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ORCHESTRA TUNES UP
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APPLAUSE
Ssh!
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MUSIC STARTS
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WOMAN SINGS
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In the Spring of 1944,
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the Nazis attend an unusual
performance of Verdi's Requiem.
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The choir and their conductor
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are all prisoners
in the concentration camp Terezin.
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00:00:52,720 --> 00:00:57,000
The inmates of Terezin channel
the darkest of human experience
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into an explosion of art and music,
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and they would use it
to defy the Nazis.
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Doing a performance
was not entertainment.
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It was a fight for life.
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It was something
which made us strong.
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It is the reason why we are
calling it cultural resistance.
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It has given us a resistance
against our fate.
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We just tried to reach something
that's bigger than we are.
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And let's hope
that we are singing to God,
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and God can't help but hear us.
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Now, a new choir brings
the Requiem back to Terezin...
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..and the story of this artistic
uprising to life.
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Here they were, surrounded
on an hourly basis by man's worst,
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and these Jewish prisoners
and the creative people here
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were determined to remind
everyone of man's best.
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And I brought the Verdi here
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because I want to assure these
people that I've heard them.
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Now we have to tell the people
of the unmarked graves...
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that we've heard them.
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SINGING
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LOW CHATTER
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In a small town
in the Czech Republic,
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a warehouse is being prepared
for a reawakening.
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Tomorrow, an American conductor
will stage a special performance,
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a tribute to a prison chorus
and to another conductor,
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Rafael Schachter, who led them
in an extraordinary rebellion.
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This is the first time
that the story of Schachter
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and his chorus and its connection
to the ghetto concentration camp
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of Terezin has come home to
the place where it was born.
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It belongs here.
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On this very ground, these people
walked and they lived as prisoners.
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00:04:14,600 --> 00:04:16,560
Within these walls,
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a camp of Jewish prisoners stood
eye to eye with their Nazi captors
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and fought back with music,
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performing one of the world's
most difficult choral compositions,
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Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem Mass.
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For over ten years,
conductor Murry Sidlin has dreamed
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of bringing his own chorus here...
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Thank you so much.
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..to re-ignite their spirit.
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Ever since I learned
what happened here,
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and the extraordinary
artistic statement
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that Schachter and his chorus
decided they were going to make,
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I thought that it would be
the right thing
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to honour not only him but all those
who sang and all those who listened,
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and to reawaken all these walls
with the sounds of the Verdi,
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which have not been heard here
for a long, long time.
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Thank you.
You can go ahead now, please.
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OK, we need the F now. Here we go.
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SHE SINGS
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The story of this Defiant Requiem
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begins as Jewish life in
Czechoslovakia comes to an end.
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Prague, 1941.
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Musician Rafael Schachter
is preparing for a journey.
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Where he is going...he has no idea.
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Hitler's Nazi empire
has swallowed up the city,
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00:06:18,640 --> 00:06:21,720
one of Europe's most vibrant
cultural capitals.
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00:06:23,840 --> 00:06:27,240
The Nazis crush the city's
creative community,
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00:06:27,240 --> 00:06:31,840
and Schachter and his fellow Jewish
artists find themselves shut out,
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branded as outsiders.
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00:06:35,640 --> 00:06:38,520
It started that we had to
wear the star.
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If you were found without it, you
would be punished by being deported.
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00:06:42,440 --> 00:06:44,880
My father was kicked out
of his office
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within days of the German invasion,
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without pension or any compensation
to support his family,
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and all financial assets were
frozen. Inaccessible to Jews.
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00:06:59,480 --> 00:07:04,600
At 29 years old, Rafael Schachter
has established himself in Prague
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as a talented pianist and conductor.
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00:07:09,040 --> 00:07:12,680
But under the Nazis,
Jews are banned from the arts,
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ejected from schools, and confined
to their homes by an evening curfew.
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00:07:19,400 --> 00:07:21,680
Robbed of his art and his income,
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Schachter struggles to make
a living as a piano teacher.
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He was my music teacher
since I was about eight years old.
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Well, he was supposed to teach me
to play piano.
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He couldn't make me a musician,
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but he introduced me
to the world of music.
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The city's famed theatres
and concert halls fall silent.
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00:07:56,000 --> 00:07:58,360
And in November of 1941,
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the Nazis lower the curtain
on Jewish life in Prague.
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You started filtering news that they
are making lists of Jewish families
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and they'd be sent somewhere.
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There was my mother, my brother,
sister and myself.
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And we all got
a transport number.
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S-204, 205,
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206 and me, 716.
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And I thought that was like
a hand of fate touched me.
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That's bad news.
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The Nazis force all Jewish families
to pack up their lives,
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and limit them to
50kg of luggage.
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110 lb selected from a lifetime.
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Rafael Schachter takes the things
that give his life meaning -
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the tools of his trade,
piano scores,
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including Giuseppe Verdi's
Requiem Mass.
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00:09:12,840 --> 00:09:15,360
At 5am on a November morning,
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Schachter and hundreds of Czech Jews
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board the first train
into the unknown.
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When we came to the station,
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we have been surrounded by the SS
with rifles
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and from that moment,
we have been the prisoners.
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We came to the station and there
were already a lot of people
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and old ones and children crying,
and pushed into a train.
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And off we went.
Had no idea where we were going.
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The train carries them
just 40 miles west of Prague
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to an old garrison town
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transformed into a new Jewish
prison camp, Theresienstadt.
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Terezin.
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The town is selected by the man
charged with rounding up
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Europe's Jews, Nazi Lieutenant
Colonel Adolf Eichmann.
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With only a half square mile
in area
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and confined by a high wall,
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the old fortress would serve as
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00:10:33,960 --> 00:10:37,200
a ready-made holding pen
for the Czech Jews.
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Even the town's 18th-century
foundation is eerily prophetic,
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built in the shape
of a six-pointed star.
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Thousands of families are herded
into the new Jewish ghetto.
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The train stopped at a small place
called Bolshevize,
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and from there we walked
endless, endless, endless
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country roads, two by two,
with all our luggage.
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00:11:10,720 --> 00:11:13,960
The railroad station
was two miles away.
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00:11:13,960 --> 00:11:19,640
We had to carry
the allowed 110 lb of luggage...
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00:11:22,040 --> 00:11:26,400
..and we walked the two miles
to enter through one of the gates
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into the total unknown.
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We were ordered, "Raus,"
"fast, fast,"
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00:11:48,360 --> 00:11:51,560
because the Germans always had us
to do everything on the double.
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00:11:51,560 --> 00:11:54,800
And no matter how fast we did it,
it was never fast enough.
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00:11:54,800 --> 00:11:58,800
And when we all
went through the gates
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I knew that life
will never be the same.
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00:12:11,800 --> 00:12:15,720
The Nazi guards strip all new
arrivals of cash and valuables
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and any semblance of normal life.
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00:12:19,720 --> 00:12:22,440
Children are seized
from their parents,
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husbands and wives separated
into bunks for men and women.
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00:12:29,080 --> 00:12:31,560
The dusty barracks
of the fortress are soon
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00:12:31,560 --> 00:12:35,120
stuffed from the floors to
the attics with Jewish prisoners.
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Rafael Schachter carves out
a space for himself
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in the rafters of an old house.
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Everything was organised.
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There was organisation
for every part of life in Terezin -
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00:12:53,280 --> 00:12:57,240
how to build the three-storey bunks,
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your living space was measured out
exactly 1.6 metres.
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00:13:02,880 --> 00:13:08,200
At first, we lived in a huge hall,
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where there were, I think,
about 400 people in one room.
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My mother was in a different
barracks and so was my sister,
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so we could not visit them.
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For several weeks, my mother and I
had no idea where my father was,
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and he had no idea where we were.
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The day after his arrival,
Rafael Schachter is assigned to
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00:13:30,280 --> 00:13:32,000
a construction detail...
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..forced to work
up to 100 hours a week.
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00:13:37,520 --> 00:13:42,400
Other inmates work in factories,
sewing uniforms for German soldiers.
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Jewish artists are drafted to
produce Nazi propaganda.
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00:13:52,040 --> 00:13:54,680
But at night, with stolen supplies,
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they risk their lives to secretly
record the horrors around them.
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The moment you open your eyes,
the struggle began.
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00:14:23,520 --> 00:14:27,560
Of course, the struggle for
the day-by-day trivial needs -
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00:14:27,560 --> 00:14:30,120
wash yourself, reach the latrines.
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00:14:30,120 --> 00:14:34,480
We had been converted
from regular people to inmates.
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00:14:41,720 --> 00:14:45,040
The German slogan at the camp
is "work will make you free"...
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..but refusal to work
means a brutal incarceration
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in the nearby small fortress,
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00:14:57,640 --> 00:15:01,920
where inmates are tortured
and executed.
