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Yet the camp made concessions for propaganda purposes. SS troops were posted outside the fortress, while daily activity was overseen by a Jewish “Council of Elders,” which turned a blind eye to inmates' activities, unless they might attract Nazi attention.
出于宣傳目的，集中營方面也做過一些讓步。黨衛隊只在城堡的外面設崗，營內日常活動由一個猶太人“長老委員會”監管。只要關押在里面的人的言行不引起納粹的注意，該委員會裝著視而不見。
So, amid the pervasive atmosphere of death, writers managed to write, painters to paint, and composers to compose. Among them was Rafael Schaechter, a conductor in his mid-30s. Charismatic, with a striking face and wavy, dark hair, Schaechter was just beginning to make a name for himself in the rich cultural mix of prewar Prague. He had scarcely thought of himself as Jewish at all, until he was seized by the Nazis.
于是，在彌漫著死亡的氛圍中，作家勉強還能寫，畫家勉強還能畫，作曲家勉強還能作曲。其中，有位名叫拉斐爾·沙克特的年約三十五六的音樂指揮。他長得相貌堂堂，一頭烏黑鬈發，顯得很有魅力。在戰前布拉格的濃濃的多元文化氛圍中他剛嶄露頭角。納粹逮捕他之前，他壓根兒就沒有想過他是猶太人。
As his months in the camp stretched into years, and more and more Jews disappeared eastward on Nazi transports, Schaechter's fury at his captors steadily grew. And then he thought of a daring plan.
他在集中營里關了經年累月，眼見越來越多的猶太人消失在東運的納粹車輛中，沙克特對抓捕他的人的憤怒與日俱增。于是他想到了一個大膽的計劃。
He confessed his idea to his roommate in a single sentence: “We can sing to the Nazis what we can't say to them.”
他用一句話向他的室友吐露了他的想法：“我們可以用歌聲向納粹表達我們無法向他們直接說的話。”
Their weapon was to be Verdi's Requiem.
他們的武器便是威爾第的《安魂曲》。
Everything that Schaechter wanted to say lay camouflaged within the Latin words of the Requiem, with its themes of God's wrath and human liberation. Schaechter had access to no musical instruments except a broken harmonium found in a rubbish heap. Other than that, he had only human voices to work with. Throwing himself into the plan, he managed to recruit 150 singers.
沙克特想要說的話統統被掩飾在以上帝的憤懣和人類的解放為主題的《安魂曲》的拉丁詞語中了。沙克特僅有的樂器只是從垃圾堆中找來的一架簧風琴，除此而外，他便只好靠人的嗓子了。為實施這一計劃他全身心都投入了，他設法招募到150名歌手。
