Defiant Requiem: Music as Resistance

Thursday, December 8 at 7:00 PM EST

Join us for a virtual discussion on Thursday, December 8, at 7 PM EST to hear award-winning conductor Murry Sidlin tell the story of Rafael Schächter, an imprisoned conductor who led a creative rebellion in the ghetto concentration camp of Terezin.

Reflected in the concert documentary, “Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín,” Schächter and a choir of 150 inmates used music to confront the Nazis and sing to them what they dare not say. Click here to watch the documentary film from now until December 9.

Murry Sidlin is President and Artistic Director of The Defiant Requiem Foundation and creator of several pieces of work including the concert-drama Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín. Sidlin currently serves as a professor at The Catholic University of America where he teaches conducting and music of the Holocaust era.

Click Here to Register

Click Here to watch Defiant Requiem

Plan Your Visit

A visit to the Zekelman Holocaust Center will teach you about the Holocaust and inspire you to create a better future. We offer docent-led public tours Sunday through Friday at 1:00 PM and a Holocaust Survivor Speaker on Sunday at 12:00 PM. Explore exhibits that include a WWII-era boxcar used by the Nazis to transport Jews and other “undesirables” to concentration camps, and the Viola and Garry Kappy Anne Frank Tree Exhibit and Garden featuring a chestnut tree grown from a sapling taken from the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. Learn about the importance of standing up against prejudice, discrimination, and hate from the examples of those who risked their lives to save others during the Holocaust.