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00:15:04,920 --> 00:15:07,040
For everyone else in Terezin,
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the constant hunger
is a torture all of its own.
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00:15:10,400 --> 00:15:12,560
Of course there was no food.
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There wasn't more than
maybe a cupful, like this,
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00:15:16,160 --> 00:15:20,040
and some of it was just some kind of
watery bits, or whatever,
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00:15:20,040 --> 00:15:25,320
but the food that we swallowed,
it was never quite enough.
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Who of us worked in the kitchen,
we could have a little bit more food
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than just one potato
and one ladle of soup,
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but I remember
when we were giving it out,
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the old people were standing
in the line for hours
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00:16:02,040 --> 00:16:06,120
and if it was soup,
they came with the little dish,
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00:16:06,120 --> 00:16:09,720
and would say,
"Please, from the bottom,"
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so that there will be something -
a piece of potato maybe
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or a string of something -
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so for them, it was real suffering.
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Surrounded by misery,
Rafael Schachter realises
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00:16:28,920 --> 00:16:33,080
that what will set them free
isn't work, but music.
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He discovers an old piano
in a barracks basement
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and resolves to take a risk
of his own.
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His first recruit
is a 21-year-old camp cook
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who shares his attic living space,
Edgar Krasa.
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He assessed immediately
that a prison mentality may sink in,
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so he encouraged us,
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after the assigned work was done,
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to come to the basement and sing,
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00:17:09,000 --> 00:17:11,760
starting out with Czech
popular songs.
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00:17:15,280 --> 00:17:17,440
At night, after long days at work,
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00:17:17,440 --> 00:17:21,800
Schachter begins holding
secret musical gatherings.
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00:17:21,800 --> 00:17:25,240
THEY SING
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00:17:41,160 --> 00:17:46,200
He taps deep into Czech pride,
rallying his fellow inmates
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00:17:46,200 --> 00:17:50,520
with a performance of Smetana's
comic opera, The Bartered Bride.
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00:17:51,680 --> 00:17:55,200
You forget where you are,
you forget the surroundings.
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It was like as if I was
in a concert hall in Prague,
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and it didn't matter where it was.
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00:18:03,320 --> 00:18:10,520
This hour-and-a-half or so shortened
the time we had for brooding
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00:18:10,520 --> 00:18:14,040
about our new lifestyle,
and it did more.
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00:18:14,040 --> 00:18:18,760
The next day at work,
we already occupied our mind
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00:18:18,760 --> 00:18:23,000
looking forward to the evening
to sing again.
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00:18:23,000 --> 00:18:25,600
THEY SING
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00:18:31,560 --> 00:18:34,120
To carry these songs
which we all knew,
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00:18:34,120 --> 00:18:36,320
you carried it with you
in your mind
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00:18:36,320 --> 00:18:39,960
and it was a part of the mechanism
to help you to cope.
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00:18:39,960 --> 00:18:40,880
THEY SING
213
00:18:48,040 --> 00:18:51,800
Rafael Schachter has opened a refuge
for his fellow inmates
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00:18:51,800 --> 00:18:53,520
with music.
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00:18:53,520 --> 00:18:56,920
They have no idea how important
it will become.
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00:18:56,920 --> 00:18:58,560
THEY SING
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00:19:01,760 --> 00:19:04,360
THUNDER RUMBLES
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00:19:10,760 --> 00:19:14,360
OK. Let's get settled, please,
so we can begin. Ssh.
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00:19:15,720 --> 00:19:18,000
Also, be up when the piano plays.
220
00:19:18,000 --> 00:19:20,040
OK? We talked about that. Thank you.
221
00:19:20,040 --> 00:19:23,680
Good. OK. Let's begin
from the beginning, please.
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00:19:29,240 --> 00:19:32,480
TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS
223
00:19:43,840 --> 00:19:46,840
Can we have the train whistle
a little louder
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00:19:46,840 --> 00:19:48,880
and a little sooner, please?
225
00:20:01,600 --> 00:20:07,000
'We all have a powerful
emotional storehouse,
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00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:10,440
'and we don't necessarily
have the language
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00:20:10,440 --> 00:20:14,040
'to get at the power
of our feelings.
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00:20:14,040 --> 00:20:20,280
'When common language
can no longer get even close'
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00:20:20,280 --> 00:20:23,640
to what it is we're feeling,
that's when art begins.
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00:20:23,640 --> 00:20:26,080
THEY SING
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00:20:46,120 --> 00:20:50,600
Inside the walls of Terezin,
Schachter and his fellow inmates
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00:20:50,600 --> 00:20:54,360
unleash a flood of artistic
creation.
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00:20:54,360 --> 00:20:57,360
THEY SING
234
00:20:57,360 --> 00:21:01,280
Musicians stage concerts
of imprisoned Jewish composers
235
00:21:01,280 --> 00:21:03,280
Viktor Ullmann and Gideon Klein.
236
00:21:04,840 --> 00:21:09,960
Pavel Haas and Hans Kraza write
all-new musical compositions.
237
00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:14,200
Playwrights mount new productions,
238
00:21:14,200 --> 00:21:18,080
creating sets and costumes with
whatever materials they can find.
239
00:21:19,520 --> 00:21:23,640
Terezin erupts into
a thriving cultural centre,
240
00:21:23,640 --> 00:21:25,720
an academy of prisoners.
241
00:21:27,840 --> 00:21:31,000
The arrival of those artists who
were willing to devote their talent
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00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:34,680
to their and the inmates' benefit
made all the difference.
243
00:21:35,760 --> 00:21:39,000
To give us that flicker of hope
244
00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:43,680
in the hopeless black monotony
of the camp day after day.
245
00:21:57,880 --> 00:22:03,400
All we lived with from the start
in Terezin
246
00:22:03,400 --> 00:22:08,080
was the notion that in another
two months, the war will be over,
247
00:22:08,080 --> 00:22:10,800
they close this gate
and we go home.
248
00:22:10,800 --> 00:22:13,040
So, in the meantime,
249
00:22:13,040 --> 00:22:17,560
of course there was such a surge
of energy for the arts,
250
00:22:17,560 --> 00:22:19,440
which is quite normal.
251
00:22:19,440 --> 00:22:23,720
If people are robbed of freedom,
they want to be creative.
252
00:22:23,720 --> 00:22:25,520
And they were.
253
00:22:44,400 --> 00:22:47,280
RIPPLE OF APPLAUSE
254
00:22:50,200 --> 00:22:54,560
The artists of Terezin
strive to find humour through satire
255
00:22:54,560 --> 00:22:56,400
of life under the Nazis...
256
00:22:58,600 --> 00:23:01,120
..sometimes dangerously
pushing the limit.
257
00:23:05,360 --> 00:23:07,560
One play, The Last Cyclist,
258
00:23:07,560 --> 00:23:10,080
mocks the tyranny
of the Third Reich,
259
00:23:10,080 --> 00:23:14,160
depicting an evil society
bent on killing not Jews,
260
00:23:14,160 --> 00:23:16,520
but people who ride bicycles.
261
00:23:16,520 --> 00:23:19,320
Well, there was the Jewish management
262
00:23:19,320 --> 00:23:22,640
who always came
to the dress rehearsal,
263
00:23:22,640 --> 00:23:25,800
and they came to see
The Last Cyclist
264
00:23:25,800 --> 00:23:29,800
and they said, "Uh-uh, no way,
we can't have that.
265
00:23:29,800 --> 00:23:32,360
"Sorry, that will be
so much trouble.
266
00:23:32,360 --> 00:23:35,400
"We don't want to create
any more trouble than we have.
267
00:23:35,400 --> 00:23:37,880
"No, it will not be performed."
268
00:23:39,240 --> 00:23:42,360
The inmates of Terezin
push through ceaseless hunger
269
00:23:42,360 --> 00:23:45,120
to feed a deeper artistic longing.
270
00:23:50,120 --> 00:23:53,920
For spiritual needs,
they turn to their faith.
271
00:23:56,120 --> 00:23:57,920
Rabbis interned at the camp
272
00:23:57,920 --> 00:24:01,760
transform a hidden room
into a secret synagogue.
273
00:24:03,560 --> 00:24:05,520
The rabbis were happy.
274
00:24:05,520 --> 00:24:09,720
Oh, they never had so many people
come voluntarily to their sermon.
275
00:24:10,880 --> 00:24:15,240
Everybody wanted to go,
because it reminded you
276
00:24:15,240 --> 00:24:19,160
of your life at home,
when you were attending concerts
277
00:24:19,160 --> 00:24:22,720
and other cultural activities,
278
00:24:22,720 --> 00:24:27,840
and it took time away from
thinking about your current life.
279
00:24:31,240 --> 00:24:36,800
Scholars from every discipline
give lectures to packed audiences
280
00:24:36,800 --> 00:24:40,800
about science, religion, psychology.
