Petr Kien
Peter Kien (1 January 1919, in
He died at the age of twenty-five.Education
The name of Franz Peter Kien, a prominent figure among many outstanding artists imprisoned in the Terezín (
Kien spent his first 10 years in Varnsdorf, an industrial town near the Czech-German border. During the financial crisis his family moved to Brno. In 1936, Kien graduated with honors from a German high school. The certificate contains special notes on his remarkable skills in writing and drawing. The same year, Kien enrolled in Prof. Willy Novak’s class at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague and in the graphic design school Officina Pragensis under Prof. Hugo Steiner-Prag.
In 1939, after the Nuremberg Laws were enforced, Kien was expelled from the Academy, but continued to work at the Officina Pragensis under Prof. Jaroslav Švab). He started to teach art at the Vinohrady Synagogue . Married to Ilse Stranska in 1940, he tried to emigrate with his family.
In December 1941, Kien was deported to Terezin. Over a thousand drawings, sketches, designs and paintings originate from his pre-Terezin years. Consigned to the drafting room of the Technical Department in Terezin, Kien produced numerous portraits, landscapes, drawings and genre sketches. His artwork radiates light, hope and warmth. By contrast, his writings of this period are mostly tragic and hopeless.
In Terezin, Kien's social satirical play Marionettes, staged by Gustav Schorsch. was performed 25 times. Gideon Klein set Kien's poetic cycle Plague to music. His other plays written in the ghetto include
On 16 October 1944, Kien was deported to Auschwitz with his parents and his wife in the final transport in October 1944. He died from disease soon after his arrival. None of the others survived.
Works
Between his arrival to
Kien also wrote the libretto to
References
- ^ František Petr Kien Archived 23 November 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Helga King – Palm Springs Art – PalmSprings.com". Archived from the original on 5 June 2010. Retrieved 11 October 2007.
- ISBN 978-1-4766-7056-0.
- ^ a b Haas, Michael (October 2012). "When Death Went on Strike". Jewish Renaissance. 12 (1): 38–39.
External links
- Some of Petr Kien's drawings of Theresienstadt, saved by Helga Wolfenstein King
- The Triumph of the Human Spirit: Ullmann in Theresienstadt
- Journey with Peter Kien into Terezin's Dark Past
- Discussion of Peter Kien's Poems
- Franz Peter Kien (1919–1944), Photo
- Kien, František Petr (Franz Peter) 1 January 1919 – 16 October 1944
- Petr Kien – author's exhibition Terezin Memorial