It opens with a solemn organ theme which is gradually accompanied by the strings and adopted by the woodwinds. The female voices of the choir continue this theme with the words ‘Lux aeterna luceat eis’, answered by the male voices with ‘Domine Jesu’. After an instrumental intermezzo the entire choir sings a resolute ‘Domine, quia pius es’. Lord, for you are merciful. After the choir has sung the lyrics in different variations, the female and male voices conclude this section with a subdued ‘quia pius es’.

After the horrors of Auschwitz – which took place over 65 years ago – we as descendants have an obligation to frequently commemorate all these victims, in all humility and gratitude.
And to regularly pray for them: 'Grant them eternal rest, O Lord, and may everlasting light shine upon them’.

Libera me
‘Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna’. Deliver me, O Lord, from death eternal. I found this phrase very appropriate to conclude this musical piece. So I have treated this section as a kind of a finale, in which the various themes from the previous sections are reprised.
Furthermore, I have chosen, as with ‘Requiem’ and ‘Kyrie’, to interpret the lyrics ambiguously. On the one hand as a prayer for the dead and on the other as a cry and accusation from the victims.

After an ominous kettledrum roll the choir screams ‘Libera me’ to the audience, after which the voices lapse into a furious chaos of diminished sevenths. In an augmenting series of notes from the orchestra, this chaos slowly clears. It is followed by an angry reprise of the ‘Dies irae’.

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