281
00:24:42,960 --> 00:24:45,800
In a sense, it was like
going to college.
282
00:24:45,800 --> 00:24:48,560
I mean, I was that age, basically.
As I came here, I was 18.
283
00:24:48,560 --> 00:24:51,840
And we went to art history lectures,
284
00:24:51,840 --> 00:24:54,400
I remember going to physics lectures.
285
00:24:54,400 --> 00:24:59,360
These were all experiences
I didn't have before, so...
286
00:25:00,920 --> 00:25:04,240
You can't call it normalcy
but it was something very different.
287
00:25:05,560 --> 00:25:10,400
There were announcements,
there were programmes,
288
00:25:10,400 --> 00:25:16,600
so every night, you could actually
be part of that life.
289
00:25:16,600 --> 00:25:19,840
The artistic life in Terezin.
290
00:25:19,840 --> 00:25:24,880
Throughout German-occupied Europe,
Jews are herded into ghettos,
291
00:25:24,880 --> 00:25:27,960
forbidden to gather,
play musical instruments
292
00:25:27,960 --> 00:25:30,000
or venture out at night.
293
00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:32,160
But inside the walls of Terezin,
294
00:25:32,160 --> 00:25:35,760
the inmates find a strange
artistic freedom.
295
00:25:35,760 --> 00:25:37,720
MUSIC PLAYED ON PIANO
296
00:25:40,480 --> 00:25:46,840
The Germans knew full well
that we are destined for death,
297
00:25:46,840 --> 00:25:49,960
and the smile
will be wiped off our faces,
298
00:25:49,960 --> 00:25:53,880
so they thought, "Let them play
music, let them play theatre,
299
00:25:53,880 --> 00:25:56,080
"let them dance."
300
00:25:56,080 --> 00:25:58,640
So we were dancing under the gallows.
301
00:26:02,440 --> 00:26:05,840
SHE SINGS
302
00:26:29,680 --> 00:26:32,520
Trains arrive every few days,
303
00:26:32,520 --> 00:26:37,160
delivering thousands of new inmates
to the overcrowded ghetto.
304
00:26:41,160 --> 00:26:43,280
In the small fortress,
305
00:26:43,280 --> 00:26:46,280
Jews and political prisoners
are brutally beaten,
306
00:26:46,280 --> 00:26:50,200
tortured to death or executed.
307
00:26:50,200 --> 00:26:54,640
600 inmates are crammed into
a single room
308
00:26:54,640 --> 00:26:59,640
with two toilets, little food and
the relentless spread of disease.
309
00:27:05,240 --> 00:27:08,480
Every other or third day,
another thousand arrived.
310
00:27:10,160 --> 00:27:12,320
They came - whole families.
311
00:27:13,960 --> 00:27:17,000
To live in crowded conditions
like that,
312
00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:18,640
it's very hard.
313
00:27:19,960 --> 00:27:23,080
There were fleas all the time,
there were fleas and bedbugs,
314
00:27:23,080 --> 00:27:27,520
and we were hungry all the time, of
course. There was never enough food.
315
00:27:35,720 --> 00:27:40,360
By September 1942,
the town built for 6,000 people
316
00:27:40,360 --> 00:27:43,640
is bursting with nearly 60,000
Jewish inmates
317
00:27:43,640 --> 00:27:47,320
from as far away as the Netherlands
and Denmark.
318
00:27:47,320 --> 00:27:52,400
In Germany, the Nazis sell
retirement packages to elderly Jews,
319
00:27:52,400 --> 00:27:55,720
promising posh suites
at a lakeside resort
320
00:27:55,720 --> 00:27:58,680
before putting them on the trains
to Terezin.
321
00:28:00,440 --> 00:28:03,080
They came from Germany
under the notion
322
00:28:03,080 --> 00:28:05,600
that they are going to a spa.
323
00:28:05,600 --> 00:28:09,200
That they would be looked after,
they will live in a hotel.
324
00:28:10,680 --> 00:28:13,880
They brought in suitcases
with evening dresses
325
00:28:13,880 --> 00:28:18,360
and long gloves, and hats
with feathers, and all that,
326
00:28:18,360 --> 00:28:22,000
and of course these people
were dying 200 a day.
327
00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:23,880
SHE SINGS
328
00:28:30,480 --> 00:28:33,160
Typhus ravages the crowded ghetto.
329
00:28:33,160 --> 00:28:38,880
In a single year, nearly half
the population will die.
330
00:28:38,880 --> 00:28:41,120
Bodies pile up in such numbers
331
00:28:41,120 --> 00:28:44,600
the Nazis order the prisoners
to build a crematorium,
332
00:28:44,600 --> 00:28:46,840
where, against Jewish religious law,
333
00:28:46,840 --> 00:28:49,840
they're forced to
incinerate their dead.
334
00:28:49,840 --> 00:28:52,880
Old people were dying like flies.
335
00:28:52,880 --> 00:28:57,600
And you saw the transports
of corpses all the time.
336
00:28:57,600 --> 00:29:02,440
Death was a concept which
we learned to live with.
337
00:29:02,440 --> 00:29:05,280
Death was omnipresent,
it was everywhere.
338
00:29:05,280 --> 00:29:07,680
SHE SINGS
339
00:29:28,240 --> 00:29:30,360
By September 1942,
340
00:29:30,360 --> 00:29:35,160
Hitler's Final Solution
is killing Jews by the millions.
341
00:29:35,160 --> 00:29:39,920
Across eastern Europe, whole towns -
men, women and children -
342
00:29:39,920 --> 00:29:44,360
are herded into fields
and massacred with machine guns.
343
00:29:44,360 --> 00:29:46,400
In German-occupied Poland,
344
00:29:46,400 --> 00:29:50,120
the extermination camp Auschwitz
is killing so many people
345
00:29:50,120 --> 00:29:52,920
they order the construction
of two more gas chambers
346
00:29:52,920 --> 00:29:55,400
and 46 additional ovens.
347
00:29:57,280 --> 00:30:00,120
The inmates of Terezin
have no idea of the horrors
348
00:30:00,120 --> 00:30:02,760
outside their town's walls.
349
00:30:02,760 --> 00:30:04,920
But in January 1943,
350
00:30:04,920 --> 00:30:09,720
a new fear grips the ghetto -
transports to the east.
351
00:30:09,720 --> 00:30:13,520
It was like a Damocles' sword
hanging over us.
352
00:30:13,520 --> 00:30:15,560
It was the only fear.
353
00:30:15,560 --> 00:30:18,360
Transport to the east was the word.
354
00:30:18,360 --> 00:30:20,760
Nobody knew where to and when,
355
00:30:20,760 --> 00:30:24,080
and nobody knew when his turn
will come.
356
00:30:25,920 --> 00:30:32,000
The strange thing is that we did not
know where the transports went.
357
00:30:32,000 --> 00:30:38,520
The word "Auschwitz", we didn't know,
we didn't hear. That was unknown.
358
00:30:42,880 --> 00:30:46,760
In a sadistic twist, choosing
whose names are on the list
359
00:30:46,760 --> 00:30:50,880
is delegated by the Nazis
to the camp's Jewish leaders,
360
00:30:50,880 --> 00:30:53,120
the Council of Elders.
361
00:30:54,600 --> 00:30:57,120
It was a lousy responsibility
362
00:30:57,120 --> 00:31:00,240
for the officials
of the Jewish community
363
00:31:00,240 --> 00:31:04,760
that they had to pick people
they didn't know,
364
00:31:04,760 --> 00:31:08,160
just put together 1,000 people
and ship them out.
365
00:31:08,160 --> 00:31:13,080
They probably must have known
where these transports went,
366
00:31:13,080 --> 00:31:17,480
but it was their life on the line.
367
00:31:17,480 --> 00:31:19,840
And it never filtered through.
368
00:31:19,840 --> 00:31:21,600
Never.
369
00:31:21,600 --> 00:31:24,240
TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS
370
00:31:26,120 --> 00:31:29,360
Before long,
so many trains are leaving Terezin
371
00:31:29,360 --> 00:31:33,480
the Nazis order the inmates
to lay tracks right into the ghetto,
372
00:31:33,480 --> 00:31:36,600
building their own railroad
to the abyss.
373
00:31:39,920 --> 00:31:45,480
For six days, 1,000 names a day
are drawn from a terrible lottery...
374
00:31:47,880 --> 00:31:51,240
..inmates loaded into cattle cars
and sent east
375
00:31:51,240 --> 00:31:54,080
to a fate no-one dares to imagine.
376
00:31:55,200 --> 00:31:58,840
We didn't know that there
are extermination camps.
377
00:31:58,840 --> 00:32:03,920
That there are camps which are
much, much worse than Terezin was.
