Some years ago Rathgeb decided to write a Requiem for the victims of Auschwitz: a 60-minute composition for symphony orchestra, choir and soloists. He started working on this composition a few years ago, but when he visited Auschwitz, emotions became too painful and caused a serious writer’s block. By the end of 2007 the International Gipsy Festival asked him to complete his composition so it could be performed in various European cities. He was honoured and inspired by this request. By the middle of 2009 he finished the Requiem. o composer Roger ‘Moreno’ Rathgeb 'Auschwitz' stands for strong emotions such as fear, solitude, agony, hope and despair, which raises the question of the meaning of it all. Millions of desperate souls must have felt sorely tried and tested in severe circumstances - first deceived, then humiliated and tormented and finally brutally destroyed.
A visit to the Auschwitz extermination camp has made a deep impression on him: 'Then the voices of the dead souls cry out from the ash-soaked soil into the visitor's ear, then help-seeking hands seize him by the throat.’ It made him come to this conviction: ‘If all this really happened according to the will of God, I am convinced that we owe our freedom today to all these tormented souls’. It is his deepest wish to dedicate this requiem mass to these souls in all humility and gratitude. With this requiem he not only wants to commemorate the dead, but he also tries to create a living monument in reconciliation and mutual respect, so all these people did not die in vain. The third reason for this composition is that the composer wants to make a musical contribution to the commemoration of the victims on behalf of the Sinti and Roma.
Because of their neutrality, the Latin lyrics provide the perfect vehicle for musical expression. Any religious connotation is not relevant, because the lyrics can be interpreted by all cultures according to their own beliefs.