# Dona eis
0:41:46 > 0:41:54# Domine
0:41:54 > 0:42:05# Et lux perpetua... #
0:42:05 > 0:42:08We're sitting here, in Terezin, right now
0:42:08 > 0:42:13in the first week in March and it's freezing...
0:42:15 > 0:42:21..and they go into a dark, damp, cold cellar
0:42:21 > 0:42:26virtually every night because they want to sing the Verdi Requiem.
0:42:26 > 0:42:28Can you imagine?
0:42:28 > 0:42:32We can't wait to get out of this place and get warm.
0:42:32 > 0:42:34They can't get warm.
0:42:34 > 0:42:40# ..Perpetua
0:42:40 > 0:42:53# Luceat eis... #
0:42:58 > 0:43:05Rafi said, "We will sing this in memory and gratitude to Verdi,
0:43:05 > 0:43:07"and you can have, in your heart,
0:43:07 > 0:43:10"gratitude to anybody you loved and lost.
0:43:10 > 0:43:15"A relative, a friend, whatever you feel when you have the sad part.
0:43:15 > 0:43:18"Just make sure it is becoming one of you."
0:43:18 > 0:43:25# ..Et lux
0:43:25 > 0:43:29# Et lux
0:43:29 > 0:43:39# Perpetua
0:43:39 > 0:43:52# Luceat eis
0:43:54 > 0:44:03# Requiem
0:44:05 > 0:44:16# Requiem. #
0:44:30 > 0:44:32The first time we came, she didn't know where she was.
0:44:32 > 0:44:35No, I know where I am now. That's Hamburger
0:44:35 > 0:44:37and that's the gate to the barracks where I lived.
0:44:37 > 0:44:41This part of the Hamburger, that was where the railroad ended.
0:44:43 > 0:44:48When the transports came in, they were welcomed by the Germans,
0:44:48 > 0:44:50who, right away, went through their luggage and confiscated
0:44:50 > 0:44:55all the better clothing and shoes to send it to Germany.
0:44:55 > 0:45:00BIRDSONG
0:45:00 > 0:45:02I don't remember ever hearing birds.
0:45:02 > 0:45:04I don't remember ever seeing grass.
0:45:04 > 0:45:09It was drab always and muddy and...ugly.
0:45:29 > 0:45:30646?
0:45:30 > 0:45:33Who has the trumpet solo 646?
0:45:35 > 0:45:37Yeah. I didn't hear. I didn't hear.
0:45:37 > 0:45:38Play please...
0:45:38 > 0:45:40HE HUMS
0:45:42 > 0:45:43Verdi, Verdi...
0:45:43 > 0:45:45Here we go - 641.
0:45:46 > 0:45:49Thank you. And one, two...
0:45:51 > 0:45:58# Dona eis requiem
0:46:00 > 0:46:04# Dona eis... #
0:46:04 > 0:46:06Tenors, gently!
0:46:06 > 0:46:08Don't scream that out.
0:46:08 > 0:46:12# ..Dona eis requiem... #
0:46:12 > 0:46:14Thank you.
0:46:19 > 0:46:23# ..Requiem. #
0:46:23 > 0:46:25Well, my youngest son,
0:46:25 > 0:46:27who's named after Rafi,
0:46:27 > 0:46:31came to me and said, "We want to honour our father
0:46:31 > 0:46:33"and Rafi Schachter by singing in Terezin."
0:46:33 > 0:46:34"and Rafi Schachter by singing in Terezin."
0:46:34 > 0:46:34"and Rafi Schachter by singing in Terezin."
0:46:37 > 0:46:41And he told his brother
0:46:41 > 0:46:44and he wanted it as a surprise for their father.
0:46:44 > 0:46:49And I said, "Well, find out if you can before we do anything."
0:46:49 > 0:46:51So he called up Murry Sidlin
0:46:51 > 0:46:54and talked it over with him
0:46:54 > 0:46:56and then, when he found out they can,
0:46:56 > 0:46:58he said, "We are going to do it."
0:46:58 > 0:47:03They originally wanted to keep it a secret and surprise me
0:47:03 > 0:47:07and they told my wife and she...
0:47:09 > 0:47:12..all the time worries about me. I don't know why.
0:47:12 > 0:47:13I mean, there's nothing to worry,
0:47:13 > 0:47:15she worries why there's nothing to worry.
0:47:15 > 0:47:19At our age, I didn't want any big surprises.