378
00:32:05,840 --> 00:32:12,560
But nevertheless,
we have felt something unknown,
379
00:32:12,560 --> 00:32:16,440
and in our situation,
being the prisoners,
380
00:32:16,440 --> 00:32:22,280
to know something unknown,
that's a dreadful feeling.
381
00:32:24,600 --> 00:32:27,280
As fear falls over the ghetto,
382
00:32:27,280 --> 00:32:30,480
Rafael Schachter turns to
one of the few possessions
383
00:32:30,480 --> 00:32:32,680
he brought from Prague -
384
00:32:32,680 --> 00:32:36,720
the score to Giuseppe Verdi's
Requiem Mass.
385
00:32:36,720 --> 00:32:40,200
With one of the most powerful
choral works in the world,
386
00:32:40,200 --> 00:32:44,080
he could hone his art into a weapon.
387
00:32:44,080 --> 00:32:48,440
In his mind, he transformed it
from the Mass for the dead
388
00:32:48,440 --> 00:32:50,560
into Mass for the dead Nazis.
389
00:32:54,200 --> 00:32:59,080
And he wanted to tell them
about the day of wrath coming,
390
00:32:59,080 --> 00:33:04,160
and the supreme judge sitting in
judgment, and no sinner will escape.
391
00:33:05,920 --> 00:33:08,840
And he couldn't tell them in German,
392
00:33:08,840 --> 00:33:12,720
so he thought if he can sing it
in Latin, he may get away with it.
393
00:33:14,960 --> 00:33:18,760
Verdi's Latin text
describes wrathful vengeance
394
00:33:18,760 --> 00:33:20,800
and holy judgment.
395
00:33:23,280 --> 00:33:26,000
Schachter's plan to use
the fiery Catholic Mass
396
00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:29,800
to denounce the Germans
provokes outrage across the ghetto.
397
00:33:31,360 --> 00:33:36,160
The Council of Jewish Elders started
to get vibrations from rabbis
398
00:33:36,160 --> 00:33:38,400
and Zionists. "Are you kidding?
399
00:33:38,400 --> 00:33:41,720
"Doing Verdi Requiem,
a big Catholic work like that?
400
00:33:41,720 --> 00:33:45,160
"You've got to be kidding."
So they call in Schachter, and say,
401
00:33:45,160 --> 00:33:47,320
"Are you trying to
apologise for being Jewish?
402
00:33:47,320 --> 00:33:49,440
"This is the way
it's going to be perceived.
403
00:33:49,440 --> 00:33:51,880
"People are starting to rumble,
starting to get noisy.
404
00:33:51,880 --> 00:33:53,920
"And you know how they're going to
settle this?
405
00:33:53,920 --> 00:33:55,800
"First thing, they'll shoot you.
406
00:33:55,800 --> 00:33:57,600
"They'll deport the whole chorus.
407
00:33:57,600 --> 00:34:01,040
"And they'll stop, they'll stop
all the night-time activity.
408
00:34:01,040 --> 00:34:03,320
"And it'll all be your fault."
409
00:34:03,320 --> 00:34:06,520
A storm he created in the ghetto.
410
00:34:06,520 --> 00:34:10,760
Everybody was really opposed to it
411
00:34:10,760 --> 00:34:15,240
because as a Jew with Jewish singers
412
00:34:15,240 --> 00:34:18,920
in a Jewish ghetto,
why would you pick a Catholic Mass
413
00:34:18,920 --> 00:34:22,320
when there are works
by Handel on Jewish themes
414
00:34:22,320 --> 00:34:25,560
that cannot be played anywhere
in occupied Europe?
415
00:34:25,560 --> 00:34:27,840
This is the place, the only place.
416
00:34:27,840 --> 00:34:33,160
I don't know what he answered them,
but he persisted.
417
00:34:33,160 --> 00:34:35,200
WOMAN SINGS
418
00:34:40,080 --> 00:34:43,240
By the time
we were allowed to enter
419
00:34:43,240 --> 00:34:48,440
the special group of the people who
were chosen for the Verdi Requiem,
420
00:34:48,440 --> 00:34:52,840
we had nothing but gratitude
for Rafi in our hearts.
421
00:34:52,840 --> 00:34:55,240
We aimed to please him.
422
00:34:55,240 --> 00:34:57,720
THEY SING
423
00:35:00,480 --> 00:35:06,000
And if anyone would have come in,
a few Nazis with a few guns,
424
00:35:06,000 --> 00:35:07,760
and would have said,
425
00:35:07,760 --> 00:35:10,680
"Stop immediately
and get out of this building
426
00:35:10,680 --> 00:35:13,040
"or I'll shoot you all,"
427
00:35:13,040 --> 00:35:16,400
there wouldn't have been one that
would have left the building.
428
00:35:21,320 --> 00:35:25,080
In the basement
of a concentration camp barracks,
429
00:35:25,080 --> 00:35:27,600
Rafael Schachter begins
the mission of his life -
430
00:35:27,600 --> 00:35:31,160
piecing together one of the world's
most demanding compositions
431
00:35:31,160 --> 00:35:34,920
with an amateur chorus of prisoners
learning each note -
432
00:35:34,920 --> 00:35:37,800
in Latin - by rote.
433
00:35:42,640 --> 00:35:45,440
I had never in my life
heard a requiem.
434
00:35:45,440 --> 00:35:51,400
I did not have any idea about the
gorgeous, gorgeous beautiful music.
435
00:35:55,800 --> 00:35:59,680
I also didn't know
more than two Latin words.
436
00:35:59,680 --> 00:36:05,840
And Rafi made very sure that he would
exactly translate into Czech
437
00:36:05,840 --> 00:36:11,240
the meaning of the words,
and Rafi told us,
438
00:36:11,240 --> 00:36:14,840
"The most important thing
is how you feel when you sing this."
439
00:36:18,800 --> 00:36:21,360
From the beginning,
Schachter makes it clear
440
00:36:21,360 --> 00:36:25,120
that this Requiem
is not just another performance.
441
00:36:26,200 --> 00:36:30,160
It was to be a statement,
the biggest - perhaps the last -
442
00:36:30,160 --> 00:36:32,800
they would make together.
443
00:36:32,800 --> 00:36:34,800
It has to be perfect.
444
00:36:35,960 --> 00:36:40,400
He was a very nice guy
to be with socially,
445
00:36:40,400 --> 00:36:45,160
but when it came to rehearsals,
he was merciless.
446
00:36:46,320 --> 00:36:49,480
You couldn't move,
you couldn't turn your head,
447
00:36:49,480 --> 00:36:54,240
you couldn't do anything
except have your eyes
448
00:36:54,240 --> 00:36:57,640
directed into his eyes.
449
00:37:04,440 --> 00:37:08,760
It's one of THE most demanding
choral works,
450
00:37:08,760 --> 00:37:11,560
demanding not only musically
but emotionally,
451
00:37:11,560 --> 00:37:13,880
and there has to be a precision.
452
00:37:13,880 --> 00:37:16,800
There has to be
an understanding of the text.
453
00:37:20,760 --> 00:37:24,240
And if you read the text
as though you were a prisoner,
454
00:37:24,240 --> 00:37:27,600
then it has a different meaning
altogether.
455
00:37:32,000 --> 00:37:34,320
That this is defiance!
456
00:37:34,320 --> 00:37:36,880
And suddenly the Libera Me,
457
00:37:36,880 --> 00:37:41,520
which literally means
"Deliver me, oh Lord"
458
00:37:41,520 --> 00:37:44,160
becomes "Liberate me, oh Lord".
459
00:37:56,160 --> 00:38:03,960
The Libera Me
was "liberate us from here".
460
00:38:03,960 --> 00:38:11,160
That was like a prayer that overcame
hunger and occasional pains.
461
00:38:11,160 --> 00:38:13,760
You were there in that cellar
462
00:38:13,760 --> 00:38:15,880
and you were a different person.
463
00:38:15,880 --> 00:38:20,240
THEY SING
464
00:38:31,080 --> 00:38:35,240
I'm not so sure
whether I was hard of hearing
465
00:38:35,240 --> 00:38:39,360
but I think that my stomach
stopped growling when I was singing.
466
00:38:40,520 --> 00:38:44,600
I think when you are more a soul
than a person,
467
00:38:44,600 --> 00:38:48,040
I don't think that the soul
has to be nourished by
468
00:38:48,040 --> 00:38:49,880
anything but by heavenly music.
469
00:38:49,880 --> 00:38:52,520
The soul doesn't need anything else.
470
00:38:52,520 --> 00:38:54,840
THEY SING
471
00:39:30,920 --> 00:39:33,720
OK, we have plenty of room up here
472
00:39:33,720 --> 00:39:36,640
and there is space back there.
473
00:39:42,240 --> 00:39:45,040
Just be careful
of this little pool here.
