Defiant Requiem

On February 24, 2013 at 4 p.m. the FAU Lifelong Learning Society in Jupiter will be present Defiant Requiem, a feature-length documentary film which illuminates the extraordinary, untold story of the brave acts of resistance by the Jewish prisoners at Terezin.

In late 1943, a chorus of 150 Jews imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp engaged in 16 performances of Verdi’s Requiem—learned by memorization from a single vocal score and accompanied by a legless upright piano—before audiences of other prisoners, SS officers, and German army staff members. Their purpose: to sing to their captors words that could not be spoken.

Lifelong Learning is honored to be the first venue in South Florida to showcase this remarkable story of Rafael Schachter, a brilliant young and passionate Czech opera-choral conductor who was arrested and sent to Terzin in 1941.  This film explores, with testaments from surviving members of the choir, the singer’s view of the Verdi music as a work of defiance and resistance to the Nazis. Schchter instructed the choir to “sing to the Nazis what they could not say to them.”

Concevied by Murry Sidlin, a distinguished conductor, educator and artistic innovator, Defiant Requiem was directed by executive producer Peter Schnall, the founder of Partisan Pictures. Mr. Schnall is a six-time Emmy Award winning film-maker who specializes in creating high quality films and non-fiction programming. Murry Sidlin and Ambassador Stuart E. Eizenstat, who has dedicated his career to providing justice for Holocaust survivors and served as a supporter and advisor to the film, will conduct a discussion following the film.

The Honorable Ann Brown will serve as a moderator for the discussion. Ann, and her husband, Donald Brown, are sponsoring a reception to follow the presentation.

Tickets are $20 for members, $25 for non-members and are available online at www.llsjupiter.com.