Maxmiliána Píšová

* 1931

  • “I was expelled from the Party meaning that I lost my job at this sports club, Jiskra was its name, where I had been working four hours a day. They would allow me to do it for free, to lead the exercises, but I thought that if they wouldn't let me do that, why should I be doing this. I just couldn't work there any longer. My husband got fired, and when the kids wanted to study, they were not allowed to study. In the end, my son trained as a bricklayer.”

  • “The situation was such that Dubček came and there was this Prague Spring. And of course I was a supporter, as I was by no means indifferent, so I liked it very much indeed. In 1967, I applied to become a Communist party member, as I just wanted to help the cause. It wasn't like that the Party could be just disbanded, that was something no one would even think about, but we wanted people on the top to be elected, so one could have a choice. I wanted better people as our leaders, that's why I did it.”

  • “I had an uncle, my mother's brother, Vaněčka was his name, and he had been fighting at the barricades. He had been fighting for three days, then he just couldn't stand it anymore so he went home to get some sleep and to have a shave. On the next day he went back to his comrades. And as he arrived, German soldier showed up, they had been hiding somewhere, and they would stab all the fighters, including my uncle, in their stomachs till they died. They fought at the barricades for three days and on that last day, when the war was more or less over, they were stabbed to death. It happened in Kyje near Prague.”

  • Celé nahrávky
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    Poděbrady, 11.03.2020

    (audio)
    délka: 59:26
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
  • 2

    Poděbrady, 19.06.2020

    (audio)
    délka: 57:08
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Stories of 20th Century
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I didn‘t live my life in vain

Maxmiliána Píšová in the 1950s
Maxmiliána Píšová in the 1950s
zdroj: archiv pamětníka

Maxmiliána Píšová, also known as Maxa, née Houžvičková, was born on March 1st, 1931 in Prague. In 1936, she moved to Poděbrady with her family, as her father started a small music shop in the town. During the Second World War, large groups of German Hitlerjugend youth were staying in the town, occupying schools and other public buildings. During the Prague uprising, German soldiers stabbed witnesses‘ uncle, Antonín Vaněčka, to death at a barricade. Her family welcomed the Red Army, and her parents, influenced by the war events, joined the Communist Party (KSČ). After 1948, family music shop was nationalized by the new Communist government. In the 1960s, Maximilána worked for Čedok travel agency as a guide and he was also a horse-race photographer. During the Prague spring of 1968 she joined the Communist party. In 1970, she was expelled from the Communist party and as a result both she and her husband lost their jobs. In the years to follow they had been persecuted by the regime. Only after 1989 she could again work as a tourist guide and a photographer with no restrictions.