0:47:19 > 0:47:21I don't know, maybe I'm silly.
0:47:21 > 0:47:26So once they came over for dinner
0:47:26 > 0:47:31and Rafi and Danny brought their score and they showed it to him
0:47:31 > 0:47:35and told him at that time, "We are going to sing the Requiem."
0:47:35 > 0:47:36HE HUMS
0:47:36 > 0:47:38Yeah, that's the other one.
0:47:38 > 0:47:43And I haven't heard my father sing it, actually, ever.
0:47:46 > 0:47:48One, two, three...
0:47:48 > 0:47:54THEY SING: # Lacrimosa dies illa
0:47:54 > 0:48:00# Qua resurget ex favilla
0:48:00 > 0:48:03# Judicandus homo... #
0:48:03 > 0:48:07MUSIC: "Lacrimosa" by Giuseppe Verdi
0:48:07 > 0:48:12# Huic ergo parce Deus
0:48:14 > 0:48:20# Huic ergo
0:48:20 > 0:48:27# Parce Deus
0:48:27 > 0:48:33# Lacrimosa dies illa
0:48:33 > 0:48:39# Qua resurget ex favilla... #
0:48:41 > 0:48:45It's emotional, but I'm very, very happy about it.
0:48:45 > 0:48:48And I'm looking forward to the performance
0:48:48 > 0:48:54and the beautiful music and we'll be all together, so that's good.
0:48:56 > 0:48:59They did not succeed. We survived.
0:49:33 > 0:49:35By September 1943,
0:49:35 > 0:49:39Schachter's chorus hasn't quite mastered the Requiem...
0:49:42 > 0:49:46..but the Council of Elders announces that, on September 5th,
0:49:46 > 0:49:48the transports will resume.
0:49:50 > 0:49:53Schachter's chorus could soon be ripped apart.
0:49:57 > 0:50:00The rehearsals went fast.
0:50:00 > 0:50:03In seven weeks...
0:50:03 > 0:50:06In seven weeks, it became known
0:50:06 > 0:50:08that transports will resume
0:50:08 > 0:50:12and now the singers wanted him to make a performance and he didn't
0:50:12 > 0:50:15because it wasn't to his standard.
0:50:15 > 0:50:18But when it became known that September 6th,
0:50:18 > 0:50:205,000 people will leave,
0:50:20 > 0:50:22he couldn't refuse.
0:50:27 > 0:50:30Schachter fears his chorus, and he himself,
0:50:30 > 0:50:33could be shipped out in days.
0:50:34 > 0:50:38So with a chorus of 150 inmates and a single piano,
0:50:38 > 0:50:43Schachter leads their first performance of Verdi's Requiem.
0:50:52 > 0:50:57# Rex tremendae majestatis
0:51:05 > 0:51:11# Qui salvandos salvas gratis
0:51:11 > 0:51:17# Salva me, fons pietatis
0:51:17 > 0:51:24# Salva me, fons pietatis
0:51:24 > 0:51:32# Salva me, fons pietatis. #
0:51:57 > 0:52:00It was tremendous and I still don't understand it.
0:52:00 > 0:52:00It was tremendous and I still don't understand it.
0:52:00 > 0:52:01There was only a piano, but for me, it was like
0:52:01 > 0:52:03There was only a piano, but for me, it was like
0:52:03 > 0:52:07if the whole orchestra played
0:52:07 > 0:52:10and it made us feel human.
0:52:13 > 0:52:15These two hours, you were taken back
0:52:15 > 0:52:18into the beautiful world which was once your own.
0:52:18 > 0:52:22The world of the tunes and of the melody which you are listening
0:52:22 > 0:52:26and the message which was given to us by the performers.
0:52:26 > 0:52:32# Salva me, fons pietatis... #
0:52:32 > 0:52:37These were hours of pure joy.
0:52:37 > 0:52:40As much as you can call joy in camp.
0:52:47 > 0:52:53This room became the protective walls
0:52:53 > 0:52:56of something good,
0:52:56 > 0:52:59something meaningful,
0:52:59 > 0:53:00something healing
0:53:00 > 0:53:01something healing
0:53:01 > 0:53:08and something that showed everyone who was really listening
0:53:08 > 0:53:11that Rafi had put all of us,
0:53:11 > 0:53:14the singers and the audience,
0:53:14 > 0:53:16into another world.
0:53:17 > 0:53:21This was not the world with the Nazis, this was our world.