474
00:39:45,040 --> 00:39:48,800
Today, Rafael Schacter's
rehearsal space fills up once again
475
00:39:48,800 --> 00:39:53,240
as Murry brings in his chorus
before this afternoon's performance.
476
00:39:53,240 --> 00:39:56,080
OK. Let me have your attention. Ssh.
477
00:39:57,680 --> 00:40:00,440
This is, to me,
a very religious moment.
478
00:40:01,800 --> 00:40:05,520
After many, many hours per day
of slave labour,
479
00:40:05,520 --> 00:40:11,080
these people were compelled to come
to this cold, dank, airless place
480
00:40:11,080 --> 00:40:13,560
and rehearse the Verdi Requiem.
481
00:40:15,920 --> 00:40:19,080
But one of the most important things
we can do
482
00:40:19,080 --> 00:40:25,440
is to once again sing this music
to these walls
483
00:40:25,440 --> 00:40:28,800
which heard it and absorbed it
years ago
484
00:40:28,800 --> 00:40:30,840
and have not heard it since.
485
00:40:30,840 --> 00:40:33,680
All of this is to say to
not only the survivors
486
00:40:33,680 --> 00:40:35,800
but those who didn't survive,
487
00:40:35,800 --> 00:40:40,360
that they have been heard...
and we so honour them.
488
00:40:42,200 --> 00:40:44,640
So let's see
if we can sing through this now.
489
00:40:44,640 --> 00:40:46,280
Give us the B flat again, please.
490
00:40:46,280 --> 00:40:48,840
MUSIC: "Libera Me"
by Giuseppe Verdi
491
00:40:48,840 --> 00:40:56,280
# Requiem
492
00:40:57,560 --> 00:41:13,880
# Requiem aeternam
493
00:41:15,320 --> 00:41:25,120
# Dona eis
494
00:41:25,120 --> 00:41:32,680
# Dona eis, Domine
495
00:41:32,680 --> 00:41:35,360
# Dona eis
496
00:41:37,440 --> 00:41:45,160
# Dona eis
497
00:41:45,160 --> 00:41:53,480
# Domine
498
00:41:53,480 --> 00:42:04,400
# Et lux perpetua... #
499
00:42:04,400 --> 00:42:07,640
We're sitting here, in Terezin,
right now
500
00:42:07,640 --> 00:42:12,400
in the first week in March
and it's freezing...
501
00:42:14,120 --> 00:42:20,360
..and they go into a dark,
damp, cold cellar
502
00:42:20,360 --> 00:42:25,800
virtually every night because
they want to sing the Verdi Requiem.
503
00:42:25,800 --> 00:42:27,560
Can you imagine?
504
00:42:27,560 --> 00:42:31,680
We can't wait to get out
of this place and get warm.
505
00:42:31,680 --> 00:42:33,920
They can't get warm.
506
00:42:33,920 --> 00:42:39,600
# ..Perpetua
507
00:42:39,600 --> 00:42:52,440
# Luceat eis... #
508
00:42:57,360 --> 00:43:04,400
Rafi said, "We will sing this
in memory and gratitude to Verdi,
509
00:43:04,400 --> 00:43:06,760
"and you can have, in your heart,
510
00:43:06,760 --> 00:43:10,000
"gratitude to anybody
you loved and lost.
511
00:43:10,000 --> 00:43:14,760
"A relative, a friend, whatever
you feel when you have the sad part.
512
00:43:14,760 --> 00:43:17,560
"Just make sure it is becoming
one of you."
513
00:43:17,560 --> 00:43:24,320
# ..Et lux
514
00:43:24,320 --> 00:43:28,760
# Et lux
515
00:43:28,760 --> 00:43:38,160
# Perpetua
516
00:43:38,160 --> 00:43:51,080
# Luceat eis
517
00:43:53,480 --> 00:44:02,120
# Requiem
518
00:44:04,480 --> 00:44:15,720
# Requiem. #
519
00:44:29,200 --> 00:44:31,640
The first time we came,
she didn't know where she was.
520
00:44:31,640 --> 00:44:34,120
No, I know where I am now.
That's Hamburger
521
00:44:34,120 --> 00:44:36,360
and that's the gate to the barracks
where I lived.
522
00:44:36,360 --> 00:44:40,800
This part of the Hamburger,
that was where the railroad ended.
523
00:44:42,720 --> 00:44:47,200
When the transports came in,
they were welcomed by the Germans,
524
00:44:47,200 --> 00:44:49,840
who, right away, went through
their luggage and confiscated
525
00:44:49,840 --> 00:44:54,160
all the better clothing and shoes
to send it to Germany.
526
00:44:54,160 --> 00:44:59,360
BIRDSONG
527
00:44:59,360 --> 00:45:01,360
I don't remember ever hearing birds.
528
00:45:01,360 --> 00:45:03,720
I don't remember ever seeing grass.
529
00:45:03,720 --> 00:45:08,240
It was drab always
and muddy and...ugly.
530
00:45:28,400 --> 00:45:29,600
646?
531
00:45:29,600 --> 00:45:32,840
Who has the trumpet solo 646?
532
00:45:34,120 --> 00:45:36,280
Yeah. I didn't hear. I didn't hear.
533
00:45:36,280 --> 00:45:37,760
Play please...
534
00:45:37,760 --> 00:45:40,080
HE HUMS
535
00:45:41,240 --> 00:45:42,640
Verdi, Verdi...
536
00:45:42,640 --> 00:45:44,440
Here we go - 641.
537
00:45:45,520 --> 00:45:48,480
Thank you. And one, two...
538
00:45:50,560 --> 00:45:57,960
# Dona eis requiem
539
00:46:00,000 --> 00:46:03,240
# Dona eis... #
540
00:46:03,240 --> 00:46:05,360
Tenors, gently!
541
00:46:05,360 --> 00:46:07,160
Don't scream that out.
542
00:46:07,160 --> 00:46:11,840
# ..Dona eis requiem... #
543
00:46:11,840 --> 00:46:13,080
Thank you.
544
00:46:18,680 --> 00:46:22,240
# ..Requiem. #
545
00:46:22,240 --> 00:46:24,440
Well, my youngest son,
546
00:46:24,440 --> 00:46:26,800
who's named after Rafi,
547
00:46:26,800 --> 00:46:30,880
came to me and said,
"We want to honour our father
548
00:46:30,880 --> 00:46:33,840
"and Rafi Schachter
by singing in Terezin."
549
00:46:36,600 --> 00:46:40,600
And he told his brother
550
00:46:40,600 --> 00:46:43,720
and he wanted it as a surprise
for their father.
551
00:46:43,720 --> 00:46:48,640
And I said, "Well, find out
if you can before we do anything."
552
00:46:48,640 --> 00:46:50,800
So he called up Murry Sidlin
553
00:46:50,800 --> 00:46:53,280
and talked it over with him
554
00:46:53,280 --> 00:46:55,480
and then, when he found out
they can,
555
00:46:55,480 --> 00:46:57,600
he said, "We are going to do it."
556
00:46:57,600 --> 00:47:02,280
They originally wanted to keep it
a secret and surprise me
557
00:47:02,280 --> 00:47:06,600
and they told my wife and she...
558
00:47:08,560 --> 00:47:11,240
..all the time worries about me.
I don't know why.
559
00:47:11,240 --> 00:47:12,840
I mean, there's nothing to worry,
560
00:47:12,840 --> 00:47:14,880
she worries why there's nothing
to worry.
561
00:47:14,880 --> 00:47:18,120
At our age,
I didn't want any big surprises.
562
00:47:18,120 --> 00:47:21,040
I don't know, maybe I'm silly.
563
00:47:21,040 --> 00:47:25,240
So once they came over for dinner
564
00:47:25,240 --> 00:47:30,920
and Rafi and Danny brought their
score and they showed it to him
565
00:47:30,920 --> 00:47:34,240
and told him at that time,
"We are going to sing the Requiem."
566
00:47:34,240 --> 00:47:36,000
HE HUMS
567
00:47:36,000 --> 00:47:37,520
Yeah, that's the other one.
568
00:47:37,520 --> 00:47:42,520
And I haven't heard my father
sing it, actually, ever.
569
00:47:45,560 --> 00:47:47,560
One, two, three...
570
00:47:47,560 --> 00:47:54,000
THEY SING: # Lacrimosa dies illa
571
00:47:54,000 --> 00:47:59,840
# Qua resurget ex favilla
572
00:47:59,840 --> 00:48:02,880
# Judicandus homo... #
573
00:48:02,880 --> 00:48:06,240
MUSIC: "Lacrimosa"
by Giuseppe Verdi
574
00:48:06,240 --> 00:48:12,040
# Huic ergo parce Deus
575
00:48:13,160 --> 00:48:19,680
# Huic ergo
576
00:48:19,680 --> 00:48:26,400
# Parce Deus
577
00:48:26,400 --> 00:48:32,640
# Lacrimosa dies illa
578
00:48:32,640 --> 00:48:38,760
# Qua resurget ex favilla... #
579
00:48:40,520 --> 00:48:44,760
It's emotional,
but I'm very, very happy about it.
