Defiant Requiem Film Trailer

Defiant Requiem tells the little-known story of the Nazi concentration camp, Terezín. Led by imprisoned conductor Rafael Schächter, the inmates of Terezín fought back with the only weapons available - art and music.

Through hunger, disease and slave labor, the Jewish inmates of Terezín held onto their humanity by staging plays, composing opera and using paper and ink to record the horrors around them.

This creative rebellion reached its peak when Schächter challenged a choir of 150 inmates to learn 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 ultimately confront the Nazis face to face... and sing to them what they dare not say.

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