0:53:29 > 0:53:37# Salva me... #
0:53:41 > 0:53:43The first performance is a revelation -
0:53:43 > 0:53:45for Schachter, for his singers,
0:53:45 > 0:53:49for their fellow inmates in the audience -
0:53:49 > 0:53:50the very sound of hope.
0:53:50 > 0:53:52the very sound of hope.
0:54:00 > 0:54:03They were stunned, totally stunned,
0:54:03 > 0:54:07they could not believe what Rafi had done, with these people, us,
0:54:07 > 0:54:11standing there without a scrap of paper, without anything
0:54:11 > 0:54:16but the entire words and music committed to memory.
0:54:20 > 0:54:24For many in the chorus and the audience,
0:54:24 > 0:54:27Verdi's Requiem is the last music they would hear.
0:54:31 > 0:54:38The next morning, 5,000 inmates are loaded onto the transports.
0:54:38 > 0:54:41Rafael Schachter sees more than half of his chorus
0:54:41 > 0:54:45carried away in cattle cars.
0:54:45 > 0:54:49It was a special transport,
0:54:49 > 0:54:52in September 1943.
0:54:52 > 0:54:595,000 Terezin Jews to Auschwitz.
0:55:02 > 0:55:08We did not know, thank God - at least I didn't - about Auschwitz.
0:55:08 > 0:55:12It was called "resettlement",
0:55:12 > 0:55:15and none of us had any idea about gas chambers.
0:55:15 > 0:55:18We just figured, it's not very good here,
0:55:18 > 0:55:20but at least we know how bad it is,
0:55:20 > 0:55:23if we go somewhere else, maybe there is more food, maybe it's better,
0:55:23 > 0:55:24if we go somewhere else, maybe there is more food, maybe it's better,
0:55:24 > 0:55:26but I'm not going to volunteer for anything.
0:55:30 > 0:55:34Over the next six months, Schachter recruits new singers
0:55:34 > 0:55:36and rebuilds his chorus.
0:55:38 > 0:55:43They'll perform the Requiem for their fellow inmates 15 times,
0:55:43 > 0:55:48constantly reinforcing their chorus and their spirits
0:55:48 > 0:55:52as fellow singers are torn away by the transports.
0:55:52 > 0:55:55Whether they were members of the chorus
0:55:55 > 0:55:59or whether these were people who lived in your room in the barracks,
0:55:59 > 0:56:04you were sorry for them to have to go
0:56:04 > 0:56:06and for you to lose another friend.
0:56:08 > 0:56:12But everybody lived with that concern.
0:56:12 > 0:56:16That was worse than the hunger and anything else.
0:56:18 > 0:56:21The writing on the wall wasn't pretty,
0:56:21 > 0:56:23because transports were leaving to the east.
0:56:23 > 0:56:26By that time, there was an escapee from Auschwitz,
0:56:26 > 0:56:29Siegfried Lederer, who came to Theresienstadt,
0:56:29 > 0:56:31was hiding in the basement there.
0:56:31 > 0:56:34And he said, "It is guaranteed death."
0:56:35 > 0:56:38So those who ever doubted what's in this "east",
0:56:38 > 0:56:41you know, heard it from first-hand witness.
0:56:41 > 0:56:44Outside Terezin,
0:56:44 > 0:56:48the Nazi killing machine now operates six death camps,
0:56:48 > 0:56:54a ruthlessly efficient system intent on erasing the Jewish people.
0:56:54 > 0:56:56As the Jews of Europe disappear,
0:56:56 > 0:56:59the Nazis devise a cynical ruse
0:56:59 > 0:57:01to hide the true horrors of the Third Reich
0:57:01 > 0:57:05behind the artistic facade of Terezin.
0:57:07 > 0:57:12Spring 1944, after two years of living as prisoners,
0:57:12 > 0:57:15the inmates of Terezin receive orders
0:57:15 > 0:57:17to give their camp a makeover.
0:57:18 > 0:57:20Walls and pavements are scrubbed,
0:57:20 > 0:57:22gardens planted
0:57:22 > 0:57:24and fake storefronts filled with
0:57:24 > 0:57:27goods from the inmates' own luggage.
0:57:27 > 0:57:31My mother was supposed to make signs with oil paint
0:57:31 > 0:57:33that had an arrow and says,
0:57:33 > 0:57:35"To the library"...
0:57:39 > 0:57:40.."To the coffee house"...
0:57:42 > 0:57:44.."To the playground".