580
00:48:44,760 --> 00:48:47,520
And I'm looking forward
to the performance
581
00:48:47,520 --> 00:48:53,440
and the beautiful music and we'll be
all together, so that's good.
582
00:48:55,400 --> 00:48:58,040
They did not succeed. We survived.
583
00:49:32,320 --> 00:49:34,520
By September 1943,
584
00:49:34,520 --> 00:49:38,960
Schachter's chorus hasn't
quite mastered the Requiem...
585
00:49:41,400 --> 00:49:45,360
..but the Council of Elders
announces that, on September 5th,
586
00:49:45,360 --> 00:49:47,360
the transports will resume.
587
00:49:49,520 --> 00:49:52,720
Schachter's chorus could soon
be ripped apart.
588
00:49:56,880 --> 00:49:59,520
The rehearsals went fast.
589
00:49:59,520 --> 00:50:02,760
In seven weeks...
590
00:50:02,760 --> 00:50:05,240
In seven weeks, it became known
591
00:50:05,240 --> 00:50:07,720
that transports will resume
592
00:50:07,720 --> 00:50:11,560
and now the singers wanted him
to make a performance and he didn't
593
00:50:11,560 --> 00:50:14,280
because it wasn't to his standard.
594
00:50:14,280 --> 00:50:17,280
But when it became known
that September 6th,
595
00:50:17,280 --> 00:50:19,680
5,000 people will leave,
596
00:50:19,680 --> 00:50:21,480
he couldn't refuse.
597
00:50:26,280 --> 00:50:29,720
Schachter fears
his chorus, and he himself,
598
00:50:29,720 --> 00:50:32,120
could be shipped out in days.
599
00:50:33,400 --> 00:50:37,800
So with a chorus of 150 inmates
and a single piano,
600
00:50:37,800 --> 00:50:42,200
Schachter leads their first
performance of Verdi's Requiem.
601
00:50:51,920 --> 00:50:56,680
# Rex tremendae majestatis
602
00:51:04,080 --> 00:51:10,280
# Qui salvandos salvas gratis
603
00:51:10,280 --> 00:51:23,280
# Salva me, fons pietatis
604
00:51:23,280 --> 00:51:31,320
# Salva me, fons pietatis. #
605
00:51:56,920 --> 00:52:00,120
It was tremendous
and I still don't understand it.
606
00:52:00,120 --> 00:52:02,680
There was only a piano,
but for me, it was like
607
00:52:02,680 --> 00:52:06,120
if the whole orchestra played
608
00:52:06,120 --> 00:52:09,120
and it made us feel human.
609
00:52:12,640 --> 00:52:14,920
These two hours, you were taken back
610
00:52:14,920 --> 00:52:17,960
into the beautiful world
which was once your own.
611
00:52:17,960 --> 00:52:21,320
The world of the tunes and of
the melody which you are listening
612
00:52:21,320 --> 00:52:25,760
and the message which was given
to us by the performers.
613
00:52:25,760 --> 00:52:31,840
# Salva me, fons pietatis... #
614
00:52:31,840 --> 00:52:36,120
These were hours of pure joy.
615
00:52:36,120 --> 00:52:39,040
As much as you can call joy in camp.
616
00:52:46,960 --> 00:52:52,120
This room became
the protective walls
617
00:52:52,120 --> 00:52:55,880
of something good,
618
00:52:55,880 --> 00:52:58,720
something meaningful,
619
00:52:58,720 --> 00:53:01,080
something healing
620
00:53:01,080 --> 00:53:07,320
and something that showed everyone
who was really listening
621
00:53:07,320 --> 00:53:10,920
that Rafi had put all of us,
622
00:53:10,920 --> 00:53:13,480
the singers and the audience,
623
00:53:13,480 --> 00:53:15,200
into another world.
624
00:53:16,480 --> 00:53:20,120
This was not the world with
the Nazis, this was our world.
625
00:53:29,040 --> 00:53:36,280
# Salva me... #
626
00:53:40,200 --> 00:53:42,760
The first performance
is a revelation -
627
00:53:42,760 --> 00:53:45,000
for Schachter, for his singers,
628
00:53:45,000 --> 00:53:48,360
for their fellow inmates
in the audience -
629
00:53:48,360 --> 00:53:51,720
the very sound of hope.
630
00:53:59,800 --> 00:54:02,880
They were stunned, totally stunned,
631
00:54:02,880 --> 00:54:06,920
they could not believe what Rafi
had done, with these people, us,
632
00:54:06,920 --> 00:54:10,640
standing there without a scrap
of paper, without anything
633
00:54:10,640 --> 00:54:15,720
but the entire words and music
committed to memory.
634
00:54:20,000 --> 00:54:23,160
For many in the chorus
and the audience,
635
00:54:23,160 --> 00:54:26,640
Verdi's Requiem is the last music
they would hear.
636
00:54:31,080 --> 00:54:37,360
The next morning, 5,000 inmates
are loaded onto the transports.
637
00:54:37,360 --> 00:54:40,720
Rafael Schachter sees
more than half of his chorus
638
00:54:40,720 --> 00:54:44,560
carried away in cattle cars.
639
00:54:44,560 --> 00:54:48,160
It was a special transport,
640
00:54:48,160 --> 00:54:51,480
in September 1943.
641
00:54:51,480 --> 00:54:58,280
5,000 Terezin Jews to Auschwitz.
642
00:55:01,800 --> 00:55:07,320
We did not know, thank God -
at least I didn't - about Auschwitz.
643
00:55:07,320 --> 00:55:11,240
It was called "resettlement",
644
00:55:11,240 --> 00:55:14,720
and none of us had any idea
about gas chambers.
645
00:55:14,720 --> 00:55:17,480
We just figured,
it's not very good here,
646
00:55:17,480 --> 00:55:19,600
but at least we know how bad it is,
647
00:55:19,600 --> 00:55:23,240
if we go somewhere else, maybe there
is more food, maybe it's better,
648
00:55:23,240 --> 00:55:26,000
but I'm not going to volunteer
for anything.
649
00:55:29,600 --> 00:55:33,320
Over the next six months,
Schachter recruits new singers
650
00:55:33,320 --> 00:55:35,320
and rebuilds his chorus.
651
00:55:38,000 --> 00:55:42,640
They'll perform the Requiem
for their fellow inmates 15 times,
652
00:55:42,640 --> 00:55:47,280
constantly reinforcing their chorus
and their spirits
653
00:55:47,280 --> 00:55:51,600
as fellow singers are torn away
by the transports.
654
00:55:51,600 --> 00:55:54,160
Whether they were members
of the chorus
655
00:55:54,160 --> 00:55:58,720
or whether these were people who
lived in your room in the barracks,
656
00:55:58,720 --> 00:56:03,480
you were sorry for them
to have to go
657
00:56:03,480 --> 00:56:06,040
and for you to lose another friend.
658
00:56:07,560 --> 00:56:11,160
But everybody lived
with that concern.
659
00:56:11,160 --> 00:56:15,560
That was worse than the hunger
and anything else.
660
00:56:17,960 --> 00:56:20,600
The writing on the wall
wasn't pretty,
661
00:56:20,600 --> 00:56:22,680
because transports were
leaving to the east.
662
00:56:22,680 --> 00:56:25,120
By that time, there was
an escapee from Auschwitz,
663
00:56:25,120 --> 00:56:28,760
Siegfried Lederer,
who came to Theresienstadt,
664
00:56:28,760 --> 00:56:30,720
was hiding in the basement there.
665
00:56:30,720 --> 00:56:33,400
And he said,
"It is guaranteed death."
666
00:56:34,880 --> 00:56:38,120
So those who ever doubted
what's in this "east",
667
00:56:38,120 --> 00:56:41,080
you know, heard it
from first-hand witness.
668
00:56:41,080 --> 00:56:43,400
Outside Terezin,
669
00:56:43,400 --> 00:56:47,720
the Nazi killing machine
now operates six death camps,
670
00:56:47,720 --> 00:56:53,160
a ruthlessly efficient system
intent on erasing the Jewish people.
671
00:56:53,160 --> 00:56:55,360
As the Jews of Europe disappear,
672
00:56:55,360 --> 00:56:58,280
the Nazis devise a cynical ruse
673
00:56:58,280 --> 00:57:00,960
to hide the true horrors
of the Third Reich
674
00:57:00,960 --> 00:57:04,160
behind the artistic facade
of Terezin.
