Defiant Requiem: Cultural Resistance in the Terezín Ghetto, February 2024

In this dynamic online course, offered in partnership between Echoes & Reflections and The Defiant Requiem Foundation, educators will explore how Jews continued to live creative and artistic lives against the backdrop of the Holocaust. By exploring the experience of Jews forcibly interned in the Terezin/Theresienstadt ghetto, participants will learn how these individuals used music, art, and other forms of creative experssion as cultural and spiritual resistance in defiance of the Nazis who sought to dehumanize them.

How did the Jews resist oppression in the Terezin ghetto? What can we learn from their perseverance under these circumstances? In this asynchronous online course, educators examine the creation of the Terezin ghetto, the role of resistance, and how the prisoner performances of Verdi's Requiem inspired individuals then and now. This facilitator-led course also includes an exploration of Echoes & Reflections and The Defiant Requiem Foundation's resources that support your teaching strategies and enhanced understanding for your students.

Course Details:

• Course opens February 5  at 7AM ET; approximately 4 hours to complete in total – at no cost.
• Proceed at your own pace each week, be supported by an instructor, and enjoy interaction with other educators.
• Complete all activities for a 4-hour certificate.
• Graduate credit available through the University of the Pacific. Please visit their site for more information. 

After completing this course, you will be able to:

• Apply sound pedagogy when planning and implementing Holocaust lessons. 
• Understand the various types of resistance that Jewish individuals exhibited during the era of the Holocaust.
• Analyze how the prisoners’ performance of the Verdi Requiem in the Terezín ghetto represented an act of resistance.
• Identify and construct activities that contextualize this performance’s significance for use with students in a secondary classroom.

Click here to return to the Echoes & Reflections website.