Karel Švenk
Karel Švenk, sometimes referred to in German as Karl Schwenk (
Karel's parents were Rudolf Schwenk (1880-1944) and Klara Koráleková (1882-1944), both were killed in Auschwitz concentration camp presumably shortly after their arrived on 9 October 1944. Karel had three sisters - Erna, Lili, Ottilie as well as a younger brother Otta. Only Ottilie survived the holocaust and emigrated to the US with her husband Rudolf Wenzel Köegler and son Heinrich Frederick Köegler. Ottilie died on 9 April 1996 in Ramsey County, Minnesota.
Biography
Švenk was one of the members of the avant-garde Klub zapadlých talentů (German "Klub der ungenützten Talente", "Club of Wasted Talents") in Prague.
Theater
While in Theresienstadt, Švenk wrote Der letzte Radfahrer (The Last Cyclist), a comic satire of the Nazis based on the premise that some inmates had escaped from the insane asylum and decided the cyclists were the cause of the world's troubles. The show was never performed, as it was banned by the Jewish Council of Elders, but it did reach a dress rehearsal. The script was partially preserved by Jana Šedova, who played one of the romantic leads in the original. Some set and costume designs of the show also survived. The play was reconstructed by playwright Naomi Patz, and in 2017 it played at
Music Compositions
- "Die verlorene Essensmarke" (The Lost Ration Ticket) with Rafael Schächter
- "Vsechno jde!" (Anything Goes!) "Theresienstädter Marsch" ("Terezin March") - a secret camp anthem, and his best-known composition.[8]
- "Why Does the White Man Sit in the Front of the Bus?" - this was composed in Terezin and preserved by George Horner (musician) one of the Terezin cabaret musicians. It was later arranged by David Post and recorded by the Hawthorne String Quartet with Thomas Martin, clarinet.
- "Pod destnikem" (Under an Umbrella) - recorded on Terezín - Theresienstadt (Anne Sofie von Otter album)
References
- Peter Kien, Elena Makarova, Ira Rabin - 2009 "Under occupation established the Club of Needless Talents. Deported from Prague to Terezin on November 24, 1941. Deported from Prague to Terezin on November 24, 1941. One of the prime initiators of cultural activities in Terezin. In early 1942, Svenk presented the first all-male cabaret, called "The Lost Food Card", for men living in the "Sudeten" barracks,"
- ^ The Terezín album of Mariánka Zadikow Marianne Zadikow May, Debórah Dwork - 2008 "In Terezin, the Germans' story of a permanent settlement had exploded in January 1942 with the first deportations from the ... them.14 Svenk's former career at the Club of Wasted Talent in Prague stood him in good stead in Terezin, where he ..."
- ^ Joža Karas - Music in Terezín 1941-1945 1985 - Page 9 "The forceful evacuation of the gentile population had hardly begun when the first Jewish transport arrived in Terezin on November 24, 1941. This group of 342 young men, many of them volunteers enticed ..."
- ^ Thelastcyclist.com
- ^ Makarova, E., Makarov, S., Neklyudova, E., Kuperman, V. Long Live Life: On Musical and Theater Life in Concentration Camp Terezin, 1941 – 1945 (exhibition catalogue), Verba: Jerusalem, 2001.
- ^ The Last Cyclist website
- ^ Article about The Last Cyclist in The Times of Israel
- ISBN 978-1-4766-7056-0.