675
00:57:06,560 --> 00:57:12,040
Spring 1944, after two years
of living as prisoners,
676
00:57:12,040 --> 00:57:14,480
the inmates of Terezin
receive orders
677
00:57:14,480 --> 00:57:16,480
to give their camp a makeover.
678
00:57:17,640 --> 00:57:20,040
Walls and pavements are scrubbed,
679
00:57:20,040 --> 00:57:21,920
gardens planted
680
00:57:21,920 --> 00:57:24,000
and fake storefronts filled with
681
00:57:24,000 --> 00:57:27,040
goods from the inmates' own luggage.
682
00:57:27,040 --> 00:57:30,920
My mother was supposed to make signs
with oil paint
683
00:57:30,920 --> 00:57:32,960
that had an arrow and says,
684
00:57:32,960 --> 00:57:34,480
"To the library"...
685
00:57:38,320 --> 00:57:40,040
.."To the coffee house"...
686
00:57:41,480 --> 00:57:43,760
.."To the playground".
687
00:57:43,760 --> 00:57:46,880
She had no idea where this would go.
688
00:57:46,880 --> 00:57:49,400
That was used in Terezin
for the commission
689
00:57:49,400 --> 00:57:52,280
to see that we had a coffee house,
we had a bank,
690
00:57:52,280 --> 00:57:55,160
we had a playground,
we had everything.
691
00:57:55,160 --> 00:57:58,000
The Nazis complete
the beautification
692
00:57:58,000 --> 00:57:59,880
by thinning out the crowds.
693
00:58:01,600 --> 00:58:06,400
Nearly 8,000 people -
orphans, the elderly, the sick,
694
00:58:06,400 --> 00:58:11,560
anyone who doesn't look the part -
are shipped off to die in Auschwitz.
695
00:58:13,400 --> 00:58:15,280
On June 23rd,
696
00:58:15,280 --> 00:58:19,600
the Nazis invite a delegation
from the International Red Cross
697
00:58:19,600 --> 00:58:22,360
for a visit to what the Germans call
698
00:58:22,360 --> 00:58:25,040
"a self-governed Jewish city".
699
00:58:29,320 --> 00:58:33,760
The inspection is ordered by Nazi
Lieutenant Colonel Adolf Eichmann...
700
00:58:35,440 --> 00:58:39,480
..and choreographed
down to the last detail.
701
00:58:39,480 --> 00:58:42,800
Nothing, nothing was not planned.
702
00:58:42,800 --> 00:58:46,760
Not a corner was omitted
to make it convincing.
703
00:58:46,760 --> 00:58:48,520
WHISTLE
704
00:58:52,000 --> 00:58:54,920
They picked out inmates
who knew how to play soccer...
705
00:58:57,720 --> 00:58:59,400
..so they played soccer
706
00:58:59,400 --> 00:59:02,480
and even the commission passed by
and a goal was scored.
707
00:59:07,920 --> 00:59:10,400
The scenario was written
to perfection.
708
00:59:13,880 --> 00:59:18,040
The Nazis complete the charade
by capturing the town's makeover
709
00:59:18,040 --> 00:59:19,640
for a propaganda film.
710
00:59:19,640 --> 00:59:24,240
Theresienstadt - the Fuhrer gives
a city to the Jews.
711
00:59:24,240 --> 00:59:26,840
THEY SING
712
00:59:36,720 --> 00:59:38,760
They force a Jewish inmate,
713
00:59:38,760 --> 00:59:42,560
a well-known actor named
Kurt Gerron, to direct the film.
714
00:59:46,000 --> 00:59:51,320
A warped vision to the world of
Terezin as a Jewish fantasy village.
715
01:00:05,520 --> 01:00:09,400
The highlight of the Red Cross
inspection is to be a performance
716
01:00:09,400 --> 01:00:10,760
of the Verdi Requiem.
717
01:00:13,120 --> 01:00:16,040
Their cameras capture
the only photo of Schachter
718
01:00:16,040 --> 01:00:19,320
and his diminished choir
in rehearsal.
719
01:00:19,320 --> 01:00:22,360
The order came from
the camp commander,
720
01:00:22,360 --> 01:00:26,440
he wanted the performance
for the Swiss Red Cross people
721
01:00:26,440 --> 01:00:29,600
and those big shots
who came from Berlin
722
01:00:29,600 --> 01:00:32,760
to shake their hand
for a good report.
723
01:00:41,240 --> 01:00:46,320
The transports have cut Schachter's
chorus down to 60 people,
724
01:00:46,320 --> 01:00:48,560
less than half its former size.
725
01:00:52,480 --> 01:00:57,720
But now, they have the opportunity
Schachter has dreamed of -
726
01:00:57,720 --> 01:01:02,200
to risk everything and confront
the Nazis face to face...
727
01:01:05,040 --> 01:01:07,560
..and sing to them
what they dare not say.
728
01:01:09,680 --> 01:01:12,720
He had a great dilemma, Schachter.
729
01:01:13,920 --> 01:01:16,400
He was a stickler for perfection.
730
01:01:16,400 --> 01:01:19,080
He didn't like the composition
of the chorus...
731
01:01:20,800 --> 01:01:24,280
..but it was a tremendous challenge,
732
01:01:24,280 --> 01:01:27,720
to have the Germans
right there in front of him
733
01:01:27,720 --> 01:01:29,840
and tell them to their face...
734
01:02:36,320 --> 01:02:40,680
If the Germans would have known,
what was unfolding,
735
01:02:40,680 --> 01:02:43,760
if they would have known that
Rafael was trying to tell them
736
01:02:43,760 --> 01:02:46,120
that they too will be judged
one of these days
737
01:02:46,120 --> 01:02:48,560
for their crimes
they committed on mankind,
738
01:02:48,560 --> 01:02:51,080
they would have really punished
the artists.
739
01:02:55,240 --> 01:02:58,320
Without Rafi,
it wouldn't have happened,
740
01:02:58,320 --> 01:03:01,640
and we proved
beyond the shadow of any doubt,
741
01:03:01,640 --> 01:03:04,120
that yes, they have our bodies,
742
01:03:04,120 --> 01:03:07,120
yes, we have no more names,
we have numbers,
743
01:03:07,120 --> 01:03:11,600
but they don't have our soul,
our mind, our being,
744
01:03:11,600 --> 01:03:15,320
our...what we are
cannot be taken away,
745
01:03:15,320 --> 01:03:18,280
also it won't be taken away
at the moment we are shot.
746
01:03:24,560 --> 01:03:28,400
Dies Irae, even as a listener,
747
01:03:28,400 --> 01:03:32,240
you feel is powerful.
748
01:03:33,560 --> 01:03:35,520
It represents a threat...
749
01:03:39,200 --> 01:03:43,280
..that you gladly
would participate in
750
01:03:43,280 --> 01:03:46,920
as avenging
whatever was done unto you.
751
01:04:49,480 --> 01:04:55,360
There was no applause, but I'm sure
the Swiss people were impressed.
752
01:05:01,880 --> 01:05:06,360
And the Germans were aware
753
01:05:06,360 --> 01:05:09,600
that we were singing
our own requiem,
754
01:05:09,600 --> 01:05:14,080
because they knew what they had
in mind for us, whereas we did not.
755
01:05:16,920 --> 01:05:19,360
Rafael Schachter and his 60 singers
756
01:05:19,360 --> 01:05:22,880
had delivered their message
in the face of their captors.
757
01:05:24,400 --> 01:05:28,720
Now they cling to the possibility
that the Red Cross will hear it.
758
01:05:28,720 --> 01:05:31,800
We all have one very deep hope.
759
01:05:31,800 --> 01:05:34,520
That some of the people,
the Red Cross representatives,
760
01:05:34,520 --> 01:05:36,840
will ask a probing question.
761
01:05:38,720 --> 01:05:42,800
Because it was a beautifully quaint,
little town, what they showed them.
762
01:05:47,520 --> 01:05:50,920
So we hoped, really, that they did
not swallow it hook, line and sinker.
763
01:05:50,920 --> 01:05:53,560
That they will say,
"OK, let's now turn to this side.
764
01:05:53,560 --> 01:05:57,160
"Or let's ask somebody
something out of this."
765
01:05:57,160 --> 01:06:00,160
I don't think that any inmate
would have dared to say the truth.
766
01:06:00,160 --> 01:06:01,720
But they could have seen it,
767
01:06:01,720 --> 01:06:04,440
had they turned from the outlined
route for them.
768
01:06:04,440 --> 01:06:06,120
But they never really did.
769
01:06:06,120 --> 01:06:09,680
I think they wanted to believe
what they saw.
770
01:06:09,680 --> 01:06:14,560
I thought, that with what
we were singing, that we could say,
771
01:06:14,560 --> 01:06:17,240
"Let me get through,
I want to show them something."
772
01:06:17,240 --> 01:06:20,000
To tell them,
"Go inside of such a house.
