Charlotte Jewish News Nov 2026 | Page 8

The Charlotte Jewish News- November 2026- Page 8

Motivated by Music to Serve Humanity

By Elizabeth Johnson
Theresienstadt, also known as Terezín, was a Nazi ghetto and concentration camp in what is now the Czech Republic. Among its prisoners were Jewish musicians, artists, writers and intellectuals who organized concerts, operas, theatrical productions and lectures as expressions of humanity, dignity and resistance. They did so amid horrific conditions and the constant threat of deportation to Nazi extermination camps farther east.
Among them was Romanian-born Czech Jewish conductor Rafael“ Rafi” Schächter, who arrived at the camp in 1941 and soon began organizing mu- concealed while fleeing his home, Schächter taught the singers their parts by rote. Shortly after the performance, most members of the choir were deported to Auschwitz. In turn, Schächter recruited new singers and began again. Through successive rounds of rebuilding the choir and rehearsing the elaborative works, Schächter led 16 performances of Verdi’ s“ Requiem,” including one for a delegation from the International Red Cross in 1944.
The Red Cross came to inspect conditions, but the Nazis had orchestrated an elaborate deception, temporarily beautifying parts of Terezín and careful-
Rafael“ Rafi” Schächter conducts inmates in Verdi’ s“ Requiem” at Theresienstadt on June 23, 1944, before Nazi officials and an International Red Cross delegation. Photo courtesy of The Terezín Foundation.
Davidson College Chorale on concert tour in Krakow, Poland.
sical performances. In September 1943, under orders of the SS, he recruited approximately 150 singers to perform Verdi’ s“ Requiem,” a musical setting of the Catholic Mass for the Dead.
Using a single score he had
ly controlling what the visitors were permitted to see. Approximately 7,500 individuals were deported to Auschwitz to make Terezín appear less overcrowded. Buildings were renovated and repainted, streets repaired
and gardens planted. Elaborate recreational and cultural activities were staged to create the illusion of a thriving community. The ruse succeeded, concealing the deprivation, suffering and constant danger of life in Terezín.
The“ Requiem” concert was part of the Nazis’ carefully constructed facade, even as Schächter and the singers turned the music into an act of defiance. Following the grand concert, Schächter was deported to Auschwitz. He died during a death march in 1945, approximately one month before Czechoslovakia( as it was called at the time) was liberated. He was 39.
Davidson College will revisit the story of Schächter and the Terezín choir Thursday, Nov. 19, through“ Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín,” a concert-drama created by conductor Murry Sidlin and president / creative director of the Defiant Requiem Foundation. The performance will weave together Verdi’ s music, testimony from survivors of the original chorus, dramatic scenes featuring the words of Schächter and others, and footage from the 1944 Nazi propaganda film about the camp.
“ As we learned more about the circumstances surrounding
Renata Berlin, director of choral activities at Davidson College.
this piece, we began to understand a complicated yet striking paradox: Why would Jews, imprisoned because of their Jewish identity, choose to perform a Catholic Mass for the Dead?” said Renata Berlin, director of choral activities at Davidson College.
Berlin said the decision to perform the“ Requiem” was not without controversy in Terezín. Schächter, however, saw in the music something beyond its Catholic liturgical origins. Its language of judgment, wrath and deliverance gave the choir members a means of defying their Nazi captors. Survivor Edgar Krása later described their purpose as singing to the Nazis what they could not say openly.
The students’ Holocaust studies have also extended beyond the rehearsal room. Davidson’ s large choir recently traveled to Poland and visited Auschwitz, while the Chamber Chorus traveled to Germany, where it performed a setting of a poem by Holocaust survivor Paul Celan.
“ These experiences are giving our students opportunities to deepen their understanding of the Holocaust and antisemitism as well as the role of the arts in preserving the past,” Berlin said.“ Confronting the devastating history of Terezín is an essential part of preparing this work. We must understand who sang it, the brutal conditions under which they lived and what they sought to communicate through the music.”
“ Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín” will be performed at 7:30 p. m. Nov. 19 in Duke Family Performance Hall at Davidson College, featuring the Davidson College Chorale and the Choral Arts Society of Davidson. For tickets, visit davidsonsings. com.