project NEIGHBOURS WHO DISAPPEARED

Neighbours Who Disappeared - Petr Kien - discovered

This is a story about Petr Kien, who had been discovered as a painter long before the Varnsdorf project started (he was one of the well-known Terezín painters whereas the project should be focused on discovering the forgotten ones), he also exceeds the age limit set by the project / he was born in 1919), but the activities of the students from Varnsdorf Episcopal High School brought him back to his hometown and helped to put up his memorial plaque. Also his life - he gave up his position of a Terezín painter and voluntarily volunteered to go on a transport together with his relatives - is a story we do not want to forget. The Varnsdorf project is also unique because it continues up to date and it is in constant development.

About the project At the beginning there was a word, or rather three words - Neighbours Who Disappeared - a national project attended by students from the final form of Varnsdorf Episcopal High School (Biskupské gymnázium) in the school year 2004/2005. When they left our school, their younger schoolmates took over the project.

Everything began with the visit of Terezín Memorial: we knew that 211 Jews used to live in Varnsdorf but we had no information about any of them. In the Memorial we were captured by the story of Petr Kien, a Jewish painter who attended to the same school as we do. We slightly adjusted the project and gave it a title Neighbours Who Disappeared - Petr Kien - discovered. Gradually we pieced together the story of his life.

The turning point was the unveiling of the memorial plaque at his native home - at that time, the inhabitants of Varnsdorf realized something was going on. On that day, Varnsdorf was swarming with important people, such as Jan Munk, chairman of the Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic, representatives of the Catholic church, Dita Šnajdrová, delegate from the Embassy of Israel, Ing. Josef Poláček, Member of Parliament and Mayor of Varnsdorf, Ing. Jaroslav Sykáček, Mayor of Rumburk, Ing. Jiří Šulc, governor of Ústí nad Labem region and many others.

At the same time a preview of an exhibition took place in the bank - the first exhibition of Petr Kien's pictures in his hometown. With the exhibition of Kien's pictures we later visited the lower house of the Czech Parliament. We prepare an exhibition in Pilsen and in cooperation with Education and Research Library of Pilsener Region we also prepare an exhibition in China. Perhaps other people will be interested as well...

This is just brief information about the project; you can find details about individual parts of the project in the section František Petr Kien on the official web pages of our High School. (www.bgv.cz).

Lastly we would like to thank all our sponsors, especially the municipality, for contributing to the plaque. We would also like to thank Terezín Memorial for lending us all the documents and pictures. Our thanks also go to Jiří Trebatický for designing the plaque, which is now placed on the natal home of Petr Kien, and to our High School, which readily supported the project.

František Petr Kien - Who He Was

Life
He was born on 1 January 1919 in Varnsdorf in a family of a textile trader. On the turn of 1929 and 1930, Kien's family moved to Brno. Petr continued his studies and started to draw, paint and write poetry under the influence of Dostoievsky and Kafka.

In 1936 he went to Prague and in 1938 he met his future wife Ilsa Stránská, whom he later married in Terezín (a so-called Terezín marriage). Petr had been promised to get an American visa but he was too closely tied to his family and his country and so he stayed.

In December 1941 Kien was deported to Terezín ghetto, transit station on the way to extermination camps. During his stay in Terezín he worked as a deputy director of the drawing office of the Jewish self-government. In his spare time he drew still-lives and scenes from Terezín with stolen drawing instruments. Thanks to him we have today realistic pictures rendering the cruel and inhuman conditions in the Terezín ghetto.

Kien's poems (cycle Morové město - The Plague Town), theatre plays (Loutky - Marionettes) and opera libretto (to the opera Císař Atlantidy - Kaiser of Atlantis) were also written in Terezín.

Kien hadn't live to see the opening night. He willingly joined one of the last transports to Auschwitz because he didn't want to part with his relatives. He died in October 1944 of an infectious disease.
Education
He acquired basic education in Varnsdorf and in 1929 started his studies at a state secondary school. Due to the economic crisis his family moved to Brno, where he continued his studies at a German secondary school. He concluded his studies with a final exam in 1936. In 1937 he was admitted to Willi Nowak's Prague Academy of Fine Arts. After the invasion of the Nazi army Nowak's school was closed down and Kien attended private Officina Pragensis.

Wrote about us...

Děčínský deník / Děčín Daily - 14 April 2005

Originally the eight-graders from Varnsdorf Episcopal High School wanted to liven up their studies by getting involved in the project of the Jewish Museum in Prague. No one anticipated that the work on the Neighbours Who Disappeared project would be extended into eight long months, that their work would be taken up by their schoolmates from fourth and sixth grade and that it would be concluded by an exhibition and unveiling of the memorial plaque in presence of the political elite.

"Originally we wanted to find out about the history of two hundred Jews living in Varnsdorf during the war and write about them. We thought that would be all. However, during our visits to Terezín archive we came across František Petr Kien, a Jewish painter from Varnsdorf, who died in Auschwitz at the age of twenty-five. For this reason we decided to slightly adjust the project and concentrate solely on his life and work," explains Martin Flekna on behalf of the students who searched the life of Petr Kien.

They also decided to change plans when they found out that Petr Kien visited the same school as they did. The work on the project Neighbours Who Disappeared - Petr Kien Discovered will be concluded at the beginning of May with the historically first exhibition of Petr Kien's pictures in the Czech Republic and with the unveiling of a commemorative plaque on his natal home in Národní Street in Varnsdorf in presence of the representatives of the Czech Jewish Community and the Israeli Ambassador.

The nearly year-long work will also result in web pages presenting the results of the survey and last but not least, in the publication of a book about Petr Kien, written collectively by the high school students.

"Our survey of Varnsdorf Jews does not end here. We would like to continue with this topic and as we continue in discovering their stories, we will also update the newly established pages," the students promise.

And the story continues.

In May 2006 our school received a letter from France. Famous photographer Karel Steiner thanked the students for their work on the project (he visited the exhibition in Pilsen European Gallery) and offered them drawings by Petr Kien from the time of his studies at Varnsdorf High School. The letter and the pictures made us all very excited. In June we flew to Paris and after seventy years, the pictures of Petr Kien returned to the place of their origin. And that was not all. Mr. Steiner plans a visit to Varnsdorf and our school's director was invited to Israel to present the project at the UN committee meeting. Our students work on a pilot project about teaching Shoa in other schools in our country as well as abroad. Czech Television is preparing a documentary. Thus a project that started in a very inconspicuous way surpassed in many ways our original expectations and all of us who happened to be close to all the discoveries are very happy about that.

WRITTEN WORKS