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. He was one of the first artists to be deported to Terezín on November 24, 1941, and was among the 342 young Jewish men sent to prepare the previously non-Jewish camp for the Jewish inmates to follow. In the autumn of 1942 he appeared in passing in the propaganda film '' Theresienstadt. Ein Dokumentarfilm aus dem jüdischen Siedlungsgebiet'', standing with the puppeteer Otto Neumann and the dancer Kamila Rosenbaumová. Svenk was sent to Auschwitz, then to Meuselwitz. He died on a death march from Kraslice about 2 weeks before the end of the war. Totally exhausted and unable to continue he was hidden by his friend in the straw of the barn where he and the rest of the prisoners spent the night. It is not known whether he died of exhaustion or was discovered by the guards and shot.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 Šedová, 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 La MaMa. A film of that production, directed by Edward Einhorn, was broadcast on WNET Channel 13, a PBS affiliate, as part of Theater Close Up, in 2022.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. * "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
{{DEFAULTSORT:Svenk, Karel 1917 births 1945 deaths Theresienstadt Ghetto prisoners Czech people who died in the Holocaust