His life
He was born in Varnsdorf on 1 January, 1919 in a family of a cloth merchant. At the turn of 1929/1930, the Kien's family moved from Varnsdorf to Brno. Peter continued studying and started drawing, painting and writing poetry under the influence of Dostojevsky and Kafka.
In 1936, he came to Prague and then in 1938 he met his future wife Ilsa Stránská who he got married (so-called "Terezín marriage"). Peter was given an American visa promise but he was too bound by his homeland and family to leave.
In December 1941, he was deported to Terezín ghetto that was a transition station for the death camps. During his stay in Terezín, Peter was a lead of technical drawing office of the Jewish self-administration. In his free time and with the help of stolen drawing stationery, he drew still lives and scenes from Terezín. Thanks to that we now have pieces of work picturing accurately the severe and inhuman conditions which reigned in Terezín ghetto.
Some of Kien's poems '"Town of Plague" cycle), theatre plays ("Puppets") and a libretto for "Emperor of Atlantida" opera also originated in Terezín.
However, he did not live to see the opening night. Because of his close relatives he entered one of the last transports to Osvětim where he died of infectious disease in October 1944.
Education
He gained the basic education in Varnsdorf and in 1929 he started studies at a state realschule. For the state economic crisis reason the family moved to Brno, where he continued studying at a German realschule. He finished his studies by examination for school-leaving certificate in 1936. One year later he obtained admissions to the Prague Academy of Fine Art of Willy Nowak. After the Third Reich army invasion, the Nowak's Academy was dissolved and Kien attended private Officina Pragensis.
Conversion from czech
Jana Vrtišková