0:57:44 > 0:57:47She had no idea where this would go.
0:57:47 > 0:57:50That was used in Terezin for the commission
0:57:50 > 0:57:53to see that we had a coffee house, we had a bank,
0:57:53 > 0:57:56we had a playground, we had everything.
0:57:56 > 0:57:58The Nazis complete the beautification
0:57:58 > 0:58:00by thinning out the crowds.
0:58:02 > 0:58:07Nearly 8,000 people - orphans, the elderly, the sick,
0:58:07 > 0:58:12anyone who doesn't look the part - are shipped off to die in Auschwitz.
0:58:14 > 0:58:16On June 23rd,
0:58:16 > 0:58:20the Nazis invite a delegation from the International Red Cross
0:58:20 > 0:58:23for a visit to what the Germans call
0:58:23 > 0:58:26"a self-governed Jewish city".
0:58:30 > 0:58:32The inspection is ordered by Nazi Lieutenant Colonel Adolf Eichmann...
0:58:32 > 0:58:34The inspection is ordered by Nazi Lieutenant Colonel Adolf Eichmann...
0:58:36 > 0:58:40..and choreographed down to the last detail.
0:58:40 > 0:58:43Nothing, nothing was not planned.
0:58:43 > 0:58:47Not a corner was omitted to make it convincing.
0:58:47 > 0:58:49WHISTLE
0:58:52 > 0:58:55They picked out inmates who knew how to play soccer...
0:58:58 > 0:59:00..so they played soccer
0:59:00 > 0:59:03and even the commission passed by and a goal was scored.
0:59:08 > 0:59:11The scenario was written to perfection.
0:59:14 > 0:59:18The Nazis complete the charade by capturing the town's makeover
0:59:18 > 0:59:20for a propaganda film.
0:59:20 > 0:59:25Theresienstadt - the Fuhrer gives a city to the Jews.
0:59:25 > 0:59:27THEY SING
0:59:37 > 0:59:39They force a Jewish inmate,
0:59:39 > 0:59:43a well-known actor named Kurt Gerron, to direct the film.
0:59:46 > 0:59:52A warped vision to the world of Terezin as a Jewish fantasy village.
1:00:06 > 1:00:10The highlight of the Red Cross inspection is to be a performance
1:00:10 > 1:00:11of the Verdi Requiem.
1:00:14 > 1:00:16Their cameras capture the only photo of Schachter
1:00:16 > 1:00:20and his diminished choir in rehearsal.
1:00:20 > 1:00:23The order came from the camp commander,
1:00:23 > 1:00:27he wanted the performance for the Swiss Red Cross people
1:00:27 > 1:00:30and those big shots who came from Berlin
1:00:30 > 1:00:33to shake their hand for a good report.
1:00:42 > 1:00:47The transports have cut Schachter's chorus down to 60 people,
1:00:47 > 1:00:49less than half its former size.
1:00:53 > 1:00:58But now, they have the opportunity Schachter has dreamed of -
1:00:58 > 1:01:03to risk everything and confront the Nazis face to face...
1:01:05 > 1:01:08..and sing to them what they dare not say.
1:01:10 > 1:01:13He had a great dilemma, Schachter.
1:01:14 > 1:01:17He was a stickler for perfection.
1:01:17 > 1:01:20He didn't like the composition of the chorus...
1:01:21 > 1:01:25..but it was a tremendous challenge,
1:01:25 > 1:01:28to have the Germans right there in front of him
1:01:28 > 1:01:30and tell them to their face...
1:02:37 > 1:02:41If the Germans would have known, what was unfolding,
1:02:41 > 1:02:44if they would have known that Rafael was trying to tell them
1:02:44 > 1:02:47that they too will be judged one of these days
1:02:47 > 1:02:49for their crimes they committed on mankind,
1:02:49 > 1:02:52they would have really punished the artists.
1:02:56 > 1:02:59Without Rafi, it wouldn't have happened,
1:02:59 > 1:03:02and we proved beyond the shadow of any doubt,
1:03:02 > 1:03:05that yes, they have our bodies,
1:03:05 > 1:03:07yes, we have no more names, we have numbers,
1:03:07 > 1:03:12but they don't have our soul, our mind, our being,
1:03:12 > 1:03:14our...what we are cannot be taken away,
1:03:15 > 1:03:16our...what we are cannot be taken away,
1:03:16 > 1:03:19also it won't be taken away at the moment we are shot.
