Karel Švenk

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Karel Švenk

Karel Švenk , born in Karel Schwenk (born March 17, 1917 in Prague , Austria-Hungary , † April 1, 1945 near Karlsberg) was a Czech comedian and cabaret artist .

Life

Švenk was a celebrated comedian during the last years of the independence of the Czechoslovak State Association and also during the early phase of World War II and later one of the leading figures in shaping cultural life in the Theresienstadt ghetto . He belonged to the political left spectrum and worked as an actor, writer, director and composer in both Prague and the Czech provinces.

In November 1941, German agencies deported him on the first transport to Theresienstadt. It was there that Švenk met the composer Rafael Schächter , who was also interned, and organized cabaret revues with him in so-called comradeship evenings, including The Lost Food Stamp . His composition of the secret camp anthem, the "Theresienstädter March", made him famous among his fellow prisoners. In autumn 1942 he stood in front of the camera with the puppeteer Otto Neumann and the dancer Kamila Rosenbaumová in the pseudo-documentation Theresienstadt 1942 commissioned by the camp management . Švenk's most famous cabaret revue was to be The Last Cyclist . This satirical, anti-Nazi performance was censored by the camp management after the costume rehearsal.

At the beginning of October 1944 Karel Švenk was deported to Auschwitz . After a month he was moved to a factory in Meuselwitz near Leipzig . The hard work to be done there with catastrophic catering ruined Švenk's already badly ailing health for good. In the spring of 1945, Švenk was evacuated to Mauthausen . During this transport in a cattle wagon, the emaciated concentration camp inmate Karel Švenk died.

literature

  • Kay Less : Between the stage and the barracks. Lexicon of persecuted theater, film and music artists from 1933 to 1945 . With a foreword by Paul Spiegel . Metropol, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-938690-10-9 , p. 334.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ the incorrect year of birth 1907 is often rumored
  2. ↑ at Karlsberg, on a transport from Meuselwitz to Mauthausen, as a location information from Kay Less: Between the stage and the barrack , p. 334
personal data
SURNAME Švenk, Karel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schwenk, Karel (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech stage comedian and cabaret artist
DATE OF BIRTH March 17, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Prague , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH April 1, 1945
Place of death at Karlsberg