773
01:06:20,000 --> 01:06:24,920
"See these portals?
Walk right through any one.
774
01:06:24,920 --> 01:06:28,400
"You would be surprised
what you find in there."
775
01:06:28,400 --> 01:06:30,480
But there was no way of doing that.
776
01:06:32,080 --> 01:06:33,880
So they came home to Switzerland
777
01:06:33,880 --> 01:06:35,800
and said the Jews have it very good.
778
01:06:35,800 --> 01:06:40,880
CHILDREN SING
779
01:06:45,680 --> 01:06:48,920
They play funny operas
and children's operas...
780
01:06:51,240 --> 01:06:56,040
..and the children play in
beautiful swings and rocking horses.
781
01:06:59,680 --> 01:07:03,560
And in the afternoon, they have
an afternoon nap in the grass...
782
01:07:05,240 --> 01:07:08,160
..and when they wake up,
they each get bread and butter.
783
01:07:13,280 --> 01:07:17,320
These are children who had never
SEEN butter, except that day.
784
01:07:28,360 --> 01:07:32,000
Deception is not the right word,
785
01:07:32,000 --> 01:07:34,360
there must be a worse word for that.
786
01:07:49,200 --> 01:07:53,880
If anybody would have come two weeks
later, there was nothing left.
787
01:08:12,600 --> 01:08:14,640
Even the children's home was empty,
788
01:08:14,640 --> 01:08:16,880
with the baby carriages.
789
01:08:26,960 --> 01:08:30,680
Small children,
aged three to six or eight...
790
01:08:30,680 --> 01:08:33,000
it was empty,
there was no child left.
791
01:08:38,440 --> 01:08:40,440
The swings were gone,
792
01:08:40,440 --> 01:08:42,240
the playpens were gone,
793
01:08:42,240 --> 01:08:45,120
the rocking horses were gone
and the children were gone.
794
01:08:45,120 --> 01:08:47,560
All into the gas chambers.
795
01:08:47,560 --> 01:08:49,760
What did these children do
to anybody?
796
01:08:50,880 --> 01:08:56,760
# Requiem
797
01:09:02,760 --> 01:09:11,480
# Requiem aeternam
798
01:09:12,760 --> 01:09:25,000
# Dona eis
799
01:09:25,000 --> 01:09:29,160
# Domine
800
01:09:29,160 --> 01:09:40,840
# Dona eis
801
01:09:40,840 --> 01:09:48,000
# Domine
802
01:09:48,000 --> 01:09:57,200
# Et lux perpetua
803
01:09:58,280 --> 01:10:19,160
# Luceat eis
804
01:10:27,960 --> 01:10:41,120
# Luceat eis
805
01:10:42,600 --> 01:10:52,600
# Requiem aeternam
806
01:10:52,600 --> 01:11:01,000
# Dona eis, Domine
807
01:11:02,200 --> 01:11:12,400
# Et lux
808
01:11:12,400 --> 01:11:21,920
# Perpetua
809
01:11:21,920 --> 01:11:31,760
# Luceat eis
810
01:11:36,040 --> 01:11:45,520
# Requiem
811
01:11:45,520 --> 01:11:56,240
# Requiem. #
812
01:12:00,080 --> 01:12:02,960
TRAIN WHISTLES
813
01:12:06,800 --> 01:12:10,480
The Red Cross performance
would be the choir's last.
814
01:12:13,320 --> 01:12:16,040
Not long after the delegation
leaves Terezin,
815
01:12:16,040 --> 01:12:18,600
the transports to the east resume.
816
01:12:22,720 --> 01:12:29,960
After the visit of the International
Red Cross, everybody was deported.
817
01:12:32,200 --> 01:12:35,480
19,000 in five weeks,
818
01:12:35,480 --> 01:12:40,120
and I knew that my time
would come very soon.
819
01:12:46,440 --> 01:12:51,440
On October 15th 1944,
the transport is announced.
820
01:12:54,600 --> 01:12:58,680
Almost the entire choir
will be sent to the east.
821
01:13:02,240 --> 01:13:04,760
This time, Rafael Schachter's name
822
01:13:04,760 --> 01:13:06,200
is also on the list.
823
01:13:08,040 --> 01:13:12,360
Most of the artists,
the painters and the musicians
824
01:13:12,360 --> 01:13:16,200
went with the transport as myself.
825
01:13:16,200 --> 01:13:22,360
Why it was so combined together,
nobody knows.
826
01:13:23,480 --> 01:13:26,720
I think they wished to have
827
01:13:26,720 --> 01:13:32,280
the people who had been
important in Terezin,
828
01:13:32,280 --> 01:13:35,200
to be out of Terezin
and to be killed.
829
01:13:44,360 --> 01:13:50,000
The next morning, Schachter and his
choir are packed into cattle cars
830
01:13:50,000 --> 01:13:53,040
and transported to the hell
of Auschwitz.
831
01:14:02,040 --> 01:14:05,720
RAIN PATTERS
832
01:14:05,720 --> 01:14:09,840
And so, we were pushed
into the cattle trucks
833
01:14:09,840 --> 01:14:13,600
and it was completely full,
you could hardly breathe.
834
01:14:13,600 --> 01:14:16,560
People didn't move,
they didn't talk very much.
835
01:14:16,560 --> 01:14:20,560
Everybody was thinking, "Where are
we going? What's ahead of us?"
836
01:14:22,080 --> 01:14:25,280
So here is Rafael Schachter
with a tin of sardines
837
01:14:25,280 --> 01:14:31,000
and he says to me, "Zdenka,
here is my dish, here is bread,
838
01:14:31,000 --> 01:14:35,240
"and here are the sardines,
and that will be my last supper."
839
01:14:35,240 --> 01:14:36,600
And so, he knew.
840
01:14:39,160 --> 01:14:41,320
Upon arrival at Auschwitz,
841
01:14:41,320 --> 01:14:46,560
most of the chorus and musicians
are sent directly to their deaths
842
01:14:46,560 --> 01:14:50,440
and with them, an entire nation's
cultural wealth.
843
01:14:52,000 --> 01:14:54,040
I really feel strongly
844
01:14:54,040 --> 01:14:57,480
this was to be the next generation
of the great Czech composers,
845
01:14:57,480 --> 01:15:01,920
all wiped out on October 17th 1944.
846
01:15:01,920 --> 01:15:07,120
In one day, in one moment,
in a gas chamber in Auschwitz,
847
01:15:07,120 --> 01:15:10,640
that next generation
of Czech composers...gone.
848
01:15:13,840 --> 01:15:18,560
We went to Auschwitz
with a transport of 1,500 men.
849
01:15:18,560 --> 01:15:22,440
On the ramp of Auschwitz
to Birkenau,
850
01:15:22,440 --> 01:15:24,920
which was the extermination camp,
851
01:15:24,920 --> 01:15:27,960
I have seen Rafael Schachter
the last time.
852
01:15:36,240 --> 01:15:39,920
Rafael Schachter would survive
Auschwitz
853
01:15:39,920 --> 01:15:42,960
and three more concentration camps.
854
01:15:44,760 --> 01:15:47,000
In March 1945,
855
01:15:47,000 --> 01:15:49,840
he dies on a death march.
856
01:15:53,320 --> 01:15:55,320
One month later,
857
01:15:55,320 --> 01:15:57,960
liberation comes to Czechoslovakia.
858
01:17:06,560 --> 01:17:11,000
I think the great lesson
of Theresienstadt was, first of all,
859
01:17:11,000 --> 01:17:13,800
to see the highs and lows.
860
01:17:15,600 --> 01:17:17,920
The worst in man and the best.
861
01:17:20,040 --> 01:17:25,880
In music, in acting,
in conducting, in composing,
862
01:17:25,880 --> 01:17:31,280
if I ever lived in the most cultured
and cultural surrounding,
863
01:17:31,280 --> 01:17:34,920
it was in Terezin,
amongst these people.
864
01:17:38,360 --> 01:17:41,600
Remember to the time
865
01:17:41,600 --> 01:17:44,600
what we had been living through,
866
01:17:44,600 --> 01:17:48,200
that somebody wished to help us,
867
01:17:48,200 --> 01:17:52,840
and that was Rafael Schachter
and all the singers.
868
01:17:58,440 --> 01:18:02,760
Rafael Schachter had an influence...
beneficial influence
869
01:18:02,760 --> 01:18:07,960
on thousands of people
who have to thank him
870
01:18:07,960 --> 01:18:14,480
for giving them a bearable memory
of Terezin.
871
01:18:20,560 --> 01:18:25,840
I'm not a holocaust survivor as much
as, you know, a Requiem survivor.
872
01:18:25,840 --> 01:18:27,800
I didn't only survive the Requiem -
873
01:18:27,800 --> 01:18:31,480
I got it as a present
to take with me all my life.
70703
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