“In the dark­est days of WWII, they fought back by singing, danc­ing and laugh­ing..” This book is a com­pan­ion to the doc­u­men­tary film Mak­ing Light in Terezin. It includes the text from 30 hours of filmed inter­views with Holo­caust sur­vivors and schol­ars, much of which end­ed up on the edit­ing-room floor giv­en the film’s run­ning time of under two hours. These per­son­al rec­ol­lec­tions and schol­ar­ly find­ings reveal the true sto­ry of how the Jews in the Terezin con­cen­tra­tion camp (in what is now the Czech Repub­lic) resist­ed the Nazis and were empow­ered through the arts and humor. It is a sto­ry not only of sur­vival but also of the tri­umph of a cul­ture, artis­tic expres­sion, and the human spir­it. Instead of focus­ing on the hor­rors of the Holo­caust, this book cel­e­brates the cre­ative spir­it that was alive — and helped to save lives — in Terezin in 1943. (The film is also avail­able to be screened along with per­son­al author appearances.)