1:03:25 > 1:03:29Dies Irae, even as a listener,
1:03:29 > 1:03:33you feel is powerful.
1:03:34 > 1:03:36It represents a threat...
1:03:40 > 1:03:44..that you gladly would participate in
1:03:44 > 1:03:47as avenging whatever was done unto you.
1:04:50 > 1:04:56There was no applause, but I'm sure the Swiss people were impressed.
1:05:02 > 1:05:07And the Germans were aware
1:05:07 > 1:05:10that we were singing our own requiem,
1:05:10 > 1:05:15because they knew what they had in mind for us, whereas we did not.
1:05:17 > 1:05:20Rafael Schachter and his 60 singers
1:05:20 > 1:05:23had delivered their message in the face of their captors.
1:05:25 > 1:05:29Now they cling to the possibility that the Red Cross will hear it.
1:05:29 > 1:05:32We all have one very deep hope.
1:05:32 > 1:05:35That some of the people, the Red Cross representatives,
1:05:35 > 1:05:37will ask a probing question.
1:05:39 > 1:05:43Because it was a beautifully quaint, little town, what they showed them.
1:05:48 > 1:05:51So we hoped, really, that they did not swallow it hook, line and sinker.
1:05:51 > 1:05:54That they will say, "OK, let's now turn to this side.
1:05:54 > 1:05:58"Or let's ask somebody something out of this."
1:05:58 > 1:06:01I don't think that any inmate would have dared to say the truth.
1:06:01 > 1:06:02But they could have seen it,
1:06:02 > 1:06:05had they turned from the outlined route for them.
1:06:05 > 1:06:07But they never really did.
1:06:07 > 1:06:10I think they wanted to believe what they saw.
1:06:10 > 1:06:15I thought, that with what we were singing, that we could say,
1:06:15 > 1:06:18"Let me get through, I want to show them something."
1:06:18 > 1:06:20To tell them, "Go inside of such a house.
1:06:20 > 1:06:22"See these portals? Walk right through any one.
1:06:22 > 1:06:25"See these portals? Walk right through any one.
1:06:25 > 1:06:29"You would be surprised what you find in there."
1:06:29 > 1:06:31But there was no way of doing that.
1:06:33 > 1:06:34So they came home to Switzerland
1:06:34 > 1:06:36and said the Jews have it very good.
1:06:36 > 1:06:41CHILDREN SING
1:06:46 > 1:06:49They play funny operas and children's operas...
1:06:52 > 1:06:57..and the children play in beautiful swings and rocking horses.
1:07:00 > 1:07:04And in the afternoon, they have an afternoon nap in the grass...
1:07:06 > 1:07:09..and when they wake up, they each get bread and butter.
1:07:14 > 1:07:18These are children who had never SEEN butter, except that day.
1:07:29 > 1:07:32Deception is not the right word,
1:07:32 > 1:07:35there must be a worse word for that.
1:07:50 > 1:07:54If anybody would have come two weeks later, there was nothing left.
1:08:13 > 1:08:15Even the children's home was empty,
1:08:15 > 1:08:17with the baby carriages.
1:08:27 > 1:08:31Small children, aged three to six or eight...
1:08:31 > 1:08:33it was empty, there was no child left.
1:08:39 > 1:08:41The swings were gone,
1:08:41 > 1:08:43the playpens were gone,
1:08:43 > 1:08:46the rocking horses were gone and the children were gone.
1:08:46 > 1:08:48All into the gas chambers.
1:08:48 > 1:08:50What did these children do to anybody?
1:08:51 > 1:08:57# Requiem
1:09:03 > 1:09:12# Requiem aeternam
1:09:13 > 1:09:25# Dona eis
1:09:25 > 1:09:30# Domine
1:09:30 > 1:09:36# Dona eis
1:09:36 > 1:09:38# Dona eis
1:09:38 > 1:09:41# Dona eis
1:09:41 > 1:09:48# Domine
1:09:48 > 1:09:58# Et lux perpetua
1:09:59 > 1:10:20# Luceat eis
1:10:28 > 1:10:42# Luceat eis
1:10:43 > 1:10:53# Requiem aeternam
1:10:53 > 1:11:01# Dona eis, Domine
1:11:03 > 1:11:13# Et lux
1:11:13 > 1:11:22# Perpetua
1:11:22 > 1:11:32# Luceat eis
1:11:36 > 1:11:46# Requiem
1:11:46 > 1:11:57# Requiem. #
1:12:00 > 1:12:03TRAIN WHISTLES
1:12:07 > 1:12:11The Red Cross performance would be the choir's last.
