When I got a job with the Americans, I was so happy
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Růžena Křížková, née Neubauerová, was born in Prague on 11 March 1924. She graduated from high school in 1943 and was unable to study because Czech universities were closed. She spent the rest of the war on total deployment with Philips. Thanks to her language skills, she found a job at the US Embassy in Prague after World War II. After she married Josef Křížek, a member of the CPC, she lost the job in 1948. She was attracted to the world, especially to the west of the Czechoslovak border. When she got a job with Pan American Airways in 1969, she was immensely happy. The world opened for her and she could travel to Europe and even the US. The StB started monitoring her due to her western contacts and the authorities even withdrew her passport on suspicion of espionage at a later stage. She lost the job with Pan Am and, following several months of negotiations with authorities, she obtained the permission to work for the US Embassy again in 1977 and worked there until retirement in 1984. She was married twice and has no children. She was living in Prague in 2022.
