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Among the group was a brown-eyed teenager named Marianka May. During her 12-hour workday, she labored at everything from scrubbing windows to making tobacco pouches for German soldiers.At night, however, she slipped away to join the choir, where she felt lifted up by Verdi'smusic and Schaechter's passion. “Without Rafi Schaechter, we'd never have survived,” says May, one of the tiny handful of chorus members to live through the war. “He saved us through his music.”
其中有一位是生著一對棕色眼睛的名叫馬里安卡·梅的十多歲的少女。她每天得工作12小時，從擦窗戶到為德軍士兵制作煙荷包，什么都得干。然而晚上她常溜去參加合唱隊，在那里，威爾第的音樂和沙克特的激情使她受到鼓舞。“沒有拉斐爾·沙克特，我們不會活下來，”梅說。她是少數幾位在戰爭中幸免于難的合唱隊成員之一。“他用音樂拯救了我們。”
Aching with hunger, sopranos and altos, tenors and basses would take their places, while Schaechter pounded out Verdi's towering themes on the harmonium. Since there was only a single score, the singers had to memorize their parts, in Latin, a language that few besides Schaechter understood.
沙克特在簧風琴上強有力地奏出威爾第的崇高主題時，女高音和男聲最高音歌手們， 男高音和男低音歌手們，強忍饑餓的折磨，均各就各位。他們只有唯一的一份樂譜，歌手們只得強行記住自己那部分的用拉丁文譜寫的樂曲，而懂得拉丁文的，除沙克特外就很少有人了。
When they rehearsed the key section called “Day of Wrath,” Schaechter explained that it meant God would judge all men — including the Nazis — by their deeds and they would one day pay for their crimes against the Jews. “We are putting a mirror to them,” he said. “Their fate is sealed.”
當他們排練被稱之為“憤怒之日”的最主要的一章時，沙克特解釋說，這意味著上帝將根據人們的所作所為來裁判所有的人—包括納粹們，他們終將要為他們對猶太人犯下的罪行受到懲罰。“我們正在他們面前樹立一面鏡子，”他說，“他們逃脫不了末日的來臨。”
Although the Germans had spies among the prisoners, Schaechter managed to keep the real meaning behind the chorus's rehearsals a secret. Still, the camp's Jewish elders were upset. “The Germans will deport your whole chorus, and hang you,” they warned Schaechter at a stormy meeting.
盡管德國人在關押的人中安插了奸細，沙克特還是設法將合唱團排練的真正意圖掩蓋了起來。然而集中營的猶太長老們依然十分不安。“德國人會把合唱團的人統統放逐并絞死你們的，”他們在一次爭論得異常激烈的會議上告誡沙克特說。
That night Schaechter told his chorus, “What we are doing is dangerous. If anyone wants toleave, you may go.”
那天晚上，沙克特對合唱團的人說道：“我們在干的是一件危險的事情。如果哪位想走，請自便。”
No one left.
沒有一個人離開。
