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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.
出于宣传目的，集中营方面也做过一些让步。党卫队只在城堡的外面设岗，营内日常活动由一个犹太人“长老委员会”监管。只要关押在里面的人的言行不引起纳粹的注意，该委员会装着视而不见。
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，在弥漫着死亡的氛围中，作家勉强还能写，画家勉强还能画，作曲家勉强还能作曲。其中，有位名叫拉斐尔·沙克特的年约三十五六的音乐指挥。他长得相貌堂堂，一头乌黑鬈发，显得很有魅力。在战前布拉格的浓浓的多元文化氛围中他刚崭露头角。纳粹逮捕他之前，他压根儿就没有想过他是犹太人。
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.
他在集中营里关了经年累月，眼见越来越多的犹太人消失在东运的纳粹车辆中，沙克特对抓捕他的人的愤怒与日俱增。于是他想到了一个大胆的计划。
He confessed his idea to his roommate in a single sentence: “We can sing to the Nazis what we can't say to them.”
他用一句话向他的室友吐露了他的想法：“我们可以用歌声向纳粹表达我们无法向他们直接说的话。”
Their weapon was to be Verdi's Requiem.
他们的武器便是威尔第的《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.
沙克特想要说的话统统被掩饰在以上帝的愤懑和人类的解放为主题的《安魂曲》的拉丁词语中了。沙克特仅有的乐器只是从垃圾堆中找来的一架簧风琴，除此而外，他便只好靠人的嗓子了。为实施这一计划他全身心都投入了，他设法招募到150名歌手。
