'Defiant Requiem' shows artistic rebellion at Terezin

Prisoners in the Terezin concentration camp fought back against the Nazis.

Their weapons: art and music.

They staged plays, composed operas and wrote to record the horrors that arose around them in the camp, located in the present-day Czech Republic.

The Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee will host a screening of the film “Defiant Requiem,” which tells the story of how prisoners used art to launch an artistic rebellion, at 7 p.m. Feb. 1 at Temple Beth Israel.

That rebellion reached its peak in 1944, when conductor Rafael Schächter taught a choir of 150 of his fellow prisoners to perform Verdi’s “Requiem,” a complex piece that choir members re-imagined as a condemnation of the Nazis to confront them in song with what they did not dare to say. The Nazis used the performance as part of a propaganda effort to show visitors from the International Red Cross that Jews were not being mistreated.

Today, the Terezin Music Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the musical legacy of composers who died in the Holocaust.

Former U.S. Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat, who negotiated major agreements with Switzerland, Germany, Austria, France and other countries in recovering looted art and bank accounts and the payment of insurance policies, and Louisa Hollman, executive director of the Defiant Requiem Foundation, will participate in the program’s introduction.

In addition, two survivors from Terezin, Edgar and Hanna Krasa, will share memories of their experience. Edgar Krasa sang in the chorus under Schächter’s direction. The Krasas are in their 90s and will travel from Boston to speak at the event.

Kim Mullins, director of operations at the Jewish Federation, said the federation is offering the screening as part of its commitment to Holocaust education and remembrance.

“It’s not a story that I was aware of, and it’s not something, to my knowledge, that’s been shared in this community before,” Mullins said. “To have someone of Stuart Eizenstat’s status and to have two survivors is really special. There aren’t a tremendous amount of survivors remaining.”

If you go
‘Defiant Requiem’ screening and presentation
When: 7 p.m. Feb. 1
Where: Temple Beth Israel, 567 Bay Isles Road
Cost: $10

Contact Robin Hartill at [email protected]