[2] After the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, Egon Schwelb was arrested by the Gestapo and held for two months.
He graduated from Yale College in 1953 and Harvard Law School in 1958, serving in the United States Army from 1955 to 1957.
In 1979, Schwelb was nominated and confirmed to be a trial judge on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
"[4] He enjoyed flowery turns of phrase and was known to quote Shakespeare or Gilbert and Sullivan in his opinions.
In his first opinion back on the bench after a two-month recovery, he wrote about the incident and his assailants, who "unsuccessfully attempted a redistribution of the wealth by demanding the Court’s wallet" and "left a lead bullet in the Court’s abdomen.