1:12:14 > 1:12:16Not long after the delegation leaves Terezin,
1:12:16 > 1:12:19the transports to the east resume.
1:12:23 > 1:12:30After the visit of the International Red Cross, everybody was deported.
1:12:33 > 1:12:3619,000 in five weeks,
1:12:36 > 1:12:41and I knew that my time would come very soon.
1:12:47 > 1:12:52On October 15th 1944, the transport is announced.
1:12:55 > 1:12:59Almost the entire choir will be sent to the east.
1:13:03 > 1:13:05This time, Rafael Schachter's name
1:13:05 > 1:13:07is also on the list.
1:13:08 > 1:13:13Most of the artists, the painters and the musicians
1:13:13 > 1:13:17went with the transport as myself.
1:13:17 > 1:13:23Why it was so combined together, nobody knows.
1:13:24 > 1:13:27I think they wished to have
1:13:27 > 1:13:33the people who had been important in Terezin,
1:13:33 > 1:13:36to be out of Terezin and to be killed.
1:13:45 > 1:13:50The next morning, Schachter and his choir are packed into cattle cars
1:13:50 > 1:13:53and transported to the hell of Auschwitz.
1:14:02 > 1:14:06RAIN PATTERS
1:14:06 > 1:14:10And so, we were pushed into the cattle trucks
1:14:10 > 1:14:14and it was completely full, you could hardly breathe.
1:14:14 > 1:14:17People didn't move, they didn't talk very much.
1:14:17 > 1:14:21Everybody was thinking, "Where are we going? What's ahead of us?"
1:14:22 > 1:14:26So here is Rafael Schachter with a tin of sardines
1:14:26 > 1:14:31and he says to me, "Zdenka, here is my dish, here is bread,
1:14:31 > 1:14:36"and here are the sardines, and that will be my last supper."
1:14:36 > 1:14:37And so, he knew.
1:14:40 > 1:14:42Upon arrival at Auschwitz,
1:14:42 > 1:14:47most of the chorus and musicians are sent directly to their deaths
1:14:47 > 1:14:51and with them, an entire nation's cultural wealth.
1:14:52 > 1:14:54I really feel strongly
1:14:54 > 1:14:58this was to be the next generation of the great Czech composers,
1:14:58 > 1:15:02all wiped out on October 17th 1944.
1:15:02 > 1:15:07In one day, in one moment, in a gas chamber in Auschwitz,
1:15:07 > 1:15:11that next generation of Czech composers...gone.
1:15:14 > 1:15:19We went to Auschwitz with a transport of 1,500 men.
1:15:19 > 1:15:23On the ramp of Auschwitz to Birkenau,
1:15:23 > 1:15:25which was the extermination camp,
1:15:25 > 1:15:28I have seen Rafael Schachter the last time.
1:15:37 > 1:15:40Rafael Schachter would survive Auschwitz
1:15:40 > 1:15:43and three more concentration camps.
1:15:45 > 1:15:47In March 1945,
1:15:47 > 1:15:50he dies on a death march.
1:15:54 > 1:15:56One month later,
1:15:56 > 1:15:58liberation comes to Czechoslovakia.
1:17:07 > 1:17:11I think the great lesson of Theresienstadt was, first of all,
1:17:11 > 1:17:14to see the highs and lows.
1:17:16 > 1:17:18The worst in man and the best.
1:17:20 > 1:17:26In music, in acting, in conducting, in composing,
1:17:26 > 1:17:32if I ever lived in the most cultured and cultural surrounding,
1:17:32 > 1:17:35it was in Terezin, amongst these people.
1:17:39 > 1:17:42Remember to the time
1:17:42 > 1:17:45what we had been living through,
1:17:45 > 1:17:49that somebody wished to help us,
1:17:49 > 1:17:53and that was Rafael Schachter and all the singers.
1:17:59 > 1:18:03Rafael Schachter had an influence... beneficial influence
1:18:03 > 1:18:08on thousands of people who have to thank him
1:18:08 > 1:18:15for giving them a bearable memory of Terezin.
1:18:21 > 1:18:26I'm not a holocaust survivor as much as, you know, a Requiem survivor.
1:18:26 > 1:18:28I didn't only survive the Requiem -
1:18:28 > 1:18:32I got it as a present to take with me all my life.