"I used to love hitchhiking, though I wouldn't recommend it at all today. I used to go to Prague to school, for example. I used to go behind Brod here and hitchhike. Once an Austrian took me. Because I knew German, it was no problem. He was about fifteen, maybe twenty years older, but he was nice. Everything was all right, he brought me to Prague. I told him that if it was successful, I should go to Vienna next year. He gave me his phone number. Then when I was in Vienna, I called him. There were no mobile phones then, only landlines. I called him from my aunt and he came to pick me up at the other end of Vienna. He said he would come with me and show me Vienna. I knew that with him I would get to know Vienna in a completely different way, from a different perspective. I was excited and I didn't think anything would happen. We took his car outside Vienna, to the Kahlenberg. There are two hills there, the Leopoldsberg and the Kahlenberg. And suddenly halfway up the hill the car stopped. We were about two hours late. Then we went up, but I couldn't tell anything was wrong. In the morning I had a bus, it was called Austrobus then, which I was supposed to take back. My aunt was absolutely terrified, she felt responsible for me and worried about me. In the end, it turned out well. There was no other intention. But still - a stranger, a strange car, a strange environment. In the end, he drove me back to my aunt's, and the next day I managed to get things done and get the bus home."
"I've been into languages since I was little. Because I had relatives in Austria and I thought I had to go there. I started learning privately, even at home with my mother, who spoke German and French. And that wasn't so common then. Actually, German is not that common nowadays either. I'm glad I know it, because there are very few people who know German." - "How come my mother knew German and French?" - "I won't ask her today... She worked at the post office, even during World War II. She had to take many phone calls in German, so I guess it was a necessity. And she liked French. She learned it happily at the Brod Gymnasium. I like the language too, so I understand a lot of French."
"I was thirteen in 1968. I was already looking at the world with my eyes open. We had relatives in Austria, in Vienna. And they had just come to visit us in August. And as a little girl, I was dying to get my first jeans. They promised to buy me one for my 13th birthday. So we went to Prague, to Tuzex. They were special stores in Prague, then maybe they were in Ostrava, Brno. I don't know exactly, but we went to Prague. And there the relatives promised to buy me jeans. I never had a chance to do that before. Then we went there on the 19th of August and we slept in a hotel there, thinking that the next day we would go to Tuzex. We woke up in the morning and heard shooting. 'What's going on? Isn't it possible, if someone is shooting at each other?' We were staying just off Wenceslas Square. There were tanks shooting at the Museum. We were in a state of shock. We didn't know what was happening, why it was happening. We turned on the radio and found out that tanks from the Soviet Union had arrived and were occupying us. So we listened to the radio and we drove home quickly. And our guests rushed back to Austria again because they didn't know what might be happening. I vaguely remember the incident when I went to school in September. There used to be a railway crossing with bolts or barriers on the old road towards Jihlava. I remember that when I was just passing through, the gates were down and I was terribly scared because maybe three tanks had arrived there. Especially in Prague at that time, unfortunately [the soldiers] shot some people for no reason. I didn't know if I should get around it somehow. But I met other classmates, so we stood there and were just scared. Nothing happened, but the feeling was terrible because we were really scared..."
Jana Fischerová, née Bílková, was born on 20 August 1955 in Havlíčkův Brod, where she spent a happy childhood with her older brother in a family that maintained Christian traditions. After primary school she graduated from the Secondary Industrial School of Construction in Havlíčkův Brod and then continued her studies at the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Czech Technical University in Prague, majoring in civil engineering. After successfully completing her studies she stayed at the faculty as an assistant and scientific aspirant. Later she returned to her hometown where she worked as a teacher at her former high school. After 1989 she decided to go into business and founded Ada Tour travel agency in Havlíčkův Brod. At the same time, she worked as an interpreter and tour guide. In 1994 she entered politics. She became a member of the Havlíčkův Brod town council. She subsequently served as deputy mayor and mayor of the town, but also as a representative of the Vysočina Region. In 2010, she was elected to the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic. In these positions, she actively participated in the work of committees focused on foreign cooperation and tourism. In 2025, Jana Fischerová lived in Havlíčkův Brod.
Hrdinové 20. století odcházejí. Nesmíme zapomenout. Dokumentujeme a vyprávíme jejich příběhy. Záleží vám na odkazu minulých generací, na občanských postojích, demokracii a vzdělávání? Pomozte nám!
