Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem in Theresienstadt: Music of Succor.

This article examines the performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem in the Theresienstadt ghetto during the Holocaust, focusing on the paradox of creating and performing a pinnacle of European art amid extreme suffering and dehumanization. Initiated by Jewish prisoner Rafael Schächter, the Requiem was rehearsed and performed multiple times under dire conditions, serving as a form of spontaneous “self-therapy” or “health musicking” that provided emotional expression, physical strength, identity, group solidarity, communication, and defiance against Nazi oppression. The article contrasts Viktor Ullmann’s anthroposophical view that “form supports matter” and art can flourish even in abject conditions with Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, which posits that basic survival needs must be met before higher aspirations like art emerge; the Holocaust experience challenges Maslow’s model by demonstrating music’s vital role despite extreme deprivation. Ultimately, music in Theresienstadt is portrayed as a multidimensional source of meaning and resilience, sustaining prisoners’ will to live and embodying a profound existential defiance.