Catholic University students perform 'Requiem' at site of Nazi camp

Published: 2006-06-06

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A one-legged piano and a chorus was all Jewish prisoners at the Terezin concentration camp in Czechoslovakia needed to express their defiance of the Nazis. Sixty-three years ago, Jewish prisoner and conductor Rafael Schachter gathered 150 fellow Jews in a basement at the camp to perform Giuseppe Verdi's "Requiem" for the Nazis in Latin. Throughout the piece was a plea for liberation. The prisoners felt safe singing it because the Nazis did not get the meaning the Jewish people put behind it, said Natalie Pyle, a music student who will be a junior at The Catholic University of America in Washington in the fall. Through the "Requiem," Schachter wanted to achieve justice for himself and other prisoners, said Pyle, who was among Catholic University students who performed in a concert May 21 to pay tribute to Schachter and his fellow Jews at the site of the former camp. Terezin is a small town 30 minutes northeast of Prague, in what is now the Czech Republic. People from around the world gathered to witness the tribute.

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